See the additional editorial notes at the end for more details about late postings and how they are not going to be a problem any longer.
FROM MAY 9, 2009, THE AFTER GAME THREE OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
Game Three was "won" by the Nuggets 106-105; the Nuggets took a 3-0 lead in the best of seven series with this win. However, the "win" was largely due to the referees' failure to call two obvious intentional, non-shooting fouls (in an obvious intentional foul situation) that Antoine Wright put on Carmelo Anthony with Dallas up by a bucket and only a few seconds left in the game. Dallas was not in the penalty; it had a foul to give, so had either of the fouls been called, Denver would have had to inbound with just 6 or 7 seconds left, and Dallas if they chose could have fouled again after the inbound and avoided any possibility of losing due to a made three.
After the referees failed to call either of the Wright fouls on Anthony, the actually fouled but officially not fouled Anthony made a slightly off balance three with five seconds left, giving Dever a 106-105 lead. Dirk Nowitzki's desperation 30-foot three was way off the mark, so Denver had come up with another totally unexpected and probably undeserved win, and now had a 3 games to 0 stranglehold on the series.
Later that evening, the NBA President later admitted that the referees blew the call, thus admitting that Dallas was denied the win or at least denied overtime in what was in effect an elimination game, because no team in the history of the NBA has ever won a series after going down 3 games to 0. So technically, the series was botched, although since Dallas probably should have narrowed the series to 2 games to 1 after game three.
For even more detail than that on what happened, you can check out the game recap at ESPN.
On the other hand, Quest for the Ring reluctantly but honestly admitted that Dallas probably still would have lost the series even if the series had been officially narrowed to 2 games to 1 in favor of Denver. Carmelo Anthony broke out of the box that George Karl has been trying to put him in and partially had him in during the 2008-09 regular season, and the old Carmelo Anthony was doing serious and largely unstoppable damage to the Dallas defense and their hopes to play the Lakers in the West final.
But probably is not definitely, and we will never know whether Dallas could have won the series against Denver, had they been awarded game 3, and had they won game 4 in Dallas, which they actually did, so that the series was 2-2 and now a best of three. Even in that scenario, Denver would probably have won. But not for sure.
Originally Posted by Thomas86
Ok so Howard grabs Billups arm and it's a foul and at the end of the Wright grabs Melo and no foul is called?....F*** David Stern and his "SuperStar" leauge, the Rockets or Lakers better watch out Beacuse Stern is gonna make sure he has a Melo vs. Lebron for the finals.
I was royally pissed off:
I can't quit watching games but I wish I could at this moment. No, on second thought, I can not wait until the Lakers defeat these Nuggets, who think they can win an NBA Championship by committing more fouls than any team ever did including the Pistons Championship teams. More generally, they think they can win an NBA Championship by using strategy right out of the Pittsburgh Steelers system for winning Super Bowls.
I have been saying "laugh out loud, Denver," to this scheme, but quite frankly I'm not going to be laughing anymore until the Lakers put this madness to rest. The Nuggets are attempting to change basketball at this point, to make it much more like football, to spoil it in other words, and I want it stopped.
I honestly think there will be at least several flagrant fouls in the LA/Denver series, and am half expecting a fight at this point. The Lakers will not be intimidated and they will not go down without a fight. They will not let Chris Andersen do whatever he wants, let alone Dahntay Jones (spelled it right). If these Nuggets want to fight, they will get a fight from the Lakers. Literally.
I will grant you that Denver was using more defensive skill and less fouling in games 1 and 2 than in many regular season games, but nonetheless, in game one, fouls just were not being called to any extent, period. Which made it impossible for Dallas to win. In game two, Dallas but not Denver was being called for too many touch fouls. Once again, it was impossible for Dallas to win that game.
Now as for game 3, this is the kind of game that needs to be watched probably three times from start to finish before making many summary judgments. But having said that, I knew for a fact that the referees were going to go much harder on the Nuggets in Dallas than they were on them in Denver. Because the refs might as well not have been there in Denver.
They obviously did stand up for the game more in game 3. However, even so, the game apparently gets decided on some bizarre non-call. And an even more bizarre decision by Dallas not to run out the clock? I just saw the play by play, which seems to indicate that, but I can’t believe it, so did it really happen? I mean, if you have the lead with less than 24 seconds left, you are supposed to wait to get fouled and then make your free throws.
What an ugly, stupid game that was. How many fouls would the Nuggets need to beat the Lakers? 60 fouls a game? Yes, it would be about that many, with only half of them called.
Just screw George Karl and Denver at this point. Trying to win a Championship while basically disrespecting the game of basketball, by for example having no offense separate from the defense. Denver, you would still be a punk franchise compared to Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Antonio, Houston, many others even if you did win a damn Championship, which you will not.
Go back to the ABA if you want to play basketball as if it was football.
FROM MAY 10, 2009, THE DAY AFTER GAME THREE OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
Originally Posted by MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs
George Karl's never had any class.
I was still royally pissed at Dallas being denied the likely win (overtime
at home at a bare minimum) so I pounced on the opportunity to go after Karl:
Every year he comes up with new ways to screw with the world of basketball.
Here's another classless thing Karl did earlier this season. In interviews with the Denver Press, he created the false impression that it was a real good thing for Denver that Allen Iverson was traded for Chauncey Billups, because Chauncey is a much better point guard than is Allen Iverson. Trouble is, Iverson seldom played point guard for the Denver Nuggets; it was Anthony Carter most of the time.
If you are a true basketball fan, you know that Iverson has been mostly a 2-guard in the NBA, due to Larry Brown.
So the main part of his statement, that it was a good trade, was true. But the reason was a lie. So overall, it was a lie.
Why did Karl lie in order to try to blame Iverson for the Nuggets' lacking offense last year, which resulted in a monumental blowout loss to the Lakers? Easy, Karl wanted to make sure that no one would ever even think of criticizing him for how bad the Denver offense was last year, when it was actually mostly his fault.
Now this year, apparently knowing he doesn't know how to coach playoff offense, or worse still, thinking it is not needed, he has come up with this scheme where the Nuggets offense is completely based on the fast breaks and in transition automatic scores coming off of uncalled fouls, long rebounds, and steals.
This is classless too, because although as long as the referees are not calling a lot of fouls, you can pound on the teams that are about as good as you are by doing this, you can not possibly beat the better teams such as LA and Cleveland by doing this. The Nuggets are still looking at a 4-0 sweep by the Lakers, or 4-1 at best.
Added Nov. 2009:
The Lakers, who seemed to be taking their responsibility to win a Ring (assuming Cleveland would blow it against Orlando in a lackadaisical way, because had Cleveland had the right formula to beat Orlando, they could probably have used it to beat LA also) took longer to win every one of their West Conference series than they should have. So the West Final was Lakers 4 Nuggets 2. However, before you think I made a gross mistake by saying "4-1 at best," consider also that the Nuggets were eliminated by being routed out of their own building, 119-92, a 27 point virtual humiliation.
Much more bizarre than how long it took the "we'll get around to winning when we're good and ready" Lakers to win two of their three West series was how the Nuggets organization reacted to being blown out in an elimination game in their own building. There were still claims that the Nuggets were actually better than the Lakers! And there were claims (based on God only knows what) that in 2010 the Nuggets would in fact defeat the Lakers for the West crown.
I don't know, were the Nuggets literally drunk because they had finally won a playoff series for the first time since 1994, when they defeated George Karl's SuperSonics 3 games to 2 in an 8th seed versus 1st seed mega upset? Or were they just making sure that out of misplaced adoration for him that George Karl would not have to answer for being blown out of his own building in an elimination game in the West Final?
In any event, George Karl survived another year with pretty good public standing, despite his inability to formulate and/or his disdain for using some strategy and tactics for pro basketball offense in NBA playoff games.
========== Editorial Notes ==========
--The above was written in early May, 2009.
--As promised, we are finally posting material written and posted on forums in the spring. Obviously, if you have your own site, you should be posting at least simultaneously on your own site when you for whatever reason post elsewhere. But there has been a bad habit of not doing so, a bad habit that is being beaten down due to new content sharing regulations that have teeth.
========== VIDEO PLAYERS ==========
DALLAS MAVERICKS 2009 MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER
iDesktop.tv
DENVER NUGGETS 2009 MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER
iDesktop.tv
