I've watched both series between the Lakers vs. Jazz and the current Lakers vs. Spurs. Both Spurs and Jazz play physical basketball, but there's been an alarming bias towards what San Antonio is allowed to do versus what Utah was allowed to do on defense. I really don't see much difference in what either squad does on defense. This stat is ridiculous. Kobe Bryant's FTAs in both series. vs. Utah Game 1 - 23 FTAs Game 2 - 12 FTAs Game 3 - 17 FTAs Game 4 - 10 FTAs Game 5 - 17 FTAs Game 6 - 17 FTAs vs. San Antonio Game 1 - 4 FTAs Game 2 - 1 FTA Game 3 - 1 FTA There's in no chance the Spurs are THAT much better than Utah defensively against Kobe and the Lakers.
It'll be the same thing IF the Lakers face the Celtics...so I guess Lakers fans will have to get used to it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pegs @ May 26 2008, 04:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>It'll be the same thing IF the Lakers face the Celtics...so I guess Lakers fans will have to get used to it.</div> Laker fans will complain about officiating no matter what. LOL I made this thread because I think Jazz fans have to be furious watching the Spurs get away with the same things they were doing, and not getting away with. Jersey grabbing, moving screens, using two hands to defend, hacking, pushing off on offensive rebounds, and flopping. Kobe Bryant is unguardable and in order to compete against him you have to break the rules and hope to get away with it. In the Utah series the officials were a lot more restrictive on how they allowed the Jazz to defend Kobe. In the Spurs series they've been a lot more liberal with Bowen and the Spurs defenders. How does Kobe go an entire game and not shoot a single FT until mid-way through the 4th period? Especially last night when he was aggressive on offense and had a lot of touches. I'm not even going to comment on Gasol or Odom in the post either. These guys played with the same softness in the Utah series a majority of the time, but they were getting the benefit of the whistle. The officials aren't making those same calls in the Spurs series and are letting more contact go. It has to be frustrating to watch if you're a Utah fan.
Well a few things: 1. Bruce Bowen has a bigger defensive reputation than AK47, Harpring, or Brewer (who did the best of the 3). Therefore Kobe is losing some superstar calls he was getting on Harpring, Brewer or AK47. 2. Bowen is a smart defender and less likely to hack than Harpring, and is quicker than AK47. 3. Gregg Popovich really emphasizes the Spurs not to send the Lakers to the line. As well the Spurs as a whole will get more no calls than the Jazz will get due to their rep. The Lakers will get more calls than the Jazz would as well.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ May 26 2008, 05:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Well a few things: 1. Bruce Bowen has a bigger defensive reputation than AK47, Harpring, or Brewer (who did the best of the 3). Therefore Kobe is losing some superstar calls he was getting on Harpring, Brewer or AK47. 2. Bowen is a smart defender and less likely to hack than Harpring, and is quicker than AK47. 3. Gregg Popovich really emphasizes the Spurs not to send the Lakers to the line. As well the Spurs as a whole will get more no calls than the Jazz will get due to their rep. The Lakers will get more calls than the Jazz would as well.</div> It's a problem then, because officials should not be making calls or not making calls based on a team or player's reputation. At what point does it start and stop for a team's reputation to change? The officials job is to be 100% neutral. I agree, Bowen's reputation allows him to get away with a lot more than other players, but it's not right. Just like the superstar calls aren't right. Typically there's a balance, but in this example it's completely disproportionate wouldn't you agree? When is the last time a league MVP went to the line only 6 times during any playoff series in the first three games? Kobe's averaging only one trip to the line per game at this point. Logic tells me something is wrong with this picture. Also factor in Bruce Bowen sat at a large portion of Game 1 because of foul trouble and you really have to wonder about the lack of foul calls against San Antonio.
I do think Bowen's rep allows him to get away with more than most players get away with on defense, but I haven't noticed getting away with much compared to other times I've seen him be dirty, grab shirts. This series, he has been playing generally good D. There have been a few 50/50 calls that could have gone either way that generally Kobe's superstar status would get him FTs. But also Kobe hasn't been as aggressive against Bowen as he was against AK47 or Harpring. He would get Harpring 5 feet away pretty much every time falling over, and Harpring would hard foul him.
You should read #2 in the ESPN's Daily Dime. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080526
A few things to consider Shape: 1. The Jazz always lead the league in fouls. Its part of Sloan's philosophy to foul and foul hard when they get beat on defense. 2. The Jazz had no one who matches up with Kobe well. Brewer is ok but far from a shutdown defender, AK is a little too big to be guarding Kobe properly. The Spurs have Bowen who has the reputation and is very good at being physical then completely avoiding contact as the player is about to shoot. 3. The Spurs actually have some shotblocking presence in there with Duncan. The Jazz have Boozer, Okur, and Millsap as their big 3 rotation players. AK is the only real shotblocking threat but since he was covering Kobe much of the time hes obviously not much help on the weak side. 4. Kobe has been shooting a lot more 3 pters in this series than in the Utah series which is an indicator that hes not getting to the rim as much (perhaps in part due to point #3) and hes settling more for outside looks. The Spurs are a very smart defensive team and do a good job as a team defending, not to mention they have Bowen. Kobe averaged 4 3 point attempts per game in the Utah series but if you take out the one game where he shot 10 then he averaged 2.8 for the other 5 games. In the first 3 games of the SA series hes averaging 5.7 3 point attempts per game. Sure, the refs blow ass but if you're banking on the refs to give you 10 free points a game then you probably aren't going to win a championship. As a fan of a team that regularly gets raped by Kobe and his henchmen in stripes I'm glad to see Kobe being totally stoned by the refs when it comes to giving him FTAs because hes a star.
