I just looked at the PbP, because I thought the deep bench had been scoring late, but it appears you're right. Interesting note though, 9 of the Spurs' 16 free throws happened after the deep bench came in with a little over 3 minutes remaining. All of the Thunder's 31 FTs came before that point.
The absolute overreactions to these playoff games is unbearable Do people not realize that teams have to lose....? No one predicted a sweep, so if you said Spurs in 5, 6 or 7 then that requires them to lose. They lost last night, but lets not act like the series is over. The same goes for the Thunder, when SA was up 2-0, I knew this was far from over. I had Spurs in 7, I think they lose tomorrow night to, and im sure the media will be unbearable when that happens.
It obviously doesn't affect the winner or loser of the game, but it's been really bad this series. Aside from some free throws, they could hardly hit a shot in Game 3. Few good looks, some turnovers mixed in... Same story in Games 1 and 2. Bonner hasn't scored a point this series, despite playing in garbage time all 3 games. Game 3 took the cake, late free throws aside. For the first three minutes after the end of the bench came in, they scored exactly 2 points. 6:07Cory Joseph enters the game for Tony Parker82-99 6:07Thunder Full timeout 6:07Matt Bonner enters the game for Kawhi Leonard82-99 6:07Aron Baynes enters the game for Tim Duncan82-99 6:07Marco Belinelli enters the game for Manu Ginobili82-99 6:0782-99Derek Fisher enters the game for Kevin Durant 5:52Aron Baynes makes dunk (Cory Joseph assists)84-99 5:37Matt Bonner shooting foul (Serge Ibaka draws the foul)84-99 5:3784-100Serge Ibaka makes free throw 1 of 2 5:37Jeff Ayres enters the game for Danny Green84-100 5:3784-100Serge Ibaka misses free throw 2 of 2 5:35Marco Belinelli defensive rebound84-100 5:22Marco Belinelli misses 17-foot jumper84-100 5:22Spurs offensive team rebound84-100 5:18Cory Joseph misses 16-foot jumper84-100 5:1684-100Steven Adams defensive rebound 4:5884-102Reggie Jackson makes driving layup 4:41Steven Adams blocks Aron Baynes 's 12-foot shot84-102 4:3984-102Russell Westbrook defensive rebound 4:1884-102Russell Westbrook misses 25-foot three point jumper 4:16Aron Baynes defensive rebound84-102 4:09Cory Joseph lost ball turnover (Russell Westbrook steals)84-102 4:0584-102Russell Westbrook misses layup 4:0384-102Russell Westbrook offensive rebound 4:0184-104Russell Westbrook makes layup 3:41Aron Baynes bad pass (Serge Ibaka steals)84-104 3:2184-104Derek Fisher misses three point jumper 3:20Matt Bonner defensive rebound84-104 3:1684-104Russell Westbrook personal take foul (Cory Joseph draws the foul) 3:1684-104Jeremy Lamb enters the game for Serge Ibaka 3:1684-104Hasheem Thabeet enters the game for Russell Westbrook 3:1684-104Perry Jones enters the game for Steven Adams
You do realize that the Spurs deep bench was playing against the starters and second rotation of OKC in the sequence you just posted, right? What exactly did you expect them to do?
yeah, you're right about that. It probably is unfair to expect them to do well when OKC still hadn't pulled the starters. But if you go back to Games 1 and 2 they weren't particularly effective and I think OKC had pulled its starters in those cases.
I agree, I hate when people overreact. (those posts came after Vince Carter hit that 3 in Game 3 to put the Mavs up 2 games to 1)
You're correct about your second point, I'd like them to run the score up a bit, though Pop isn't a grandstander in those situations and prefers to run as much clock as possible, which could explain the low percentage shots. Run the clock long and take a shot. I've seen that a lot. Have you looked at the stats for those players in the regular season?
I didn't watch the game, but Foster is unpredictable. Definitely has a quick tech call, but overall he doesn't lean too favorably to home or away teams. http://www.basketball-reference.com/referees/fostesc99r.html Over the last 4 playoff years though he has leaned favorably to the home team on FTA.
So.for the starters and second rotation, 31-7 is simply leaning favorably? I'm not as annoyed about the foul count as I am about how the Spurs played, and I think the foul count would have been different if the Spurs had gotten hot at any point in the second half... ...but it's hard not to believe that refs calling touch fouls for one team and barely calling hard fouls for the other wouldn't affect the playing tempo for the first team if they are finesse, and not aggression.
Overall Foster doesn't lean favorably. Recent playoffs he has an edge to towards the home teams in FTA compared to the average. I wasn't clear, I wasn't just commentating on that game, but on Foster as a playoff ref in general. Well the foul count was close looking at the box score. I don't know how the game played out, but I would guess not getting calls would impact a team negatively. Westbrook shot 0 free throws game 2, I'm sure that played into him getting frustrated and forcing things like contact. Teams always complain if they feel like they aren't getting calls so I'm sure the teams that let it bother them play even worse. They say refs favor the aggressor which I think is partially true and why we see favorable calls coincide with runs teams make. Like in the Heat/Pacers game, one quarter the Heat jumped into the penalty real early in the quarter while the Pacers went on a run. Next quarter as the Heat make a run calls start leaning towards them. The thing that could really help figure out refs is assigning each call to the specific ref who called it. The stats in the basketball reference link, I believe it refers to all fouls made by Foster's crew. It's harder to see if there is a bias or favoritism if the crew is balancing Foster out.
Did you say the overreactions? In a nutshell: ESPN. The NBA 1st round playoffs were competitive and entertaining (FIVE "game 7's"), followed by a dog of a 2nd round (OKC vs LAC, Mia-Bkn, etc.) so ESPN's trying to make up for it by going the extra yard during the "semi's" by following up their game coverage with extra Sportscenter post-game fluff. Me??……why ESPN now has me at the edge of my seat wondering: - what type 'faux geek' glasses will Westbrook and/or Durant sport for their post-game presser? - will 'Lebron' … i.e. 'Lahbron' have a (non)reaction to Stephenson saying essentially 'nothing' while ESPN tries to sell a "box of rocks" non-story? - who 's balls (Lebron or K.D.) will "Stephen A." be swirling 'round his mouth like a pair of Chinese baoding balls-in-hand? LGR!
No birdman for tonight's game 4. I think Indy takes this one or keeps it relatively close to the end where Miami might edge it out. Just hope this ends what has been a great Memorial Day so far!!! Let's start it up
Normally when the Heat play the Spurs, my brother in law calls him Labia since he's such a pussy about fouls.
