Fantasy Football

Given the unbelievable heap of garbage that is NFL news today, we’re going to do something slightly different and modify the site for at least today, if not the rest of the week. And when I say modify, I mean write about an entirely different sport. I guess our dark secret (as it pertains to this site at least) is that we probably prefer the NBA to the NFL. The NBA is much more laid back, enjoyable league that isn’t nearly as cantankerous as the NFL has grown to be in recent years. And with all the talk of how LeBron would fair in the NFL draft and the league itself, we figured we’d switch sports for a couple days.

That said, the issue of officiating has grown increasingly divisive. Some claim conspiracy theories (certain players and teams being favored), others incompetence (the majority of the referees are bumbling idiots), and some think everyone complaining about the officiating is much ado about nothing (though this seems to be a distinct minority). I fall probably in the middle, but since the ineptitude works both ways any impact is objective. But between Mark Cuban, Tim Donaghy, the 2006 NBA finals and the ever-growing divergence of officiating between the stars and utility players, no one can stand to lose a close game without pinpointing a series of or one specific foul call/no call at a pivotal point in the contest.

So what’s my point? Well, in all our nerd-dom, we decided that actually monitoring a couple of these games and breaking down ho the actual foul calls, penalty calls and missed/impressive non-calls. Overall, the results were about what we expected for an overtime game and while their were numerous eyebrow raises, they stayed pretty consistent. Which I think is what most players and coaches in the league ask for. For each call/non-call we broke them down into the categories with the following symbols:

Great non-calls (A foul would generally be called in the situation but the referee caught the lack of contact): 00
Legitimate calls/good non-calls (Exactly what it sounds like): 0
Questionable calls (Calls that an argument could be made either way for but looked suspicious): /
Atrocious calls (fouls and called penalties that had no business being made): X
When the time on the call is bold and italicized, it means the call was obvious.

Mind you, this is completely subjective and many might have seen things differently (on one call in particular), but this wasn’t exactly Kobe Doin’ Work, we were limited to the camera angles TNT offered us, and the majority of the time these plays were considered innocuous so we seldom got replays. Also, we wrote this while watching the game last night and not only did we not have time for any editing, we didn’t think we’d be posting this anywhere in public, so we apologize for any typos.

1^st Quarter

11:40- Defensive three seconds called. Legitimate, but it didn’t stop everyone from flinching when they heard the whistle. 0

10:34- Turkoglu called for foul on James. Ticky-tack to be sure but could have gone either way. /

10:11- Varejao called for foul on Howard, didn’t get replay but was from behind, looked like a love-tap on the arm if anything. /

9:25- Williams draws foul on Alston with pump-fake. Legitimate but that didn’t stop Alston from looking like he might smack someone in the head. 0

7:20- Legitimate defensive three second call. 0

7:04- Questionable back court foul on Williams. /

6:47- Questionable foul call on Illgauskas on Howard, it looked like all the hand got was the ball, but it was from behind. /

6:31- Good no call on Howard after blocking James. 0

5:00- Good no call on Howard when altering Illgauskas’ shot. 0

4:36- Great no call on Cleveland when collapsing on Howard on pick ‘n roll. 00

4:16- Awful touch foul called on Alston in back court on James. X

4:02- Highly questionable call on Anthony Johnson with light bump on Williams (they have history from game three). X

3:36- Light foul by Varejao on Johnson. /

3:00- Anthony Johnson called for foul on Williams in transition, complete and utter bullshit call. There was more contact in the body condom scene from Naked Gun. They’re clearly trying to keep these two apart. X

2:23- Good no call for Howard guarding Illgauskas in post. 0

1:17- Good no call on deflected pass by Wallace while guarding James. 0

1:11- Good call on James after Pietrus got him in the air on a pump fake, though Ray Charles caught that one. 0

:44- Good no call on Wallace defending hoop. 0

:00 Questionable when James drives on last play of half. /

1^st Quarter Tallies

· Great no calls: 1

Legitimate calls/good no calls: 9 (3 were obvious)

· Questionable calls: 6

· Atrocious calls: 3

2^nd Quarter

11:31- Really light foul call on Howard that cutter sold to ref. X

10:30- Good no call on back to back plays with Williams in transition. 0

10:10- Questionable foul call when West drives to hoop. Didn’t get replay which I’m pretty sure the NBA grandfathered in. /

9:55- Turkoglu should have been called for travel after dragging pivot foot. / (but only because I’m not 100% certain of my judgment).

8:24- We cut to commercial without getting a replay of an exceptionally peculiar call on Mo Williams with Anthony Johnson driving to hoop to complete an and-1. We can’t tell because it was on the opposite side of the camera. / (only because a lack of a replay, we’re pretty certain we would have agreed with a no-call there)

7:43- Legitimate call on Gortat with LeBron spinning to the hoop, though it looked like on the same play he held a smaller defender while going into the paint (wreaks of Jordan pushing off Russell). 0 /

7:03- Good blocking foul called on Gortat with Szczerbiak driving to basket on “and 1”. 0

5:55- Unidentifiable touch foul called on Szczerbiak guarding Turkoglu in post, no move was being made, the two players had yet to react to one another in isolation. / (Again, if we had a replay, we’re inclined to believe this would have been extremely subjective, but could have gone either way).

5:48- Terrible foul call when Turkoglu drives to basket on Illgauskas (claim body, looked incidental). X

5:06- Good no call on Varejao when Orlando loses control. 0

5:03- Terrible foul call on West after Alston steals it from behind. X

4: 30- Delonte West hit on elbow by Alston, we’ll buy it since TNT’s veiled camera angle is forcing us too. 0

3:20- Good no call on LeBron steal. 00

2:53- Claimed Pietrus tripped up LeBron, but it looked like Lebron tripped over himself reacting to a shitty pass from his teammate. /

2:10- Good call on Gibson undercutting Anthony Johnson after shooting a three while he was still in the air. 0

1:51- Pietrus called for foul he should have been called for five seconds beforehand on “and 1” when LeBron drives to hoop from post. 0

1:01- Terrible foul call on Szczerbiak when Lewis drives too hoop. X

:52- Good no call on errant alley-oop to James. 0

2^nd Quarter Tallies:

· Great no-calls: 1 (2)

· Legitimate calls/Good no-calls: 8 (3 were obvious) (17, 6)

· Questionable calls: 6 (12)

· Atrocious calls: 4 (7)

3^rd Quarter

11:22- Legitimate call with Howard spinning to hoop, couldn’t tell who it was on but he was mauled. 0

9:40- Good foul call on Howard when Lebron converts three point-play. 0

8:15- Good no call when West drives to hoop and makes layup. 0

6:46- Terrible foul call on Lee when Williams drives too, then away from hoop and shoots a desperate, running layup that he fades away from the and converts the three point-play on. X

6:28- Good no call when Illgauskas strips Howard and the ball falls out of bounds. 0

5:55- Good blocking call on LeBron. 0

5:44- Good no call on Varejao stripping Turkoglu at halfcourt. 0

5:35- Awful no call when Williams is fouled from behind on a three. X

4:32- Legit foul call from Howard when LeBron drives to hoop. 0

4:32- Terrible loose ball foul on Varejao after LeBron missed the free throw, though the camera angle was from the opposite baseline so I could be wrong, but we’ll take Colbert’s advice and go with our gut on this one. X

4:11- Varejao rapes Howard when Howard drives to basket. 0

4:11- Technical on Howard for gloating that might have been a little too protective of Anderson, but at the same time Varejao might have pulled a knife out if someone didn’t come to his defense. /

2:40- Good no call when Wallace successfully defends Howard in paint. 0

2:37- Questionable foul call when Williams looks to break away from defense. /

1:36- Really light foul call on West while guarding Turkoglu on perimeter. /

1:14- Goal-tending on Howard when Wallace throws up reverse layup he was going to miss either way. 0

:58- Good charging call on Pietrus when Wallace stands his ground. 0

3^rd Quarter Tallies

· Great no-calls: 0 (2)

· Legitimate foul calls/ good no-calls: 10 (5 were obvious) (27, 11)

· Questionable calls: 3 (15)

· Atrocious calls: 3 (10)

4^th Quarter

11:34- West commits hard foul on Pietrus driving baseline. 0

11:14- Questionable call that Wallace doesn’t complain about after a defensive rebound from Howard. /

9:26- They need to start doing partial seconds on the shot clock, Cleveland had no way of knowing how much time they had available. / (can’t really blame the officials, but you can blame the league for not using the available technology).

7:26- Good foul call on Lee when James drives to the hoop. I just realized he was still in the game. 0

7:17- Good no call on LeBron blocking Howard from behind. 00

6:37- Good no call on Alston defending Williams’ over-dribbling. 0

6:30- Legit foul call on Pietrus when James drives baseline after in-bounds. 0

3:51- Lebron called for kicking ball out bounds, claims it was on other team but we can’t discern either way. Naturally, as this seems to be the theme of the evening, we do not get a replay. Have to side with the refs on this one. 0

3:07- Varejao fouled on three point play by Turkoglu. 0

3:00- Lot of contact between West and Turkoglu, West poked it out and Turkoglu held him when retrieving it. Legitimate because no call was made on either play, both which could have been. 0

2:55- Turkoglu called for travel, Doug Collins agrees with the assessment, as do I. 0

2:44- James called for an elbow to Michel Pietrus. James probably wouldn’t have been called if he didn’t lean into him when he did it. Pietrus impresses everyone yet again by staying in game. 0

1:43- Legit foul call when Howard gets ball dumped to him in post and Varejao hacks him intentionally. 0

1:24- Good no call when West goes right at Dwight Howard. 0

1:05- LeBron is hacked when driving to hoop by Howard. 0

:6.4- Looks like Howard clobbers West on scramble for long rebound, any contact was incidental. Good no-call. 0

.5- Looks like LeBron trips over his own feet driving to the basket but it also looks like Howard has his arm wrapped around the right side of LeBron’s body (right under the armpit) that could have caused the tripping. Still, seems like some front-office influence is being had, but not enough for us to fully condemn it. /

4^th Quarter Tallies

·Great no-calls: 1(3)

·Legitimate calls/good no-calls: 12 (6 were obvious) (39, 17)

· · Questionable calls: 3 (18)

Atrocious calls: 1 (11)

Overtime

4:34- Legitimate foul call when Williams drives to hoop. 0

2:28- Probably the worst call of the game that sends Varejao to the bench, at least we know why he was letting Howard get three straight dunks that preceded the fouling out. X

:39.3- Question marks all around on James’ drive to the basket the was swatted by Howard, but he have caught a piece of James’ shooting hand while extending for the block. Lewis (who the foul was called on) had the lightest love tap imaginable on James’ off-arm. No idea how to score this so we’ll go with the back slash, which has replaced the question mark for the evening. /

:21- Good foul from Wallace on Howard and good call by refs. 0

:16.5- Jump ball called, and rightfully so. 0

:10- Good no call as Howard got back to the ground in time to avoid foul call. 00

:7.4- Illgauskas is fouled on long rebound from James’ missed three. 0

:6.4- Cleveland fouls Lewis intentionally. 0

:3.2- Lewis fouled intentionally. 0

Overtime Tallies

Great non-calls: 1

Legitimate calls/good no calls: 6 (5 were obvious)

Questionable calls: 1

Atrocious calls: 1

Final Tallies

·Great non-calls: 4

Legitimate calls/good no-calls: 46 (23 of which were obvious)

·Questionable calls: 18

Atrocious calls: 12

Throughout the game, there were 80 calls/non-calls that resulted in either a whisle being blown or the refs judgment. 63% of which we’re agreeable, unquestionable and in a few cases exceptional, 22% were borderline and an argument could be made against the refs decision, and 15% appeared completely unjustifiable.  That said, there was no favoritism too heavily for either team. Outside of Howard’s foul on LeBron with .05 left in regulation, none were really game-altering. If there was any bias it was for individuals and not for an entire team (namely LeBron and Howard). We’ll see on Thursday if playing in a deciding game for the home team in Cleveland effects the officiating.