I don't know where their defense has been all year (17th in DRtg), but the Bucks clamped down tonight.
You mean the refs clamped down
Scott Foster to be precise.
I was only able to watch the 4th quarter when it was already out of hand. Were the calls one-sided all night? Milwaukee had 27 fouls vs. 15 for Boston, so I'm guessing there were a lot of late make-up calls?
A heap of those fouls came early in the game, when Milwaukee were hacking us at every opportunity. Then they put their whistles away even though Milwaukee were playing exactly the same rough basketball. Don’t get it
Not surprised. Count me in the conspiracy camp that believes the NBA will tamper in order to achieve optimal outcomes. There's just too much money involved. At the end of the day, this is just an entertainment business.
Firmly in that camp too. Absolutely coming down from the top guys
I have a friend in Manhattan who knows a former league office guy, and that guy essentially confirmed the league is crooked.
IMO it was worse under David Stern though. I've seen so many games that were rigged. One of the worst didn't involve the Celtics, it was I believe a game 4 between the Bulls and Nets, i think it was the year before the Nets got KG and Pierce.
The Bulls were up 2-1 in the series and they came out strong and outplayed the Nets all night long. The Nets IMO were pretty gutless and pathetic. And yet the refs did everything in their power to keep the game close, they were making calls I've literally never seen before. Really creative stuff. The Nets also got 16 more FT's than the Bulls. They couldn't put the ball in the basket but the refs bailed them out again and again.
The league did NOT want a short series between those 2 mega markets.
Me and my Laker fan buddy watched the game, initially I was pulling for the Nets a little bit, but we started cheering for the Bulls because of their heroism playing essentially 5-on-8. The Bulls pulled it out in triple-OT behind an epic effort by Nate Robinson. it was a remarkably gutty win.
The refs came back with a vengeance the next couple games and the Bulls had to win in 7.
I haven't seen anything nearly that bad since Stern retired. I think there are still some fishy moments, but at least they are less obvious about it now.