i can tell not too many basket ball fans by reading this thread. there were several bad calls by the refs which had huge impact on the game. there were three horrible calls in the 2nd quarter which fueled the spurs huge lead. there was a non charging call against duncan on fox, a blocking call on horry which was clearly a charge on parker and a charging call on bryant which was total b.s. - that should have been a 3 pt play. that fould on bryant sent him to the bench for like 10 minutes or whatever. the huge lead was fake. however with shaq sidelined with 4 pseudo fouls he couldnt do anythning in the third for fear of getting his 5th foul. he wasnt lathargic, he wasnt "off" he just couldnt risk getting a 5th foul. if shaq didnt have 4 fouls in the third the lakers would have sustained their surge and tied the game heading into the 4th. but with shaq and kobe playing conservative so they wouldnt get a 5th foul SA had a much easier time. but since the lakers survived the 3rd quarter w/out shaq and kobe getting a 5th fould they could play more aggressive, which they did and not surprisingly they were able to almost, overcome the lead the spurs had built up.
it was not bad calls by the refs alone that lead to the SA vicotry though. SA hit their shots, and in the 4th quarter they had 4 or 5 crucial offensive rebounds to halt laker surges. those offensive rebounds were huge. as for kobe, well i feel for him. im sure he would drive the lane but twice during the game he had driven the lane and got fouled hard and both time the refs didnt call anything. he didnt think he could drive the lane and instead of taking an off balance shot he chose to pass but it wasnt there. obviously they should have called a time out as soon as shaq got the ball.
conclusion: horrible game by the refs and great game by rose to grab those offensive rebounds late. and SA fans, well dont let this get to your heads otherwise youll just be setting yourself up for a let down.
