Did Carlos Boozer Do Something to Piss Off David Stern?
No quick-hitters. Let’s just get to basketball.
- Raise your hand if you didn’t think that Deron Williams’ last-second shot was good.
Now THAT was a great playoff game. The Lakers punched Utah in the mouth for three quarters, and the Jazz made their inevitable push by finally draining triples down the stretch. Leave it to Derek Fisher, an 88% FT shooter, to brick that free throw late, giving the Jazz a shot at the tie.
The story of the game (other than Kobe’s virtual game-clinching 6-0 run, including that dagger trey and the “bank’s open late” and-1), though, had to be the two offensive foul calls on Carlos Boozer. The one right before halftime was a pretty weak call, and I thought the one in the third quarter was even worse. Think Utah could have used a not-in-foul-trouble Carlos Boozer down the stretch of the fourth quarter? I will entertain the argument that Boozer got taken out of four games by foul trouble, and in at least three of them, he drew some pretty weak foul calls.
(That being said, what was Deron Williams complaining about right before halftime, when he obviously fouled Derek Fisher on the left arm? In fact, I’d argue that he fouled Fisher twice on that shot: once before the release, and once on the follow-through.)
This begs the question: did Carlos Boozer do something to deserve the lack of respect he got from the refs? Did he spill a drink on David Stern at an NBA function?
At least Utah has a bright future ahead of them. Deron Williams made “The Leap,” and their team will return largely intact next year.
(Like that is supposed to make Jazz fans feel better, I know.)
Speaking of poor officiating, that charge call on Paul Pierce, late in the fourth quarter of Celtics-Cavs, was abysmal. Instead of Pierce shooting two to potentially trim the Cavs’ lead to three, the Cavs got the ball back. Matt Harpring getting run over by Pau Gasol in Game Five of Jazz-Lakers thought that call was horrible.
The Ray Allen non-goaltending, on the other hand, was absolutely the correct call. I always thought that goaltending couldn’t be called if a shot had no chance of going in, and who would argue that a shot hitting the side of the backboard had a chance of going in? Michael Wilbon insisted that the basket should have counted, but I was happy to hear that I was, indeed, correct.
Anyway, what a pair of Game Sevens we basketball fans have in store in the next few days!
Tomorrow, part 3 of my “covert ops” mission.