LEO_06GT

He did but...... It shouldn't have come down to that. The Spurs had plenty of chances to take the lead but they never did. So to blame it on that last call is BS. They got outplayed plain and simple. And don't tell me they didn't get calls there way. They had 25+ free throw attempts and still didn't get it done. Pretty sad when "Barry" was their MVP. Series is pretty much over better luck next year.

GO LAKERS!!!!

Zastava_101

So basically you're telling me that Spurs didn't deserve to win?

2k7gtcs

Sounds like the same thing Barkley said. No ref is going to hand the game to the Spurs in the final seconds like that after they were losing the entire game. The refs know these things and just won't let it happen. I'm paraphrasing. If this is the way games are decided then screw the cheese let me out of the trap. I guess I'll find a something better to do than watch my team lose at the hands of the refs and league. Look out Laker fans someday they'll be another team the league will favor at all costs and your team will be on the other side and sports karma is a *****?

Zastava_101

Lakers were losing the entire game 1. And yet refs handed them the game in the final 60 seconds.

NBA is a joke.

On the brighter side - in less than 2 weeks European Championship in soccer starts, so I'm happy.

Lennyb44

Great game.
Spurs did a nice job to get within two with a chance to win it at the end.

Just watched the post game interviews.
Both Pop and Brent said there was no foul.
By the way, I thought Fisher's shot hit the rim, and the Lakers should have had a new 24 when the ball went out of bounds off of Horry.

Game 5 in LA is going to be terrific.
Won't be shocked to see SA win that one.

Zastava_101

If they have said that there was a foul, by tomorrow morning David Stern would probably $$$ them.

2k7gtcs

You can't criticize refs in NBA, and Pop and Barry are far to stand up for that. But that doesn't stop it from being true!

Lennyb44

I've gotta admit, I didn't expect them to say, "Hell yes he was fouled. Freakin' Refs just cheated us out of another game."

They'll leave that to the talk shows and online blogs.

stangfoeva

see below

Both Pop and Brent said there was no foul. EVERYBODY knows you dont get those fouls called at the end of the game in the NBA unless you get knocked on the floor, and even then sometimes. I've seen it go the other way against the lakers dozens of time so dont cry guys lol.

and fishers shot DID hit the rim, so the Lakers should have still had the ball. proving my point that the refs suck BOTH ways, and the better team plays through it. you whiners fail.
Lakers should close this thing out now in LA. GO LAKERS!!!

stangfoeva

and might I add an astounding NO they didnt deserve to win. The Lakers never trailed the ENTIRE GAME. You never deserve to win a game that you dont get the lead in. Your hatred is getting in the way of your common sense

Clark Kent

OK I have to admit it. as much as I hate to the Lakers are preety much being pused into the finals at this point however, it is unfortunate because they could easily make it there themselves . it might be a little harderr, a chance the league is nto willing to take, but they could do it nonetheless. Fisher did make alot of contact on the last sho, that much is true. However home come all the SPurs fans are overlooking the fact that the Spurs were sent to the line a dissportinate amount of times, and the fact that if the shot clock was renewed after Fisher hot the backboard the Spurs would never even had the last shot. So maybe the refs realized that and were just letting the play unfold in order to make up for that missed call. It is ture that leauge and the refs on there behalf may be helping the Lakers somewhat, howeverto assume they are doing it as much as some Spurs fans are suggesting is ridiculous.

2k7gtcs

So now fans, ref's, and commmentators can decide who deserves to win. WOW! Is it like a vote that you take, or is there some kind of code as to who deserves to win. So the Lakers come back from a 20 point deficit to win Game 1 at the end (again with a little help), but the Spurs can't win on a last shot, or foul shots. Well I guess next time Bowen can put his entire body on Kobe and "foul" him and expect a no call even if it is the end of the game? This is good to know, maybe next time they can just punch the guy with the ball making a final shot.

Deservings got nothing to do with it. So ateam you like deserves to win when they beat a team that can't hold a lead, but a team you don't like doesn't deserve to win in the final seconds after trailing whole game. Come on! Real ethical there. All of your arguements are just as biased as my fan based arguements for my team. Its almost like arguing differrent religions, completely pointless.

I'll admit a conspiracy theory is far fetched, but I seem to remember a certain fallen ref saying last week through his lawyers that the refs called fouls on whether or not they liked players, teams, or coaches. So its kind of like stupid liberalism and the destruction of this country. There not all in on it, but they are of a convoluted collective mindset.

Zastava_101

But Lakers did deserve to win Game 1?

Zastava_101

kh765

I didn't hear one person say after the game that should have been a foul. If he goes straight up and into Fisher, he gets the foul no doubt about it. If you watched Pop after the game, he wasn't lying when he said he wouldn't have called the foul. Spurs fans can whine all they want about one call, but the refs didn't lose them that game.

EDIT: I will say this, Brent Barry's interview after the game was about as classy as you can get. They all handled the situation exactly like they should have...and exactly how you would expected such an experienced, veteran squad.

2k7gtcs

Just forget it, I've moved on. It'll be nice to not have to watch games every other night well into summer like I've had to do for the past decade.

EDIT: And Kyle I appreciate your comment on Barry. I'm glad someone has noticed that. Evidently I would not have been able to handle it with the same class they did.

LEO_06GT

+1

This pretty much sums it up....

"SAN ANTONIO -- They can certainly complain about that final, fateful play.
They had pretty reasonable justification to moan about the whistle that wasn't blown.
But you know what?
The San Antonio Spurs passed.
The Spurs resisted Tuesday night when presented with yet another chance to fume about the presence of the referee they dread seeing more than any other, presumably because they know the truth.
Which is to say that they've had way too many opportunities to succeed in these Western Conference finals, too many to bray about one non-call from Joey Crawford, no matter how crucial the timing. The Spurs are down 3-1 to the Los Angeles Lakers because that's where they belong.
Brent Barry definitely did appear to be fouled on the dribble by Derek Fisher just before the Game 4 buzzer sounded, which seemingly should have sent him to the line for two free throws to force overtime. When the call didn't come, Barry's hopeless heave at the horn sealed a 93-91 defeat to L.A. that edged San Antonio to the brink of elimination ... and another failure to win back-to-back championships.
Yet it's instructive to note that Barry -- who had the playoff game of his life ruined by the final score -- was the Spurs' loudest non-complainer.
Bones knows.
"That play," Barry said, "was not where the game was lost."
You could make a strong case that the Spurs shouldn't even have been in the position to tie or win this Game 4 on their final possession. Television replays indicate that Fisher's shot with 6.9 seconds to go grazed the rim before bouncing out of bounds off of Robert Horry's leg, meaning that the Lakers should have had a new shot clock instead of asking Kobe Bryant to hurry a fadeaway jumper after the ensuing timeout. A new shot clock would have forced San Antonio to foul Bryant as opposed to getting the ball back off Bryant's miss to draw up a potential game-winning play.
You can then make an even stronger case that the Spurs needn't waste time looking for scapegoats, even after a loss that shoved them into a huge hole, when the Lakers have been consistently charitable in this series, furnishing San Antonio with various openings to be the team with a 3-1 lead.
It's the Spurs who couldn't hold that 20-point lead in Game 1 when they had an immediate opening to unnerve their younger challengers. It's the Spurs who wiped out L.A.'s early 14-point lead in Game 4 but squandered countless opportunities to land a haymaker and ****** the lead, even when the Lakers kept inviting them back ... all the way through to Bryant's brain lock in the final minute and a rushed layup when he should have been dribbling seconds off the clock.
Crawford? Except for that last one, Tuesday's whistles mostly favored the Spurs, who shot 26 free throws to the Lakers' 19 ... and who happily watched Bryant go the line zero times. If anyone appeared to be bothered by Crawford's first San Antonio appearance of the playoffs, it was actually Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who was so enraged by the early fouls called on Fisher and Lamar Odom that he complained about the refereeing during his in-game TNT interview between the first and second quarters.
Asked to explain how San Antonio sliced its early 22-8 deficit to five by quarter's end, Jackson told TNT's Craig Sager: "You want me to be honest with you? The guys with the whistles."
The bulk of the evening's honesty, refreshingly, came from the defending champs. The Spurs realize what they gave away by failing to finish off the series opener. The Spurs understand that they've lost the right to complain about too much when they've controlled tempo in three of the four games and lost two of those three by a combined six points to a group that hasn't been where they've been in the postseason.
The Spurs know they've kept Bryant off the line more effectively than they ever could have dreamed and haven't capitalized ... and that Barry's 23 points in 27 minutes offset Manu Ginobili's latest bout of ankle-induced misery (seven points on 2-for-8 shooting in 36 minutes) ... and that lamenting Ginobili's physical struggles won't be met with much sympathy in a series where the Lakers could have used a forgotten big man named Andrew Bynum.
So they weren't going to pin their predicament on Crawford. No matter what they really think of him.
Not when the locals, whipped into an all-day frenzy by various news outlets fretting over the Crawford Factor, could so easily spot the real difference in San Antonio's first home loss in 14 playoff games: L.A. never trailed in this breakthrough triumph and used its prowess on the offensive glass to produce a decisive 26-4 edge in second-chance points.
"It wasn't a foul," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "... I think it was a proper no-call from what I saw."
Said Tim Duncan, visibly stunned that his 29-point, 17-rebound, three-steal, three-block brilliance wound up meaning nothing: "You're not going to get that call. They're not going to make that call."
Not because it was Crawford, Duncan meant. Because of the end-of-game situation.
Duncan added: "Losing at home, giving up 20-plus points in second-chance points, points off turnovers and losing by two ... when you put all of that together it was a game that we really could have and really should have won."
Not the first time we've heard such sentiments coming out of the Spurs' locker room lately.
"We had a hill to climb being down 0-2," Barry said. "And now we have Everest to climb being down 3-1."
And if you try to bring up how sensationally he played on a gloomy night when the seven Spurs outside of the Duncan-Tony Parker-Barry troika combined for just 16 points, Barry said: "It's like putting whipped cream on s---." "
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.

Zastava_101

Once again, did Lakers deserve to win Game 1?

Spurs were up by 20 or so, game was tied in the last 60 seconds, and then two really bad calls from referees decided a winner.

LEO_06GT

Good call or bad call a good team would've found a way to keep the lead and not put the game in the officials hands. Especially if they know there's a consipiracy for them to lose. You'd figure that would be extra incentive.

Zastava_101

So how exactly then Lakers managed to lose +14 last night?

Lakers won 2 out of 3 games against Spurs thanks for referees.

Dick Bavetta and Joey Crawford - Lakers should retire your jerseys since you played a bigger part in Lakers' win over the years than Kobe, Shaq and any other player.