I've never seen them overturn a win, so no... it doesn't matter. Besides, Durant is the new golden boy and the Thunder are the new darlings.
Have you people never watched the NBA before? This is how it is. The "Superstars" get the calls. If you don't like it, watch another sport/league.
You give the home team the benefit of the doubt. Especially when your making the call from halfcourt and the other refs near the play didn't call it. This happens in OKC it never gets called.
I'm willing to bet that home court made very little difference, and it was actually the player on the other team that made all the difference. If it had been Aldridge driving and Durant blocking the shot, I guarantee it would not have been called and the block would have made Sportscenter.
Then you are as blind as Scott Foster, and like him should not be making that call. Just because you also have poor judgment does not mean the ref didn't steal that game with either inept or rigged interpretation of the rules.
I"m getting tired of pro sports man. The refs decide too many games with BS calls. And they always seem to whip it out during big games, like the playoffs. What is further aggrevating is how they are beyond reprouch. In the NFL and NBA you are find for critisizing them. I think that everything should be reviewable. Especially with how it's come out that refs bet on games.
The call was close for sure. It's tough to blame the refs that have to call it in real time, when people on here are talking about watching it over and over in slow motion and still aren't sure. if the team played better they would have won. I am beginning to think we are just not that good.
It's not tough - there's a reason Scott Foster was implicated in the previous gambling case. It was either inept or crooked.
The refs got it wrong ... and then the Blazers completely fell apart. So you can blame the refs or the utter lack of execution in crunch time that led to the refs having an opportunity to decide the game.
I always find the "well, if they would have played better, the refs wouldn't matter" crowd to be completely out of touch with reality. These are elite athletes with very small margins for error in any game. Having a referee clearly make up a call with the game on the line should never be defended by anybody who knows how difficult it is to win in the NBA. The bottom line is this. LMA made an elite defensive play that should have won the game for his team. A referee who has had his name associated with a known felon makes a call from near half court that ties the game. The two other refs who were closer to the play didn't make the call, and must have seen a clean block. It's unrealistic to the use the "well, they should have played better" defense, and it always amuses me. "Well, the Blazers shouldn't miss any shots or turn the ball over, so since they did, the refs don't matter."
Scott Foster should have never made that call. He was 45 feet from the basket with a bad angle. Both the other refs were closer, had better looks and didn't call it. Unless you have a clear look and it's obviously goal tending, that should be a no call. Foster took that game from the Blazers and gave it to the Thunder, and I am 100% convinced it was because it was Kevin Durant who got his shit swatted like a little bitch. The NBA can't have the Sports Center Play of the Night showing their latest darling failing with the game on the line. Durant bobbled the ball on the way up, laid it up weakling and rightly got it swatted. End of story, end of game - except in Davis Stern's corrupt superstar driven NBA. When is that crooked piece of shit going to retire? I want to see the NBA return to a team game, not this incestuous media/superstar/marketing/hype bullshit Stern tries to pass off as basketball. BNM
That wasn't even a close call, it was clearly a block...no doubt about it.... Just a horrible call, I am sure POR will get a condolence card from the NBA in a few days....
FYI, it was a one point spread for the game last night. different books had it going either way. http://www.oddsshark.com/nba/oklahoma-city-portland-odds-february-6-2012 :MARIS61:
