I would like to talk about something that has been bothering me for a long time as an NBA observer, and that well of discontent overflowed after Tuesday night's Western Conference Game Four – which the Lakers won 93-91 over the Spurs.
The Spurs had the ball last and after their planned play got messed up, Brent Barry had the ball at the top of the arc and tried to hoist up a desperation shot as time ran out. He pump faked Derek Fisher, who jumped and landed on Barry right before he took a dribble and launched an errant trey as time expired.
Because of the extra dribble, it clearly wasn't a three-shot foul – but there was significant contact so a two-shot foul should have been called. Barry's a career 82% free throw shooter, so that foul probably should have sent the game into overtime.
Of course, what actually happened is that the ref swallowed his whistle – just like the refs always seem to do in these last-second situations – and the game was over. I've made my dislike for the Spurs quite evident in the past, but I was outraged by the obvious injustice of this no-call. Funny thing is, you know who wasn't outraged? The Spurs.
"That's not going to get called in the Western Conference final," Barry said. "Maybe in the regular season. But that call shouldn't be called in the Western Conference final." Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich added, "If I was the official I wouldn't have called that a foul."
Are we in Bizarro World here? The whiniest team in the league didn't have a problem with this travesty of justice. On further reflection, I decided that the Spurs must hold themselves to such a high standard of performance that they refuse to blame the ref for losing when it never would have come to that if they had executed the final play properly. So kudos to them, I guess.
Continued...