My two cents on last night's game....

[Dejay]

I’m a certified high school football official and I’ve seen my share of bad calls and obvious ‘home cooking’ by overly ambitious scoreboard operators before. But last night was bad. Really bad.

Wow. Just wow. Somewhere in Calgary, even Bret Hart is saying 'damn, even Vince gave me more respect than that'.

While this wasn’t the sole reason why the Hawks lost, I have to say that the shot-clock ‘error’ had a big role in it (along with Labron being able to tackle guys on attempted shots and bowl into the lane like a fullback on 4th and goal but I digress). But we all know that it is what it is; the Cavs have Labron and the Hawks don’t, which is why David Stern and Co. will take the Hawks’ protest and laugh it off like an episode of Def Comedy Jam.

Do you really think there will be a replay of the last two minutes? Really? The Cavs have the media and the fans in their hip pocket and the NBA knows it; I’ve already been on several sports sites and folks are hammering the Hawks at this very moment for having the gall to file a protest (check me out by going on ESPN and Sportsline and see for yourself). ‘If they had finished the game right, it wouldn’t have came to that’ and ‘they blew a double-digit lead and didn’t deserve to win’ is what they’re saying now. Meanwhile, this ‘little error’ has yet to be even mentioned on Fox or CNN but Labron celebrating with his roadies in birthday hats was on the front page of their sites.

But we all know that if this goes down on Tuesday night in Philips, everyone would’ve been up in arms. The lead story on Sportscenter would’ve been the Hawks and their cheating clock operators; they would still be running replays of it right now like the History Channel does with the Zapruder film and JFK. How many seconds would it have taken for folks on JRIB, First Take, Around the Horn, and Pardon the Interruption to demand that the last two minutes be replayed, starting with Cavs ball, up one, with a full 24 seconds? You know that someone on the Sports Reporters would’ve brought up the Miami fiasco a couple of years back for reference this Sunday morning and demanded a full investigation. Never mind the Cavs blowing the lead, ‘now we see why the Hawks don’t lose at home often’ is what folks would’ve been saying.

That’s why I always say that if you’re going to beat one of the these teams, especially on the road, you have to beat them by double-digits and not leave it to the officials. It’s one thing for a jabronie like the T-Wolves or Nets to luck up on someone else’s home-court; stuff like that happens every year. But an up and comer will not get the same margin of error, especially in prime-time. Remember the Bucks-Sixers ECF several years ago when the officials did everything short of wear Iverson jerseys during the series? Did you really think the league (let alone NBC) was going to settle for a Lakers-Bucks showdown in June? And how you think Orlando got past the Celtics, let alone to the Finals last year? If Game 7 of the Eastern Semis had been close, Dwight Howard would’ve been cleaning out his locker a few days after JJ and the gang did.

So we all learned a painful lesson last night. I hope they can shake it off in time for the Knicks game on Friday.

Next time Hawks, PUT THEM DOWN.

GAME, SET, MATCH.

Edited December 31, 2009 by Dejay

[Supporter]

I’m a certified high school football official and I’ve seen my share of bad calls and obvious ‘home cooking’ by overly ambitious scoreboard operators before. But last night was bad. Really bad.

Wow. Just wow. Somewhere in Calgary, even Bret Hart is saying 'damn, even Vince gave me more respect than that'.

While this wasn’t the sole reason why the Hawks lost, I have to say that the shot-clock ‘error’ had a big role in it (along with Labron being able to tackle guys on attempted shots and bowl into the lane like a fullback on 4th and goal but I digress). But we all know that it is what it is; the Cavs have Labron and the Hawks don’t, which is why David Stern and Co. will take the Hawks’ protest and laugh it off like an episode of Def Comedy Jam.

Do you really think there will be a replay of the last two minutes? Really? The Cavs have the media and the fans in their hip pocket and the NBA knows it; I’ve already been on several sports sites and folks are hammering the Hawks at this very moment for having the gall to file a protest (check me out by going on ESPN and Sportsline and see for yourself). ‘If they had finished the game right, it wouldn’t have came to that’ and ‘they blew a double-digit lead and didn’t deserve to win’ is what they’re saying now. Meanwhile, this ‘little error’ has yet to be even mentioned on Fox or CNN but Labron celebrating with his roadies in birthday hats was on the front page of their sites.

But we all know that if this goes down on Tuesday night in Philips, everyone would’ve been up in arms. The lead story on Sportscenter would’ve been the Hawks and their cheating clock operators; they would still be running replays of it right now like the History Channel does with the Zapruder film and JFK. How many seconds would it have taken for folks on JRIB, First Take, Around the Horn, and Pardon the Interruption to demand that the last two minutes be replayed, starting with Cavs ball, up one, with a full 24 seconds? You know that someone on the Sports Reporters would’ve brought up the Miami fiasco a couple of years back for reference this Sunday morning and demanded a full investigation. Never mind the Cavs blowing the lead, ‘now we see why the Hawks don’t lose at home often’ is what folks would’ve been saying.

That’s why I always say that if you’re going to beat one of the these teams, especially on the road, you have to beat them by double-digits and not leave it to the officials. It’s one thing for a jabronie like the T-Wolves or Nets to luck up on someone else’s home-court; stuff like that happens every year. But an up and comer will not get the same margin of error, especially in prime-time. Remember the Bucks-Sixers ECF several years ago when the officials did everything short of wear Iverson jerseys during the series? Did you really think the league (let alone NBC) was going to settle for a Lakers-Bucks showdown in June? And how you think Orlando got past the Celtics, let alone to the Finals last year? If Game 7 of the Eastern Semis had been close, Dwight Howard would’ve been cleaning out his locker a few days after JJ and the gang did.

So we all learned a painful lesson last night. I hope they can shake it off in time for the Knicks game on Friday.

Next time Hawks, PUT THEM DOWN.

GAME, SET, MATCH.

Completely agree

[TheTruth]

Gotta agree. After we lost that 17 point lead though, it can be argued that we didn't deserve to win. I told myself when we ballooned it to 17, "I am still uncomfortable about this lead. We may need to stretch it to 25 to really seal the deal." Sure enough, shortly thereafter (or was it right before) the commentator said that the last time the Cavs were down so much (12) at halftime was against Portland earlier this season when they were down by 9. Guess what? The Cavs came back to beat Portland by a handful. Sure, there were no egregious shot clock malfunctions in that game, but it proved that once you have a lead on the Cavs in their palace, you better put them away. In essence, the Hawks had no business losing that game with that 17 pt lead--shot clock foul-up or not...

However, this whole ShotClockGate thing is a tragedy. It will be even more of a repulsive tragedy if the game isn't replayed from that foul-up. Not because it is the Hawks, not because of love affair the NBA and fans have with Queen James, but because it is the right thing to do. We had to do it against Miami under similar circumstances...so it is only fair.

Edited December 31, 2009 by TheTruth

[DJlaysitup]

The short shot clock was a blasphemy...though I doubt it was planned. The inaction/inatentiveness of the refs added to the debacle. Instead of monitoring the shot clock (their job), they were likely thing "OMG" the Hawks are gonna win anyway! What will Mr. Stern say...and on LeBron's birthday! Woe to us.

The real shame of this game isn't that the Hawks lost a 17 point lead (LeBron did hit some shots)...the real shame is that we would have had a 25+ point lead in a fair game. The only thing that kept the Cavs within striking distance was the foul shots they were awarded while our guys got hammered and were stuck with no-calls.

Personally I was impressed that Smoove didn't just lose it and get kicked out of the game. He would have had the right IMO.

[jerrywest]

I just bought Donaghy's book.

http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Foul-First-Person-Account-Scandal/dp/0615306039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262306551&sr=8-1

[DJlaysitup]

I just bought Donaghy's book.

http://www.amazon.co...62306551&sr=8-1

Good jw. I'm gonna email the league through DJGrizz's link and advise then that I feel they are still doing the same old cheating thing with the refs...I will advise them that I'm buying two copies of Donaghy's book...one to read fmyself and the other one to send to my Congressman.

Edited January 1, 2010 by DJlaysitup