Cavs drop Suns: 119-111
by Seth Pollack on Mar 12, 2009 11:44 PM MST
in Phoenix Suns: Game Coverage
Email
PrintThat wasn't too bad, was it? The home team played about three and a quarters of pretty solid basketball. To paraphrase the great Patrick Ewing, the Suns gave up a lot of points but they scored a lot of points too.
At least right up to the point that the league's best defense showed up and put a stop to all that scoring nonsense.
It was an entertaining game for the most part. We saw some interesting things like the Sasha PavlO'Neal 4 step crab ball fake. LeBron James missed a WIDE open dunk. Shaq fouled out by sweating to hard. Cavs coach Mike Brown spent more time on the court then Jared Dudley. And then there was this....
With the Suns trailing by two points with about 8:45 in the 4th quarter LeBron missed a three pointer, Barnes rebounds and hits a wide open Jason Richardson streaking down the court like he was going 90 in a 35. The can't miss dunk ties the game except Mr. Richardson decides to play fast and loose and unbuckles for a 360 dunk. You know, to get the crowd on it's feet.
Unfortunately, King James has his wheels in overdrive too and comes from behind to foul block the shot. The Cavs comes back hit a three, go up by five.
Boom. Game Roasted.
Yes. It was a foul. No, it did not deserve to be called a foul. There is a rarely known portion of the NBA rule book (Chapter 4, section 17, para 7(r)) which states:
When the player in possession of the ball with a clear and unobstructed path to the basket chooses to make an ass of himself, his team and the sport of professional basketball by spinning, windmilling, through the legging or otherwise showing up the other team then any physical contact made by a defensive player who shall have shown a high degree of hustle and effort and heart to have not given up (sometimes referred to as bailed) on the play shall not be deemed a foul. Ever.
Jason Richardson, understandably wasn't familiar with this little known exception to the rules:
Aside from that, it was a pretty enjoyable game.
[Note by Phoenix Stan, 03/13/09 8:29 AM MST ]
Here's the rest of the post game audio including: LeBron, Mike Brown who took exception to Steve Nash's "charge" call on West; Hill and Nash. Audio provided by Sports 620 KTAR.
Box Score * Fear The Sword * Recap
6 straight losses is depressing enough so lets go to our happy place:
- There was much better offensive balance with six Suns in double figures.
- The Suns worked better together and moved well with out the ball. The shooting was varied and the Suns had a 64-20 points in the paint advantage which normally will win you the game (if you can get an occassional stop and keep the other team from shooting 52% from 3pt line)
- 17 turnovers from the Suns was barely above their season average. Not horrible
- Goran Dragic had 11 solid minutes of play. Probably his best game of the season and possibly his career. He looked pretty good on both ends of the floor
- Shaq being in foul trouble allowed Robin Lopez to play 9 minutes which is kind of what you want to see from your #15 pick. Playing that is
- Shaq didn't eat anyone even though he looked like he really really wanted to munch on that fuzzy headed kid a few times. No, no, not that one. The other one.
- Steve Nash looked pretty darn brilliant going 9-15 with only 2 turnovers
- Matt Barnes lead all Suns in scoring and managed not to get into a fight with his coach in front of about 3 million witnesses after getting publically berated for leaving a shooter wide open
- LeBron battled and scrapped and stole a couple of rebounds from his team mates in the final 90 seconds to acheive his third straight triple double. Who said padding stats was a bad thing? Not me!
- We won't have to worry about playing in too many nationally televised games next season
- The Thunder are coming to town on Saturday
- Zone Flash is coming to town and showing his face on Saturday too. We are meeting for beers at 5pm at Seamus McCaffrey's if you are interested in meeting the man behind the snark
Link to audio mp3 files:
37 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Gentry
should have pulled JRich’s ass out of the game for that and put in Barbosa. Up to that point i was enjoying the game without any thought whether they win or not (does it matter with Dallas not cooperating) …..and then JRich makes an ass of himself and it kind of brings to the forefront the criticism that the Suns are lacking in smarts all season long.
He was fouled.
….. how does that make you lacking in smarts? I pay money to see plays like he was about to make. Bleh.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
Well
You should watch more college / highschool then. I pay to see things I can’t do in a pickup game. Why would I pay to watch somebody do something I can do myself? Anyway the point was. It was a foul. Regardless of what and who was doing it.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
I dig what you're saying...
I’m always a little disappointed when I go to see suns vs lakes and I don’t see some awesome showiness…
JRich got fouled, but even without Lebron, I don’t think he had the hotdog distance needed for a 360, and you can never count on the refs to make that call.
PSN ID- presbot
I watch college and High school
the problem is the guy that does most of the showboating, in your grill shit, is losing the games, example: J Rich.
Fine you can that crap, I will take a team that wins.
"Have You heard of the Boom on Mizar 5?"
Richardson
Should have swung his off elbow around like Kobe and made sure anyone coming from behind would get smacked.
Seriously, I agree, not necessary. A simple dunk would have gotten the crowd going. Even a pass to the trailer. But a foul is a foul. What you guys are saying proves what is wrong with the NBA. That is, the games are refereed to some code that changes from official to official. What if an hour lasted 60 minutes in some countries, 75 minutes in others, and 54 minutes in still others? We would have no international commerce. The rules must not EVER be subjective. Otherwise toss away the rule book. Lets not even keep score, as Neal Walk once suggested.
Look at Amare. Does anyone doubt that his one dimensional offense, however dominating, and his whiny demeanor and selfish reputation have caused the officials to enforce rules differently for him? How quick would someone cry foul if it could be statistically proven that cops write more speeding tickets to black people because there is a stereotype, however subjective, that black drivers tend to be drug dealers, wear flashy clothes, and argue more than others?
Your premise, PStan, however clever, is pure foolishness. There should be no differing standard when enforcing the ruiles. PERIOD.
April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?
There should be no differing standards
but there are…and some of that is just the nature of the game and the speed its played and some of it is just the human nature of the refs.
My point isn’t that LeBron shouldn’t have been called for the foul. The point is that JRich had no business showboating like that. I said the same thing earlier this season when he was wide open and got away with it. I didn’t like it then. I don’t like it here.
Yes. I should have been called but I am so tired of only looking at this sport through the eyes of what does and doesn’t get called. It removes the accountability for what our team is doing to influence the situation.
and as I said – bad calls both ways. If you watch the charge the Nash “drew” it was a bad call that resulted in West getting hurt. I am sure the Cavs fans right now are talking about the ref’s not making the right call.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on Mar 13, 2009 12:30 PM MST up reply actions
Here's an idea
Let the NBA take a page from the NFL (No Fun League). We’ll have fines for taunting, trash-talking, celebrations and the like.
Also, read my post. I am drawing a distinction between ‘bad calls’ that are due to incompetence, and ‘no-calls’ that are due to a subjective interpretation of the way a game should be played and expectations from different players.
I am on record as wanting the charge call abolished, by the way. No more ‘racing to the spot’. How stupid. But that call is very difficult to make the way the rules are written, while this call is a simple call to make. You can’t compare the two.
April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?
I've reached a zen like place
I am not going to ruin the rest of the season (and my health) by fretting over wins and losses. I’m turning my full attention to the draft and who we should trade/fire and all that fun stuff. I’m thinking of ways we can win next season without Nash and Stat and Shaq and finding hope in next year. I’m all about moral victories now and finishing over .500 is not a bad thing. It means we beat more than half the teams we played, and more than half the league cannot say the same.
If Harangody is in the draft next year……..
Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.
You know me too.
Except I’m finding it increasingly harder to watch NBA games. When you can predict the outcome based on player, coach, franchise history with referees. And it increasingly becomes more and more and more true. It gets harder and harder and harder to watch. I’m almost to the point where wrestling is more appealing. At least they admit it. I will always love the Phoenix Suns and win or not I will root for them and no other team. But I will not watch if terrible calls and league screw ups are just excepted as the norm.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
TRUE and +1,000,000
I am a Suns fan. I am NOT an NBA fan. I regularly sit down on Sundays and watch every NFL game on TV but I bet I have not watched thirty minutes of non-Suns basketball in the last 2 years. Part of it is that I’m a much bigger football fan than basketball fan, but most of it (and the main reason behind the sports’ loyalty) is that David Stern and the NBA referees either don’t know how to run a sport, or don’t care. But nothing Stern or the refs can do will ever keep me from loving my team, watching my team, blogging my team, or having serious emotional breakdowns for my team.
Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.
I’ve watched Harongody a few times. Decent player, but jeezus, he looks like a complete tool. A big, awkward white guy with a flaming red flat-top??? Wow.
However ...
He would maybe be a good fit for the Suns. He’s a banger inside who can at least finish a shot, and he appears to be able to kinda run the floor, and he should be available when we go to pick.
In your rule book you also...
forgot to mention that Lebron James is allowed to scream, yell, shake his fist, swing his arms, and complain every call that does not goes his way with out any sort of warning or technical foul from the refs. Had that been Amare he would have been ejected before the half.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
or that
LeBron can play 40+ minutes and have zero fouls…something Grant commented on actually. Audio to come.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on Mar 13, 2009 7:47 AM MST up reply actions
Well ...
I can’t remember the plays now, but I do remember thinking a couple of times during the game that the Suns got the benefit of the home court refs.
There were a couple of 2-3 year stretches (one stretch at the Colisseum and another at AWA) that we would’ve just been happy the game was this close.
Mmmmm ... Guinness
Calls sucked equally
one thing I’ve learned over the last couple of years of watching games more closely – as in using the awesome power of tivo to rewind and slo mo – is that calls are blown but they rarely are one-sides.
It is so rare to actually find a game that the refs won or lost. It is frustrating in real time of course when the call doesn’t go your way but you rarely even notice when the call does. The result is an out sized impression of bias that isn’t justified by the reality.
Yes – LeBron fouled JRich.
Yes – Nash should have been called for a block on West instead of the charge call
These things happen
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on Mar 13, 2009 9:36 AM MST up reply actions
Agreed
I give credit where credit is do. And in most cases we see missed calls on both sides. I do try hard to forgive and forget. I had not even yelled at the TV until J-Rich was fouled. But it is undeniable that certain refs, teams, players mix better than others and create biased situations that should not exist. I think I would feel better if there was some way the NBA would project that they are working on bettering the situation. But the NBA would rather sweep things under the rug and lie to its fans.
There is no reason that they cant provide the same ability for a coach to question a call as say the NFL. A review system such as that punishes the team if the call was correct and no change happens. In the same token it gives the coaches and refs the ability to save face. Will it slow it down? In reality not anymore than it slows down now.
Do any of you remember the promises of a more transparent system after the recent “scandal”?
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
Transparency was a lie
My biggest beef is the lack of consistency in the calls. I’m not talking about in-game consistency. Sure, there are some inconsistent calls during the game. I’m talking about on the systemic level.
How much worse was Ariza’s foul than LeBron’s? Yeah, it was worse, but the TV guys and “officials” and media calling for blood versus Reggie Miller saying, “Well, the refs didn’t call the foul because LeBron hustled.”
How can two officials make calls so drastically different?
What about the players leaving the bench and KG grabbing a ref in the Hawks-Celtics series? Aren’t those “bright line” rules without room for interpretation.
The difference in calls in the playoffs and regular season is the most annoying. Why call it different? Because players will foul out of playoff games? So? If it was called consistently, the players would change their “postseason defense” to stay in the game.
The NFL says, “We’re not exactly sure what the holding rule means, but here’s how we’re going to call it and we’re going to call it consistently.” Nobody argues holding calls. Why can’t the NBA have more rules like that?
Mmmmm ... Guinness
Agreed.
I think this all starts with Stern. Until he is gone it will never improve. He is too worried about what kind of ratings the NBA is getting with it’s international audience to realize what is happening here at home.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
Not talking about blown calls
which even out as you suggest. But by your very reaction, you did not label this a blown call. You labeled it a purposeful non-call based on the percepotion of the players involved.
That is totally different. One has a motive, the other does not.
April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?
I guess
for me it all falls into the same category. Preferential treatment, blown calls, biased NBA decisions. I look at it in the sense that it is a negative affect on the NBA. Instead we as fans get stubbed and have to deal with the fact that the NBA would rather turn a cold cheek as opposed to openly explore potential resolve to complaints from its customers (the fans).
You have to ask yourself what kind of organization fines its employees / associates for speaking out against it. Especially when it has things going on such as Tim Donaghy and the “scandal”. In a position such as the NBA has been in I would think if it had nothing to hide it would be welcoming criticism and working to formulate a resolve to ease the speculation. Then it would convey these results openly to the fans.
In effect the exact opposite has happened. Thus, as a fan I must take these things into consideration and not forget them until answers are presented.
I don’t even know if I am making sense here.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
Yup, Refs are pretty bad on both ends..
Goran Dragic gets called for shuffling his feet before starting his dribble almost every game (which is the correct call). But I’m pretty sure King Crab James does that every time he gets the ball. Not to mention taking at least 3 steps after he picks up his dribble.
Uh you noticed that too?
And I said out loud to myself when that happened, “if Amare had done that he would have gotten T’d up.” Naturally Lebron wasn’t, nor does he get called for fouls.
Complaining about the refs
jeez, Yep the NBA is out to screw the Suns. Please. Play “D” once in awhile then sees what happens.
"Have You heard of the Boom on Mizar 5?"
Not saying that.
In most cases we just simply have bad luck. And sometimes that is what it takes for a team to be successful.
" I'm going to root for the Suns when they are winning or losing, but when losing I will point and blame the failing economy on the Referees."- Me.
You create your own luck. Spurs aren’t lucky, they play defense. +1 to Grockcubs. -1 to all the rest of you who keep on blaming refs and luck and Stern (I hate Stern I hate him I hate him I hate him).
The truth is NBA refs don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t believe they’re corrupt (some of them are, obviously), it’s just that they are in way over their heads. You never see the mistakes NBA refs make in other sports. In the NBA if they get half the calls right (both ones they call and ones they don’t), they are doing good. They cost teams games ALL the time and there’s nothing said about it. In the NFL or the MLB, if a ref or ump costs a team a game, it’s talked about for weeks (sometimes the rest of the season, ie. Ed Hokule blowing the Chargers/Broncos game). It’s this type of policing that keeps the rest of the umps and refs on track, giving them a REASON to make the correct call. There is ZERO enforcment in the NBA, and it is destroying the integrity of the game, but as long as Stern and the Owners get paid, who cares, right?
But if refs made the right calls all the time, would the Suns do any better? Nope. Not a chance. So it doesn’t matter. Play defense.
Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.
good ?
I’ve been thinking about this a bit….
between that, losing 6 straight and not making the playoffs….
I almost don’t have the heart to pile on that many points
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on Mar 13, 2009 10:17 AM MST up reply actions
Isn't it safe to say by now that he is just a moron?
Can’t we just scrap the whole moron point thing? Think about it. He’s made so many bad moves, that he has taken us from the top record in the west last year (even though some don’t think we were competing) to not making the playoffs and considering totally blowing up the team.
I think...
Kerr is the best thing the Suns have going for them right now. He’s between a rock and a hard place. He knows how to win, but he can’t do what it takes because in order to do that he’d have to rebuild the team from scratch (he’s getting the chance very soon) and bring in defense. In order to do THAT, he’d have to get rid of Steve Nash, one of the most loved Suns of all time, and I bet a lot of fans don’t hate Kerr half as much now as they would if he’d have dumped Nash.
I don’t feel comfortable piling on a guy who knows a lot more than I do about winning championships in the NBA, who hasn’t had but a few years to work, who was handed a team that was built to fail but look good in the process (which makes it damn hard to dissasemble), and who hasn’t gotten a chance to use all of his abilities as a GM. This still isn’t Kerr’s team. This is still D’antoni’s team. We still have a lot of D’antoni’s players. If, next year, we rebuild and there is no more Nash and there is no more Stat (I pray), and there is no more Shaq, then I’ll start piling on Kerr if he’s sucking, because then it will be all on him. But I feel pretty confident that when he gets out from beneath coach D’s shadow, he’ll bring defense and he’ll win.
Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.
Are you Kerr's mother?
Or is this Gambo? The idea that Kerr is hamsturng to improve this team because Nash is still on it doesnt speak well to his abilities to function as a GM.
You're right
He should have had the balls to trade Nash at the deadline when we could have gotten something good for him.
Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.
*Tears in my eyes*
I loved Steve, he’s a great guy. But he’s simply the epitome of what’s wrong with the Suns’ play and mentality. No point having a guy who gives you +20 on offense but -30 on defense, and puts tons of pressure on your bigs and help defenders by getting beat off the dribble by Sam Cassell, Tyronn Lue, and CBA players. I’ve never even seen him foul anyone properly. Everytime he fouls a guy, it ends up being an AND1.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
Friend Us On Facebook
SBNation.com Recent Stories
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- Behind the Box Score, where the Lakers absolutely melted down the stretch
- Shaving a picture of Matt Bonner in his head could net a young Spurs fan an in-school suspension
- Greg Oden wants to play for the Miami Heat
- LeBron James and Kobe Bryant on Forbes World’s Most Powerful Celebrities list
- Evan Turner loves getting his butt kicked
Follow us on Twitter
