By “Magic Fans” I am, in this case, talking about two ESPN.com correspondents who are making a big deal out of Pau Gasol wrapping one finger around the rim on Courtney Lee’s missed layup at the buzzer in regulation in Game 2 of the Lakers-Magic series on Sunday.
Point 1: That shot was not going down. Gasol’s contact with the rim had no bearing on the play.
Point 2: In the one replay we saw, Gasol had one finger around the rim. One.
Point 3: If you insist of having that “clear violation” acknowledged — after checking via replay, blah blah blah — then let’s be consistent and go back to …
Point 4: … the blatant, monstrous goaltending Dwight Howard was guilty of at the 9:23 mark of the first quarter. On that one, Gasol put up a shot that was in the basket when Howard “blocked” it (according to the play-by-play guys). And did you see how Howard “blocked” that going-down-the-hole Gasol shot? BY STICKING HIS HAND UP THROUGH THE BASKET.
ABC replayed this one once (hey, it’s early; nothing matters this early, right? … even in games that go to overtime) … and Howard’s “block” through the net was stunningly obvious. One of the ABC guys actually said something like, “Hmm, the officials missed that one.” And it was never brought up again.
It was goaltending at its most primitive. “Here, let me block this shot by ramming my hand through the cylinder and pushing the ball out of it. Sure.” It was so egregious, so clearly documented that there was zero need to bring out the magnifying glass that was needed, two-and-a-half hours later, to catch Gasol’s index finger wrapped around the rim. On a shot that had no chance of going in.
So just shut up about that call, Magic lovers. The Lakers had two points stolen from them, and just because it happened early instead of at the buzzer doesn’t make it excusable (though apparently forgettable, when you’re pulling for the Magic to win).
In a game that was 88-88 after four quarters, having two points deducted from your total is, uh, huge. So don’t bring out the “Gasol broke the rules and we need to have instant replay” stuff. Put it away. Unless we’re going to call them all, and not just the marginal ones you watched at the end.
2 responses so far ↓
1 PistonsFan // Jun 8, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Preach it, brotha! I’m a Pistons fan, but all this whining about Gasol’s non-goaltending move, combined with no acknowledgement of the truly egregious goaltend by Howard, is driving me nuts.
Shut UP, Magic fans. Game 2 is over and done with. Worry about game 3.
2 John Hollon // Jun 8, 2009 at 2:38 PM
The refs were letting them play, as they say, all night long. Fans can gripe about calls but in my book, the only thing you can really hope for is that the refs are consistent. And they were. If they didn’t call Dwight Howard’s blatant goal tend call, how were they going to call Pau Gasol’s tickey-tack one-finger-in-the-net play? If the Magic had gotten decent guard play and some more offense out of Howard, they might have won withour it coming down to a needing a miracle lob play with .06 left on the clock …
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