2011 NBA Playoffs

[IceCap]

Then, I'd be shocked as heck. Stern has never liked Phil though. He's always quick to point out how bad the officials are, and Stern always fines him for it. Plus, Los Angeles hates Stern. Rather more than most places actually.

The man has coached 11 NBA Championship winning teams since Stern took over. I won't say that there isn't any bad blood between the two, but if the league really is as fixed as you claim it is Jackson wouldn't have won all of those rings.

Enjoy this win Mavericks fans. Our fate was sealed as soon as Kobe called that ref a fa****. (And to an extent, our fate was sealed when we won the title last year. We've looked tired this whole season) It's awful that refs will let a vendetta against Kobe dictate how this series was called. I've never seen a worse officiated series. I fully believe the league is rigged. It makes me wonder how much Cuban is paying the refs in this series...

While the Lakers haven't played up to par this whole season, in these playoffs, both the Hornets and the Mavericks have been allowed to consistently hack the Lakers and the Mavs have gotten away with clogging the paint up with up to 5 guys at times in there for well over 5, 6, 7 and even 10 seconds. While the refs will call bogus fouls on us and let the Mavs clobber the Lakers.

The Lakers in this second half have not played like themselves with Bynum getting ejected and he was rightfully ejected.

I hope the Mavericks lose the next series (to either Memphis or the Thunder) at home. Correction, I hope they get the living snot beat out of them. I also hope we play them next year in the playoffs, because we'll kick the living s*** out of them.

Fans of teams that have won eight titles since Stern has been Commissioner, five since 2000, don't get to complain about the league conspiring against them.

This is perhaps the worst case of sore loser syndrome I've ever seen on these boards.

[pmoehrin]

You get swept 4 straight and lose several of those games by double digits, it wasn't the refs and if you think it was your doing a great job of humoring yourself. The refs weren't leaving Jason Terry and Peja wide open the entire series, or shutting down Pau Gasol. (That was a combination of Dirk and himself.)

I don't even think the playoffs have been all that bad with the officating. There's always going to be at least a couple of misseed calls in every game. That's just the nature of the game, but I'm not seeing anything where the officals are clearly on one team's side or where I think they are trying to get the game to be played one style. I'd be the first person to complain if I thought that was going on, but I think the NBA with all the Tim Donaghy allegations has really done alot to clean up that aspect of it. What I took away from his book wasn't so much that the NBA is secretly having all of these closed door meetings to fix games. (I think alot of that got overhyped and people were taking it in a very different direction from what was actually happening. Not saying that what I thought was actually happening was right either though. I think Donaghy knew that it was going to be misintrupted on some levels and it was it going to help him when it was, so he never tried to fight it or clarify it. The context of the situation always matters and for people who haven't been in that environment first hand, very easy to misread what's going on.)

What I took away from it was that these officals are not robots, they are human beings, and with humans personal relationships are going to always have an effect on what you do. So if one of the offical's son is a huge Allen Iverson, its to be expected that he is going to make calls in favor of Iverson, and as a league office you should account for that if you want a fairly officated game. To expect people to behave independent of what human behavior would suggest is foolish.

The only thing that I didn't like with the Lakers/Mavs game with the officating wasn't even the refs, it was the lack of understanding on the announcers part with what was going on at the end of the first half. If people remember the half ended on an offical review and they never bothered to explain why. It was off a missed free throw that went out of bounds, and the announcers just assumed that the officals were going back to look at how much time to put on the clock when the ball went out of bounds. Not true at all. The clock didn't start until about half a second after Dirk Nowitzki collected the rebound off the miss and the play that resulted afterwards in addition to the missed time was more then what the clock allowed for. The dopey announcers never bothered to explain it and if they did I never heard it. It was also going to be Lakers ball, so I could see how fans could interpret that as the officals screwing the Lakers, when in fact they made the right call, but it just never got explained properly. The only reason I know about it was because I was actually looking at the clock when the play was going on.

The Hawks/Bulls game was way more interesting to watch with the officiating. Late non-foul call on Derrick Rose that could have sent him to the line. Instead of of being down by six with 2:27 to go, they could be down by three with 2:27 go, and your looking at both teams taking on very different strategies from what they did. But again, its the nature of the game, the Bulls had other chances and I'm not going to pin that one on the refs. Hawks brought their A game and the Bulls didn't, but for Atlanta to play that well and Chicago to still have a shot late in the game, I think that should tell you who's probably going to win this series.

[DustDevil61]

Then, I'd be shocked as heck. Stern has never liked Phil though. He's always quick to point out how bad the officials are, and Stern always fines him for it. Plus, Los Angeles hates Stern. Rather more than most places actually.

The man has coached 11 NBA Championship winning teams since Stern took over. I won't say that there isn't any bad blood between the two, but if the league really is as fixed as you claim it is Jackson wouldn't have won all of those rings.

Enjoy this win Mavericks fans. Our fate was sealed as soon as Kobe called that ref a fa****. (And to an extent, our fate was sealed when we won the title last year. We've looked tired this whole season) It's awful that refs will let a vendetta against Kobe dictate how this series was called. I've never seen a worse officiated series. I fully believe the league is rigged. It makes me wonder how much Cuban is paying the refs in this series...

While the Lakers haven't played up to par this whole season, in these playoffs, both the Hornets and the Mavericks have been allowed to consistently hack the Lakers and the Mavs have gotten away with clogging the paint up with up to 5 guys at times in there for well over 5, 6, 7 and even 10 seconds. While the refs will call bogus fouls on us and let the Mavs clobber the Lakers.

The Lakers in this second half have not played like themselves with Bynum getting ejected and he was rightfully ejected.

I hope the Mavericks lose the next series (to either Memphis or the Thunder) at home. Correction, I hope they get the living snot beat out of them. I also hope we play them next year in the playoffs, because we'll kick the living s*** out of them.

Fans of teams that have won eight titles since Stern has been Commissioner, five since 2000, don't get to complain about the league conspiring against them.

This is perhaps the worst case of sore loser syndrome I've ever seen on these boards.

I'm with Ice Cap--Lakers Nation (fans and players) complaining about poor officiating/the league conspiring against them is like Warren Buffet complaining about a $1 Snickers bar.

(Paraphrased, I know, but it fits better than the $3 pack of gum)

[Billy B]

The Hawks/Bulls game was way more interesting to watch with the officiating. Late non-foul call on Derrick Rose that could have sent him to the line. Instead of of being down by six with 2:27 to go, they could be down by three with 2:27 go, and your looking at both teams taking on very different strategies from what they did. But again, its the nature of the game, the Bulls had other chances and I'm not going to pin that one on the refs. Hawks brought their A game and the Bulls didn't, but for Atlanta to play that well and Chicago to still have a shot late in the game, I think that should tell you who's probably going to win this series.

The thing about this play wasn't so much that it was a non-call (that was close whether or not it was a foul), but the fact that everyone in the building heard the ref blow the whistle during the questionable play. They turned out ruling it an inadvertent whistle and having a jump ball at center court that the Hawks won. It would have been a much different game if that was a foul. I still think the Bulls should win the series, but they need to take care of business at home on Tuesday.

[FiddySicks]

So the Lakers lose once and now their fans are clamoring for them to get CP3 and Dwight Howard? Isnt there a cap in the NBA? Your fan base is so much like Cartman it's scary.

[TFoA]

LOL @ Anti-Laker conspiracy!!!!! Riiiiiiiiiiiight. This is what I hate about most NBA fans now: If their team loses, it HAS to be because of Stern. You know this is getting be a terrible excuse if even (some) Lakers fans are using it as an excuse now.

So the Lakers lose once and now their fans are clamoring for them to get CP3 and Dwight Howard? Isnt there a cap in the NBA? Your fan base is so much like Cartman it's scary.

You think that's bad? I've read the list of potential head coaches to replace Phil & it reads like a who's who of the basketball coaching world. Hell, I've even heard rumors that the Lakers should blow the team up & start anew. I mean, they won 2 straight championships, the team is still pretty good, and people want to blow it up & spend Trump money bringing in the best coaches & players. Talk about overreaction. I mean yeah, this was a pretty awful series for the Lakers ( Gotta give props to the Mavs, a whole lot of people weren't convinced that they could put the dagger into the defending champs, yet they did just that. The Lakers had absolutely no answer for the Mavs.), but they shouldn't just blow the whole thing up. They've got some personnel work to do in the offseason, but rebuilding from the ground up with this team would be ridiculous.

Also, I've given up on predicting what the Hawks will do. This season's version of the Hawks is probably the most schizophrenic basketball team I've ever watched or followed. You literally have no idea what they're going to do from night to night. If you had told me that Rose would have another good night & Boozer would finally show up for a playoff game, I would've told you that the Bulls would be going back to Chicago in close-out mode. Nope. What a weird basketball team this is. What a weird series this is, but I'm not complaining.

[pmoehrin]

So the Lakers lose once and now their fans are clamoring for them to get CP3 and Dwight Howard? Isnt there a cap in the NBA? Your fan base is so much like Cartman it's scary.

I think its a forgone conclusion that there's going to be a lockout next year. I feel like the owners looked at what happened this past season with the free agency and have taken the attitude of never again are we going to let players have this much say in where they are going to play and I think the owners are essentially going for the juggler with free agent movement with a hard cap that I can't imagine being much higher then what the soft cap is already set at, perhaps even lower, as well as potentially getting rid of mid-level exemption deals. If the NBA gets their way its basically going to limit the free agent movement to just a few role players like Kyle Korver and Francisco Garcia.

I think as ugly as the NFL lookout has been this one will be even uglier. The odds of the NBA and the players getting a deal done by June 30th I'd put at somewhere between 0 and 1 percent. It would take it more as a matter of fact that you will see a lockout in the NBA rather then as a matter of opinion. To even speak of there being a season next year to allow for even the possiblity of a Dwight Howard trade I feel would even be a bit optimistic. The last lockout in '99 lasted until January and I feel the two sides are much further apart now then they were going into that one.

[Rockstar Matt]

There are far too many posts to reply to all at once, but they all pretty much say the same thing.

I'm not insinuating that there was a conspiracy against the Lakers, because we are the most popular team, so it'd make sense for us to be in the Finals every year for pure financial reasons. But, I think the referees as a whole, after Kobe called a ref a fa**** and got caught, have been punishing his team ever since.

Now since I've cooled down though, I'm more along the lines that the Lakers just sucked this year. This whole year we've been awful and never played like a team much less champions.

I gotta give major props to Dallas for their stellar three-point play. That's why they won. I've never seen a team as a whole, shoot as well as they did from the 3-point line, ever. It was like, video game good. Where you would push the sliders so nearly every three point shot would go in, that's what it seemed like.

And we don't need to blow up our roster. We just need a better more athletic bench and Pau needs to figure his s*** out. He disappeared in these playoffs like Chris Bosh does on a regular basis.

[IceCap]

I'm not insinuating that there was a conspiracy against the Lakers, because we are the most popular team, so it'd make sense for us to be in the Finals every year for pure financial reasons. But, I think the referees as a whole, after Kobe called a ref a fa**** and got caught, have been punishing his team ever since.

No, sorry. Lets say, for the sake of argument, that you're right and the NBA's fixed. As you pointed out, the Lakers are one of the most popular, ie profitable, teams in the league. Therefore it would make sense to put them in the Finals. If the league was fixed Stern would tell the refs to get over themselves regarding Kobe's comments and get the team to the Finals for the betterment of the league.

I think the NBA is a league that has a very keen sense of how to market itself, not just as a pro basketball league, but as an entertainment brand (which isn't a bad thing in and of itself). There's a lot of emphasis on the presentation, on the show biz side of it all. It leads a lot of people to assume the whole thing's fixed. This leads to the easy excuse for fans when their team loses. That's all it is though, an excuse. If your team doesn't win, it's most likely because they didn't deserve to win.

And it just rubs me the wrong way when a fan of a team that's won eight Championships since Stern took over claims that the league is out to get his team.

Now since I've cooled down though, I'm more along the lines that the Lakers just sucked this year. This whole year we've been awful and never played like a team much less champions.

This is closer to reality. This team has struggled (by Lakers standards) all year, and Lakers fans kept telling the rest of us to wait for the playoffs "when it matters." Well they just go swept by the NBA's version of the San Jose Sharks.

I really hope this whole thing kills the "Team X can just turn the switch on whenever they want" theory. Across all sports.

[Still MIGHTY]

So the Lakers lose once and now their fans are clamoring for them to get CP3 and Dwight Howard? Isnt there a cap in the NBA? Your fan base is so much like Cartman it's scary.

There's no way for them to get both unless they jettison the rest of the roster minus Kobe and Pau essentially. Especially with the changing CBA and a potential lockout, the cap is supposed to drop.

It's more of an "either/or" rather than "and." Assuming the Lakers just promote Brian Shaw and stay with the triangle, first choice is Dwight Howard. Second choice is CP3.

And if the Lakers don't get Shaw, I heard someone mention Jeff Van Gundy yesterday. I swear, if the Lakers get Van Gundy, I will not watch a Laker game all next season.

[Lights Out]

If I could suffer through seven years of Mike Dunleavy, followed by Kim Hughes and Vinny Del Negro, you could probably deal with "settling" for Jeff Van Gundy.

[infrared41]

There are far too many posts to reply to all at once, but they all pretty much say the same thing.

I'm not insinuating that there was a conspiracy against the Lakers, because we are the most popular team, so it'd make sense for us to be in the Finals every year for pure financial reasons. But, I think the referees as a whole, after Kobe called a ref a fa**** and got caught, have been punishing his team ever since.

Now since I've cooled down though, I'm more along the lines that the Lakers just sucked this year. This whole year we've been awful and never played like a team much less champions.

I gotta give major props to Dallas for their stellar three-point play. That's why they won. I've never seen a team as a whole, shoot as well as they did from the 3-point line, ever. It was like, video game good. Where you would push the sliders so nearly every three point shot would go in, that's what it seemed like.

And we don't need to blow up our roster. We just need a better more athletic bench and Pau needs to figure his s*** out. He disappeared in these playoffs like Chris Bosh does on a regular basis.

Seriously dude, you're being entirely ridiculous. Back in the day we didn't react like this to a Lakers loss in the playoffs. You need to stop with the "they sucked all year" and "the refs were punishing us" nonsense. It's making the rest if us look bad.

[Drew22]

If the refs have vendettas against players who call them mean names, they would hate every player in the league.

[loogodude90]

That's what I call karma. Lebron gets away with a travel on one crucial play, then loses the handle in almost the same spot on the next.

[Kevin W.]

Terrible play at the end there.

[gingerbreadmann]

That was plain sad to watch. I don't know how else to describe it.

(first person to say "personal" gets a fat lip )

[WJMorris3]

If the Celtics would simply play to their potential, this series would be over and the Celtics would have swept. Instead, because they have not played to their potential, Miami has a 3-1 lead. This is disgraceful.

[gingerbreadmann]

I laughed.

[pmoehrin]

That's what I call karma. Lebron gets away with a travel on one crucial play, then loses the handle in almost the same spot on the next.

Glad I'm the only one who didn't think that was a key non-call on the travel. Makes one step, does a pro hop, stops then shoots. That's one too many steps there. You can take two steps or do a pro hop. You can't step and then do a pro hop.

Regardless I think Miami wrapped up the series tonight. That's probably the only close game you are going to see this series, and I can't see Boston winning three straight against Miami.

[Rockstar Matt]

There are far too many posts to reply to all at once, but they all pretty much say the same thing.

I'm not insinuating that there was a conspiracy against the Lakers, because we are the most popular team, so it'd make sense for us to be in the Finals every year for pure financial reasons. But, I think the referees as a whole, after Kobe called a ref a fa**** and got caught, have been punishing his team ever since.

Now since I've cooled down though, I'm more along the lines that the Lakers just sucked this year. This whole year we've been awful and never played like a team much less champions.

I gotta give major props to Dallas for their stellar three-point play. That's why they won. I've never seen a team as a whole, shoot as well as they did from the 3-point line, ever. It was like, video game good. Where you would push the sliders so nearly every three point shot would go in, that's what it seemed like.

And we don't need to blow up our roster. We just need a better more athletic bench and Pau needs to figure his s*** out. He disappeared in these playoffs like Chris Bosh does on a regular basis.

Seriously dude, you're being entirely ridiculous. Back in the day we didn't react like this to a Lakers loss in the playoffs. You need to stop with the "they sucked all year" and "the refs were punishing us" nonsense. It's making the rest if us look bad.

I know I'm coming off as being ridiculous, but I'm not going to change my opinions just because others disagree. Agree to disagree my friend.