The Los Angeles Lakers narrowly escaped with a victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals tonight, and by "narrowly escaped" I mean that they did everything they could think of to blow the game.
I tuned in during the fourth quarter, a period in which L.A. had semi-sizeable leads (seven to nine points), but couldn't make them stick.
The Lakers took a final seven-point lead with just under a minute remaining, but Manu Ginobili hit a three, Kobe Bryant forced a shot (believe it or not), and then Tim Duncan found Tony Parker downcourt for a breakaway lay-up, or technically a breakaway goaltending call on Lamar Odom. Anyway, the Lakers missed a couple of shots on their next trip but wisely used up most of the shotclock, leaving the Spurs down two with about two seconds left.
Brent Barry caught the ball, then took a long and lame three-point attempt to lose the game. Afterwards he lifted his hands up in shock that the foul wasn't called and for a second, I could understand why people say the Spurs are babies.
Except Barry was completely right. He had caught the ball and pump-faked, drawing Derek Fisher off his feet. Fisher came back down on Barry's shoulder, and Barry fired up the long shot in hopes of earning some free throw attempts.
Some people say refs should swallow their whistles at the end of a game and let players decide the outcome. These people are frigtards. Fisher's landing wasn't incidental contact (no way Barry could have taken a normal shot with that going on). Even if you believe in ignoring contact like that normally (and again, why would you?), letting a defender foul like that with so little time left clearly gives the defense a nigh-insurmountable advantage. It's really dumb that Fisher got away with it. (Yeah, I know, I missed it the first time too, but I was nine hundred miles away.)
I don't know that the Spurs can really complain, though. Well, sure, they can complain all they want. But if they can't defend their championship, they should at least be able to defend their home court. The game was disappointing because the Spurs' comeback was very impressive right up until the end. They weren't really getting a majority of the bounces or calls or anything; they just kept playing solid D and getting just enough opportunistic baskets to keep it interesting.
Hopefully the Spurs can turn things around on the road, but their previous road performances this playoffs don't leave much room for that hope. I still have some, though it's fading. And as a Nuggets fan, of course I still hate the Lakers for now, but does anyone out there really want to see Kobe win the title and get some measure of vindication for chasing Shaq out of town? (I call it just a measure, though I don't expect ESPN to.)
If you're short on Kobe-hatred, you should do what I did this morning and read the SI.com piece about how much he likes to win. While it's billed as an eye-opener as to how much this particular star athlete enjoys victory, the article merely reminded me how annoying the man is in the first place. Wow, Kobe likes to win how much? (So much!) that in high school he once chased a teammate into the hallway to yell at him for missing a shot in a drill. What leadership! What competitive drive! What an egomaniacal buffoon?
4 comments:
Oh No!!! My worst fear when this series started has now become a reality.
I had my fair share of concern on whether Spurs old bodies were willing to give in for another tough series.
Manu was extremely aweful and I feel very sorry for him that he can't do much to avoid this defeat.
It's not over yet and almost looks like it, unless as true Champions they can bounce back from this.
I will question the team morale at the moment. After all they did had Game 1 in their hands and they lost it!!!
We'll just have to see how.
Anyway, your thought on the game....
http://mundoalbiceleste.blogspot.com/2008/05/playoffs-news-oh-no.html
I couldn't agree more on the Fisher foul. I understand that at the end of games the refs want the players to decide the outcome, but come on...that was ridiculous. The fact that it was Joe Crawford who refused to make the call didn't help to feel any better about the situation.
Man, I really wish the Spurs could have pulled it off. How sweet it would've been to have the Lakers lose that game because Kobe was forcing a contested shot instead of running time off the clock. Oh well.
I really hate the Lakers. Mostly I hate them because of Kobe and his unbelievably huge ego, but I also can't stand that little punk Sasha Vujacic (or however you spell it) or Gasol (who looks like he's about to cry every time they show a close up of him). Hopefully the Spurs can pull off a miracle back in L.A.
Ugh. And now the Spurs have lost for good.
Blaine, I didn't even catch that Joey Crawford was reffing, guess he got his revenge!
I can't stand any of the Lakers, and as a Nuggets fan especially I'm sick of hearing how great Gasoline is. You're right about Sasha "Slover" Vujacic, though. I also can't stand Jordan Farmar, who doesn't even really do anything.
Yeah, unfortunately my reaction to the Kobe article is the same. I do not appreciate him. OK, so he has a killer work ethic and a killing personality - but goal tending the last free throw shooter - he's a baby and a sore loser. Few things are worse.
David
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