Attacking the Boards: Bad Officiating in the NBA

New Orleans 111 - Los Angeles Lakers 115 (OT): Chris Paul was money in this game and, had it not been for two terrible foul calls against him, would have led the Hornets to an impressive win on the Lakers home court.

With about 20 seconds left in regulation, Paul was charged with a foul when Fisher was clearly blocking the basket. That gave the Lakers the ball down 3 instead of giving Paul 2 shots and a chance to put the game away.

Derek Fisher would hit a three to tie the game and CP3 missed a jumper that would have ended. So on to overtime we went. 

With about a minute and a half left in OT, Kobe and Paul scrambled for a loose ball. During the scramble the two tangled legs and the foul was called on Paul, his sixth of the contest.

However, a second look via replay clearly showed Bryant pushing Chris down, meaning the foul should have been called on him and Hornets lost their best player.

Even without Paul in the game for the final minutes, New Orleans almost came up with the win, but when James Posey missed a potential game-tying three, it was all over.

Paul finished with 21 points, 16 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals, while shooting 8-for-16 from the field.

Rasual Butler was the high point man for the Hornets, scoring 31 with 6-for-8 shooting from downtown. James Posey and David West also had double-doubles, Posey had 17 points and 10 boards off the bench and West had 16 points and 16 rebounds.

Even with all of these excellent performances, the Hornets can still play better basketball. They are still without big man Tyson Chandler, who is being replaced by Sean Marks and Hilton Armstrong.

Marks had just three points and three boards, but he did have two critical blocks. Those numbers coming off the bench are perfect for the Hornets, but they need more out of a starter.

The other center in the committee actually got hurt during this game, and at the time it looked like a knee injury.

The Hornets’ usually reliable deep threat in Peja Stojakovic was also a problem in this game. Peja was an abysmal 2-for-11 from the field and 1-for 8 from 3-point land.

Kobe Bryant had a game-high 39 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. Lamar Odom continued his ridiculous production while filling in for Andrew Bynum with 12 points and 17 boards. Pau Gasol was his normal self, contributing 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Cleveland 111 - Milwaukee 103: LeBron James obviously wanted the spotlight off of the two (Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant) of his teammates from Team USA who were getting all of the attention.

James went out and dropped 55 on the Bucks while also grabbing five rebounds and dishing out nine assists.

This performance was not one of those, “Oh well, he was playing the Bucks. My mom could drop 55 on them” scenarios.

Granted Milwaukee is missing Andrew Bogut, Luke Ridnour, Michael Redd, and their mascot, but King James was hot from beyond the arch all night long, making everything from straight up threes to runners while off-balance.

James finished 8-for-11 from downtown, but for some reason, the game was close. It might be because Mo Williams was the only other Cav to do something in this game, scoring 23 points, or it might be because six Bucks were in double figures.

Charlie Villanueva had the team high for points, rebounds and assists with 26, 13, and six. Speaking of Villanueva, Charlie was ejected from the game after grabbing the Big Z’s throat when Ilgauskas stuck up for his teammate Anderson Varejao.

Orlando 92 - Charlotte 80: After dropping 45 on the Bobcats during their last match-up, Dwight Howard let his teammates do some of the work in this one.

Superman finished with 13 points, 16 boards and 6 blocks.

The Magic’s forwards really won this game for them. Hedo Turkoglu had 24 points and 7 rebounds and Rashard Lewis had 18 points on 5-of-9 three point shooting. However, there was a scary moment involving Lewis in this one.

While going up for a block, Howard accidentally hit Rashard in what looked like his eye. Not much is known about the injury at this time.

New addition Rafer Alston didn’t have a very good night shooting the ball, going 1-for-9 from the field for three points, but he did have eight assists and three steals coming off the bench.

The Bobcats were led by a very underrated Emeka Okafor’s 13 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Raymond Felton also had an all-around game, scoring 16 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out five assists.

Oklahoma City 118 - Phoenix 140: For the third straight game under new head coach Alvin Gentry, the Suns put up at least 140 points. But this time it wasn’t Amar’e, who may be out for the year, dropping 40, it was Leandro Barbosa.

Depending on the line-up, Barbosa is usually a 2 guard, when Nash is in the game, or a point guard Nash is out. Tonight he did a little bit of both, and he scored 41 points doing so.

Barbosa also added seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals to make his already monstrous stat column that much more impressive.

Jason Richardson, who went airborne to deliver a nice 360 slam at one point in the game, scored 34 to go along with five boards, three assists, two steals and a block. The Shaqtus barely missed a double-double after scoring 22 points and gaining nine rebounds.

As usual, the Thunder were led by one of the best young talents in the league, Kevin Durant. Durant had 34 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals in the loss.

New York Knicks 127 - Toronto 97: Nate Robinson has really stepped up his game since his appearance in the slam dunk contest. Tonight, his closing act was stuffing 6′10″ power forward Chris Bosh.

In addition to that block, KryptoNate had 26 points, five rebounds, seven assists and a steal off the bench. David Lee also continues to put up gaudy numbers, going 9-for-16 from the field for 24 points and 15 rebounds.

Guard Joey Graham had a team high 19 for the Raptors and newly acquired forward Shawn Marion had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Houston 93 - Dallas 86: Well, it looks like the Rockets made the right move after all. When they traded point guard Rafer Alston, they were handing the team over to Aaron Brooks for him to run.

With just 24 seconds left in the ball game, Brooks rose up with a three ball and drained it to give the Rockets a six-point lead. Aaron finished with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting (3-of-5 from 3) to go along with six rebounds, eight assists, and two steals.

Yao Ming also came up big in this one, scoring 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to help the Rockets over the undersized Mavericks. Luis Scola had 15 points and 15 boards in the contest.

The problem for the Mavs was their inability to get their superstar Dirk Nowitzki involved in the offense. Dirk finished with just nine points and 11 rebounds.

On the bright side, Dallas’ back-up point guard Jose Juan Barea scored a career high 26 points while gaining four rebounds, five assists and two steals to lead the Mavs.

Other Finals:

Indiana 112 - Minnesota 105

Washington 107 - New Jersey 96

Sacramento 115 - Memphis 106

Denver 99 - Chicago 116

Atlanta 98 - Portland 108