Eric Wedge- AL Manager of the Year
November 14, 2007No More Hughes (For Now)
November 16, 2007This by the way is not a foul in the NBA.
The refs determined that this was a jump ball. Really? Jump ball? I can see that Turkoglu is in fact touching the ball. I’ll give you that. Seems to me that the guy draping himself over LeBron with a knee in his back might have actually fouled him while trying to tie up the ball. But hey, what do I know right?
I do know that LeBron had his third triple double of the season. 39 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists. He hit three monster free throws to send the game into overtime. I know that he made a tremendous jump shot to get the lead in the OT period.
I also know that for a change someone else had a hot hand. Daniel Gibson didn’t miss all night. 5-5 for the evening, including 4-4 from deep. I only know that from the box score. See I didn’t get to start watching the game until a few minutes were left in regulation. So I actually didn’t see Gibson shoot the ball. I saw Sasha miss 3 shots. But never laid eyes on Gibson with the ball in his hands. Now, I’m not a coach in the NBA, but it would seem to me that perhaps a play should have been designed to get Gibson the ball, seeing as how he hadn’t missed a shot all night.
I know that Zydrunas logged another 36 minutes last night. He would have played another 4, but he fouled out at the beginning of the OT. The Big Z injury watch is in effect. For those of you who haven’t been regular readers here at Halftime Adjustments let me explain the Z watch. Zydrunas has missed entire seasons with foot problems. He is listed at 7-3 and 260. He is in his 11th season. His career average for minutes per game is 29. Last year he was able to rest and averaged 27.4 minutes per contest. This year Big Z is averaging 33.8 minutes. Don’t think 6 minutes a game sounds like much? I think that it is quite significant. Not only is he playing more minutes, but he is having to be more active during those minutes. Zydrunas is averaging 12.1 rebounds a game. That’s up 5 boards per game over last year, and bests his career high by over 3 rebounds. That career high was his rookie year by the way. Young legs.
So here I am sounding like a broken record. LeBron needs help. Last night the shooting guard rotation- Hughes, Pavlovic and Damon Jones combined for a 7 for 27 shooting night. Even when someone was actually hitting shots, the ball wasn’t put in his hands. Was that LeBron’s fault? I didn’t see the whole game so I have to ask. LeBron seemed to be running the offense when I turned the game on. What was going on? Why not run an out-of-bounds play for Gibson? This team is enough to give you headaches. A 117-116 overtime loss. Where in the world is the defense? And who is going to step up and take the pressure off LeBron, so that teams won’t drape themselves on him when the clock is running out?
3 Comments
Well for starters, our defense was out of their element.
Let’s face it – Dwight Howard is bigger, faster and stronger than Z. Way faster. The new style center will always win over Ilgauskas, that’s just the way it is.
Drew Gooden was matched up with Rashard Lewis, who plays well outside of the hoop where Gooden is outmatched due to the lack of speed.
Hughes did absolutely nothing all night long, and as good as Gibson has been on the offense, he’s been tore apart two games in a row now (AI/Nelson).
The refs also blew an out of bounds call that the fans in the front row were IRATE over. One ref looked like he was ready to overturn, but they just let it go. It just made the no-call on Turkoglu that much worse – especially after four replays on the Q-Tube.
Yes out-of-staters…it’s called the Q-Tube.
As each passing year goes by, basketball gets further away from the game I was taught to play. It’s unrecognizable to me–and not just under the basket–all over the floor in terms of what constitutes a foul and what doesn’t. The funniest thing is, you refer to the rule book about what constitutes a foul, then you watch a game and you get an entirely different interpretation of what the rules are according to the officials, and these interpretations change every game. It’s ridiculous that the players have to adapt to this all the time. I think the worst thing to watch is Shaq (and other big men) getting the ball down low. He commits about 10 offensive fouls banging into the defensive player, carries the ball at least once, then another offensive foul on the dunk.
And football is starting to experience this scope creep as well. I don’t know how many times this year I’ve seen defensive linemen grabbed and tackled on the LOS without a flag being thrown. Not to mention all the other problems with officiating. Then there is the topic of a QB in the NFL getting a play relayed to a radio receiver in his helmet. Completely unfair to the defense until the person calling the signals on the defense gets the same advantage.
See what you made me do! I’m RANTING again! 😉
to make matters worse, the official who made that jump ball call didn’t even see the whole play as he was behind the action and out of position over by the 3-point line on the wing. lebron was clearly sandwiched between the two defenders, one of which cut off the line of sight for the official (a former nba player, leon wood, who should know better) and then when hedon’t turkeygoo reached across lebron’s body (a foul in and of itself) to tie him up, he also had a hold of lebron’s off-arm, another foul, which again was out of wood’s sight and should have been seen by one of the other 2 officials who remained completely silent. it was the “richard-hamilton-foul-that-wasn’t-called” in game 2 of last season’s eastern conference finals all over again. it’s pretty obvious that lebron gets no respect from the officials when he gets flat-out tackled like that and still can’t get the call to go in his favor. if i was danny ferry, i would send a tape of that footage to the nba’s director of officials and when wood comes up for his annual performance evaluation, that play should be used in showing him exactly why he would be ineligible for a raise when he makes bullsh!t calls like that against the michael jordan of his time. i can guarantee you if that exact same play happened to dwyane wade, he would have been sent to the line for two foul shots and they would have retained possession of the ball as hedon’t turkeygoo would have been called for a flagrant foul for tackling lebron.