You cannot be serious, ref!
The Bucks must be star-crossed. They can't catch a break anywhere. Last night they lost a hard fought game against the New York Knickerbockers on one of the most ridiculous foul calls in the history of basketball. Let me set the action for those who didn't see it.
The game was tied at 93-93. With about 17 seconds left in the fourth, the Knicks had control of the final possession. They inbounded to Marbury about five feet behind the top of the key. He held the ball and waited way too long to get into the play, and he ended up having to take a weak fadeaway from the right side of the lane with no time remaining. The shot missed badly. Overtime, right?
No! One of the officials, and I use that term loosely, called a phantom foul on Andrew Bogut. That was bad enough. You don't call touch fouls if their going to decide the game. But here's the worst part -- the alleged foul occured way away from the action! You never, never, never make that call. Not in high school intramurals, not in pee wee YMCA ball... nowhere! An off-the-ball foul on the final possession that provided no advantage and in no way affected play? You have to be shitting me. That call was the basketball equivalent of Richard Steele's stoppage of Taylor-Chavez with five seconds left in the final round. I still can't believe it.
Redd appears in serious pain
I don't know if he'll admit it, but Michael Redd is playing with serious pain, at least that's the way it looks. In fact, it looks so bad he might want to consider shutting it down for a long time, because these type injuries only get worse if their not rested.
I've had knee tendinitis similar to Redd's. It sucks. It hurts badly, its hard to shake off, and just when you think its gone it comes back from seemingly nowhere and it feels like a butcher knife thrust into your kneecap.
Redd's pain was obvious. If you had a chance to watch the end of the game, you might have noticed he was not running on two legs so much as he was hopping on his one good leg and gingerly dragging the other leg along. No planting or cutting or pushing off on the bad leg at all. That indicates it was giving him serious difficulty. When my tendinitis would flare up, that's exactly what I used to do. Its almost a subconscious reaction. You're afraid to put full weight on the affected leg, because too much weight brings an incredibly sharp pain to the area, so you kind of eggshell step.
Best outcomes for Bucks?
I'm going to write something slightly sacreligious here, and really loserish, but something I think is true. These close, hard fought losses the Bucks have been suffering in the last few days might be the best possible outcomes for the team. They have no shot at the postseason, so at this point wins only worsen their lottery odds. Yet, for the sake of the long-term psyche of the organization and its fans, you don't want the losses to be demoralizing blowouts. Thus the close losses serve two purposes. They improve the Bucks' draft odds while at the same time preserving at least a modicum of plausible optimism for the future.
The game was tied at 93-93. With about 17 seconds left in the fourth, the Knicks had control of the final possession. They inbounded to Marbury about five feet behind the top of the key. He held the ball and waited way too long to get into the play, and he ended up having to take a weak fadeaway from the right side of the lane with no time remaining. The shot missed badly. Overtime, right?
No! One of the officials, and I use that term loosely, called a phantom foul on Andrew Bogut. That was bad enough. You don't call touch fouls if their going to decide the game. But here's the worst part -- the alleged foul occured way away from the action! You never, never, never make that call. Not in high school intramurals, not in pee wee YMCA ball... nowhere! An off-the-ball foul on the final possession that provided no advantage and in no way affected play? You have to be shitting me. That call was the basketball equivalent of Richard Steele's stoppage of Taylor-Chavez with five seconds left in the final round. I still can't believe it.
Redd appears in serious pain
I don't know if he'll admit it, but Michael Redd is playing with serious pain, at least that's the way it looks. In fact, it looks so bad he might want to consider shutting it down for a long time, because these type injuries only get worse if their not rested.
I've had knee tendinitis similar to Redd's. It sucks. It hurts badly, its hard to shake off, and just when you think its gone it comes back from seemingly nowhere and it feels like a butcher knife thrust into your kneecap.
Redd's pain was obvious. If you had a chance to watch the end of the game, you might have noticed he was not running on two legs so much as he was hopping on his one good leg and gingerly dragging the other leg along. No planting or cutting or pushing off on the bad leg at all. That indicates it was giving him serious difficulty. When my tendinitis would flare up, that's exactly what I used to do. Its almost a subconscious reaction. You're afraid to put full weight on the affected leg, because too much weight brings an incredibly sharp pain to the area, so you kind of eggshell step.
Best outcomes for Bucks?
I'm going to write something slightly sacreligious here, and really loserish, but something I think is true. These close, hard fought losses the Bucks have been suffering in the last few days might be the best possible outcomes for the team. They have no shot at the postseason, so at this point wins only worsen their lottery odds. Yet, for the sake of the long-term psyche of the organization and its fans, you don't want the losses to be demoralizing blowouts. Thus the close losses serve two purposes. They improve the Bucks' draft odds while at the same time preserving at least a modicum of plausible optimism for the future.
Bucks Diary Eff48 Box Score (listed from most productive to least)
M Williams.... 37.46
Villanueva.... 26.40
Patterson..... 23.17
Bogut..........18.54
Bell............14.51
Redd...........11.58
Skinner.......11.42
Lee.................29.53
Frye................27.00
Marbury............22.32
Curry...............20.21
Richardson.........16.42
Crawford...........15.99
Jeffries..............9.60
posted by Ty Will @ Friday, February 23, 2007
1 Comments:
I'm a Knicks fan and was at the game. I totally agree with you. I hate to see games decided by absolutley pathetic calls, even if it gives the Knicks a win.
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