Fact is refs lose money if there's a sweep in a series....they get paid more for 7 games than 4 collectively...I know they alternate games.
I've gotta hand it to Steph. What a crazy player. That one possession where he was literally sprinting around the court for 22 seconds, catching and handing off the ball to people before he finally got open for a three that took the entire possession. Greatest jump shooter ever but how much work he puts in just to get open shots....just gotta respect it.
I don't have time to read the OP or any responses. But to the title of this thread: GTFO! This game, and the previous three games, were decided by our failure to run anything resembling a decent offense.
Yes. That corrupt NBA, fixing things so that one of their conference finals end in a sweep--exactly what they wanted, 1-3 fewer games of ad/ticket revenue. Evil geniuses.
I'm not saying this happened, but if you were a ref that was fixing games wouldn't this be the perfect time to do it? So many people blindly defend them saying why would the NBA want a sweep? Once again I'm not saying it happened but it doesn't have to be at the request of the league for a ref to influence the result.
So random rogue refs fixing games for the Warriors? That makes even less sense. Generally lone actors fix things to benefit themselves--generally monetarily. Fixing things for the underdog to win, for the sake of gambling, makes far more sense, especially in home games for the underdog where some level of "home cooking" is even expected. I'd say the people alleging conspiracy or referee "fixing" whenever things don't go their way are far more likely the "blind" ones.
There have been a few times that I seriously think the fix was in. The Ewing Draft Suns vs Sonics Game 7 Lakers vs Kings Game 7 Lakers vs Blazers Game 7 This was not one of those times.
GSW had 19 FT to the Blazers only 10! The Game 4 that I watched had at least 25 GSW fouls, mostly on drives to the basket from Dray, Klay, and Looney. The video replay of Dame's last drive shows at least 3 fouls by Dray and Looney, and at that critical point, the foul should have been called. And Dray grabbing Meyers before the final inbounds pass was an obvious foul. And there are many others. Looking at what could have changed the outcome is a normal thought. Several other calls come to mind, like the bump of Steph by Meyers at 9 min left in Q1, which was a no-call against Dray, Klay, Steph, Looney, and others. There is also the foul of CJ shooting at about 8 min left in Q1 that even the commentators noted should have been an and 1. There were a lot of no-calls even in the 1st half that would have changed the outcome. The Blazers need to find a way to get a fair and balanced performance by the NBA professional refs on the home court!
The Blazers also should have had at least a 9 point lead at the half, based on that ridiculous clear path call on Dame against Steph that the commentators agreed was a bad mistake by the refs!
After watching the replay of WCF Game 4, I am more convinced that Dame was fouled unequivocally at the end of regulation and on the 2nd last shot drive at the end of OT. As important as the WCF are and with the refs reviewing the fouls in slow motion, it is highly contrived that they failed to call the fouls of Dame that could have given us the win! I am convinced the refs decided this WCF to the detriment of basketball fans.