NBA: Jordan Leading the Bobcats to the promised land.

TheSuperWoot

They called a similar flagrant on Haywood yesterday so it isn't that surprising that they called that a flagrant too. Boozer did hit him in the face so it was the right call but Bosh sold it so hard it looked like he was getting shot.

edit: Wow, Thibs taking tips from fellow Coach of the Year Scott Brooks and not calling up an actual fucking play on the inbounds pass to win the game.

So It Goes

Why not run a pick and roll?

They are going to lose in OT

TheBlackWind

Aaaaaaaaaaah OT nooooooooo

Doctor Detroit

LeBron with the forearm shiver...and it gets called!

Rose hasn't had his legs since April...DRIVE THE BALL!

OT...

Slider

Predictable play call. The Thunder tried to do the same thing yesterday with Durant. At least the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls would pass the ball to Paxon, rather than predictably allowing Jordan to take the shot.

TheSuperWoot

So It Goes wrote: »

Why not run a pick and roll?

They are going to lose in OT

The only team left that runs any semblance of a structured offense is the Mavs heh. Everyone else is just iso Lebron/Wade/Rose/Durant/Westbrook until something interesting happens.

edit: And sometimes the Mavs decide to go into "fuck it" mode and just try and shoot threes for minutes at a time.

double edit: And James continues his domination of Rose.

Slider

Blargh. What has happened to the NBA? I remember when all five players were used.

wwtMask

Ok, seriously, that last jumper by Lebron was clearly traveling. Do the refs not call traveling anymore?

TheSuperWoot

What? Transcendent players have always been able to take control over a game. Chamberlain basically had the entire game changed so that he wouldn't dominate even harder. Unless you are talking about the days when they used to play in a cage.

edit: Nope, none of the refs give a shit about traveling anymore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_ljDfevB0

TheBlackWind

wwtMask wrote: »

Ok, seriously, that last jumper by Lebron was clearly traveling. Do the refs not call traveling anymore?

Yeah, terrible officiating there, but really the Bulls gave this away. Terrible play at the end of the 4th, and then they just fell apart in OT.

fortis

That is total bullshit. He blatantly walked on that play. Even John Hollinger tweeted right after saying he walked. This shit is so rigged to get the Heatles to the Finals for the ratings.

TheSuperWoot

Regardless of shitty calls the Bulls handed this one to the Heat. Seriously, you would think they would stop letting rose iso when they put Lebron on him, but no iso after iso when James has 6 inches on him and is athletic and long enough to shut him down. Then those horrible turnovers in OT were just sloppy as hell.

wwtMask

I'm rooting for the Heat and even I was like "wtf travel!" The tendency for refs to ignore extra steps isn't exactly new, but that was pretty blatant.

That said, Wade's two blocks in OT totally deflated the Bulls.

cj iwakura

My housemate's rooting for the Bulls. Awkward.

fortis

Free throw attempts 38 to 22 in favor of the Heat.

wwtMask

Yeah, I hope that these playoffs underscore the importance of being a high percentage free throw shooter. You can argue that Dallas and Miami won on the free throw line. It's always pissed me off how professional basketball players, marquee players even, will accept shooting 60% at the line.

TheSuperWoot

In other news, everyone in the Lakers front office is taking some serious hallucinogens:

The Los Angeles Lakers are engaged in serious discussions with Mike Brown about the ex-Cleveland Cavaliers coach becoming the franchise’s next coach, league sources told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday night.

Bergy

this topped off my already shitty day.

its just not your year, guys.

Handsome Costanza

Oh god.. not Mav's vs. Heat... not AGAIN...!?!?!??!?!?



Someone better find Laura Miller and ballgag her.

devCharles

I'm putting 10:1 odds on that this will confirm everything Collin Cowherd believes about sports tomorrow.

Ticaldfjam

I'm so glad I was kind of tipsy at the bar, because fuck, this hurts :

southwick

devCharles wrote: »

I'm putting 10:1 odds on that this will confirm everything Collin Cowherd believes about sports tomorrow.

People actually listen to Cowherd?

Ticaldfjam

southwick wrote: »

devCharles wrote: »

I'm putting 10:1 odds on that this will confirm everything Collin Cowherd believes about sports tomorrow.

People actually listen to Cowherd?

Yup. He has one of ESPN's Highest rated shows, so you know he is going to have free reign to do whatever he wants by the network.

TheBigEasy

So Mike Brown is the next coach of the Lakers ....

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=6587752

Well ... that came kinda out of nowhere ....

Disrupter

I just want the bulls to force game 6. I have a day of drinking and watching game 6 planned on saturday! Dont deprive me of that, Heat!

Also, my optimistic side assumes they will win game 5, because, its home, they have their backs against the wall and if the heat get complacent at all, the bulls can easily run away with the game with great D.

I also think that if it gets to game 7, the bulls have an advantage.

So with game 5 and 7 locked up in magical theory land. The only hard game the bulls really need to fight to win is game 6. And its not unreasonable for them to do so...

Thats my silly, optimistic break down of how the heat wont be in the finals...

Spoiler:

Heat in 5

Phonehand

speaking of traveling, this has always been my favorite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_J06zrz4h0&t=36s
at about :36

wwtMask

That's really not traveling. He was doing a jump stop off a dribble. On that play last night, he faced up, set his left foot as the pivot, pivoted, then changed his pivot foot to the left so that he could take a step and shoot without dribbling. That's pretty blatant traveling

devCharles

Is there video of the travel from last night?

Slider

*sigh* I utterly loathe Westbrook.

TheBlackWind

Oh man that backwards layup.

Refs: yeah, just go ahead and beat the shit out of Dirk.

Pellaeon

Welp

wwtMask

Mavs won that almost completely on some tight defense and free throws.

Slider

...and Westbrook lost the rebound that inevitably lead to a Dirk 3-point shot, which gave the Mavs the lead with less than a minute to go.

Phonehand

wwtMask wrote: »

That's really not traveling. He was doing a jump stop off a dribble. On that play last night, he faced up, set his left foot as the pivot, pivoted, then changed his pivot foot to the left so that he could take a step and shoot without dribbling. That's pretty blatant traveling

he never dribbled, he just took two steps backwards with the ball

TheBlackWind

Yes! Down with the traitors!

Now if the Mavs can down the Heat, I will get Dirk's face tattooed over my face.

UnknownSaint

Slider wrote: »

...and Westbrook lost the rebound that inevitably lead to a Dirk 3-point shot, which gave the Mavs the lead with less than a minute to go.

Chandler slightly pushed off of him in the air and then kept his right leg extended out to trip Westbrook up, it was pretty shitty.

That and when Durant got hammered on both arms, no-call, followed by a blocking foul on one of the easiest charge calls of all time, were pretty huge errors by the refs that would have led to a much closer game. Can't blame it all on that, but it certainly didn't help.

Series wouldn't have ended so early if Westbrook hadn't taken until the last quarter of game 5 to remember that he's really good at getting to the basket. And him and Durant still have some on-the-court chemistry to work out. And also Durant needs to toughen up a bit - maybe mentally a little moreso than physically.

TheBigEasy

Is there any chance at all, that the Bulls manage to beat the Heat?

Profs

Take it you haven't watched the last few games. No, but in all seriousness, I expect Chicago to win tomorrow. Korver and Bogans will shoot better at home than they did in Miami, which is all they need them to do. That said, they're so inconsistent I don't think there's any way this thing goes to game 7. Wade was straight AWFUL last night, and I don't think you'll see him that out of sync the rest of the series. He was missing shots like D-Rose.

BubbaT

fortis wrote: »

That is total bullshit. He blatantly walked on that play. Even John Hollinger tweeted right after saying he walked. This shit is so rigged to get the Heatles to the Finals for the ratings.

If it was rigged for the Heat then why did they call the offensive foul on Lebron?

The NBA just doesn't call traveling anymore. On anyone.

UnknownSaint wrote: »

Series wouldn't have ended so early if Westbrook hadn't taken until the last quarter of game 5 to remember that he's really good at getting to the basket. And him and Durant still have some on-the-court chemistry to work out. And also Durant needs to toughen up a bit - maybe mentally a little moreso than physically.

Series wouldn't have ended so early if Brooks had taken Westbrook off the ball on offense earlier. Harden's had the skills to run OKC's offense since he was in college, it's not like they run anything complex. Thabo actually played some PG in Chicago. And then of course there's Maynor.

Chicago ideally would be doing the same thing with Rose too, the difference is they don't have anyone like Harden/Thabo/Maynor who's capable of running the offense if Rose moves off the ball. It's a role Hinrich would be perfect for, plus Hinrich (like Harden and Thabo) has the size to guard opposing SGs.

Phonehand

you know who travels a lot? james harden. like every time he gets into the lane he gathers and takes a bunch of mini steps and then kicks it out to someone on the wing.