Last night just reinforced to me that it doesn't matter what kind of team the Blazers ever put on the court. The NBA will never allow us to win. I sometimes lose sight of that and feel hope. That is a dumb feeling.
The inconsistency of officiating ruins the game for me. I posted a few weeks back that I did not want to face Dallas because of the Dirk factor. Besides the fact that he is great, the "leg kicking and flopping" is over board. The refs know ti and still let him get away with it. His consistent whining wears the officials out. I am happy we lost this one if we do end up playing them in the 1st round. Sweeping them would have given them even more motivation. I have learned to dislike Dirk and Butler quite a bit.
jaynes disagrees and hes 100% right... blazers are easy to figure out Mauer is a veteran official who has worked as deep into the NBA playoffs as the Finals, which means he’s a pretty good official. He was miserable last night. So much so that if the NBA can send out a “We-screwed-up” e-mail after a failure to call one little foul on a last shot, it ought to send out a full press release explaining why Mauer isn’t suspended for a while after a game that bad. And yes, I’m blaming him and not his partners because he seemed to be in the middle of a good portion of the horrible calls. And folks, those calls didn’t all go against Portland. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player get away with what ESPN’s John Hollinger called a “triple-dribble” the way Brandon Roy did. There were ridiculous misses both ways and Hollinger called it “the worst-officiated game I’ve ever seen.” But he also noted that the Mavericks responded to the situation better than did the Trail Blazers and he was right about that. The Blazers lost their cool and it cost them dearly. All season long I’ve been begging for Nate McMillan to stand up for his players and take a “T” but when he did, with about three minutes to go in this one, it was way too late and too costly, given the situation late in the game. But the players were composed compared to the fans. It was pretty disgraceful. Throwing stuff on the floor, getting ejected from expensive front-row seats and chanting “these refs suck” really isn’t going to help. In fact, folks, here’s a real scoop for you — with tough-minded officials like Mauer, it’s going to hurt. At this level, referees are anxious to prove that you can’t intimidate them, no matter what the situation. This isn’t college basketball, where the stripes run for cover as soon as the final horn sounds, looking like scared sheep. This is the NBA, where they strut around daring you to react to them. If you create an environment this nasty, it’s probably going to mean that veteran officials are going to stick it to you even more — just to show you they cannot be intimidated. I know that may not be fair or proper, but it’s human nature. The real story of the game, in a long-term sense, is that the Mavericks made a real statement — so much so that I’m not sure their one win in the season series doesn’t mean more than Portland’s three wins. Dallas is now on the growing list of teams that seems to know how to play the Blazers. It’s pretty simple stuff — just double-team Brandon Roy whenever you can, pack the paint and push them around. Getting physical with the Blazers is the way to handle them. And certainly putting the pressure on Portland to move the ball is very effective — because its ball movement isn’t good and hasn’t been for several seasons. Take Roy away and the Blazers often have no answer. Giving Andre Miller open shots is very effective. Just sag off him and take away his penetrations. Same with Jerryd Bayless. These guys simply can’t consistently make shots and the more open you leave them the more they struggle. Now the Blazers still have a shot at Dallas in a seven-game series because I’m still not buying the Mavericks as a team that can consistently execute a defensive plan and stay physical throughout a series. They’re a soft bunch, even after their trading deadline coup. But I was discouraged, overall, to see Portland struggle in this situation where it wasn’t ready for the intensity a meaningful game against a good team can bring. Man, the caliber of officiating be damned, you have to be ready to play. The Blazers really weren’t.
Actually, that's patently false. I've read articles in the past that show home teams statistically get more favorable calls than visitors in the NBA. It's not a huge difference, but it's there. Yeah, that worked really well when Miller went off for 52. He had a bad shooting night, but the shots he took were mostly ones he normally makes a good percentage of the time. Roy and Miller just had bad games. I didn't see that Dallas did anything that different from what most teams do. If Miller hits a few more of those shots, Dallas couldn't have as aggressively doubled Roy, and Roy would have gone off. Oh well. On to the next game.
Actually it seems like Jaynes and Hollinger agree 100%. Good article by Hollinger. During the game I had the same thoughts. Thank you to the refs for making both teams look like crap.
LOL. I thought the same thing. As for the technicals.......it is about time. Keep them coming, but preferably earlier in the game. Don't let them get away with their shitty calls. As for the fans throwing stuff on the court.......good for them. Enough was enough.
The fans at the arena paid good money to see a fair game. The officials stole the fans money and ran with it. It is an U.G.L.Y game. The officials missed calls on both sides of the ball and the fans do not pay good money to see the refs screw up a game like that. Its times like this when I wish we'd have replacement refs that actually blew their whistles. That would be nice. Triple dribble and no call? Blatantly up and down on Dirk and no call?! That just shows the refs were busy thinking about summer vacation instead of reffing a game.
I also thought the replacement officials did a decent job. We need some new and unbiased blood with the refs. Not that I'm saying the refs are biased against us, but that they have a method of calling games that seems to other than just calling he fouls they see. In a way, it's like they control a game too much.
If the Mafia told me to make calls against the Blazers, I'd tell them that I'll have to make a couple of stupid ones against the Mavs, to make it look good. So I don't blame Mauer at all. Poor guy.
If we'd made more than 2/3 of our free throws and shot better than 40% from the field and didn't leave Dirk wide open for jump shots at the end of the game we would have won.
The turning point was when Carlisle sent in his designated goon Najera in to muck things up. I hate to ask this question, but why is Pendergraph on our roster? This is the time of the year where if their goon goes after one of our guys, Nate sends in L'il Bit to return the favor. Bottom line, Dirk should have been put on his ass by one of our guys without having to flop.
Ed, I look at your avatar, notice the wry smile, then read the word 'Producer' underneath.....then ask myself the question, 'I wonder if that's what that really means?'
That's a good point. We have a perfectly good goon of our own sitting on the bench. Now I know his towel waiving duties are paramount, but it seems to me that maybe Travis deiner could easily pick up some of the slack.
Not to pick on this post in particular but I have seen this same reasoning in a bunch of places and I think it misses the point entirely. Sure, Portland could have won the game. If they had their victory would have been as tainted as Dallas' is. The officiating in the game was so bad that we actually have no clue which is the better team or even who played better on Friday. All we know for sure is that a game that could have been an entertaining contest between two good teams was ruined forever by incompetence on a grand scale. Incompetence that continues to fester in the NBA officiating ranks year after year while the NBA does absolutely nothing to fix the issue. If you want to convince people games like Friday weren't on purpose force the officials to answer for their calls in a public forum. Allow the public to see how officials are rated and what their individual ratings are. Until something like the above is done we will continue to see this type of bullshit occur again and again.
If a coach is going to get a T about reffing they should get it early. You don't want to let it go on all game without bringing up, you want to nip it in the bud early, and give your team every opportunity to make up for the T. It is hard to make up for a T when you get it with only a few minutes left, or few seconds. Secondly, I see folks up above say the Blazers could have won if this or that would have happened. Yea that's nice. It doesn't make what the refs did right. I am guessing when 22,000 people are chanting "These Refs Suck" through the timeout, that I am spot on. . This is the most Portland fans I have seen kicked out of a game in my history as a season ticket holder.
