Heat vs. Cavaliers: Miami Was Robbed!

If there wasn’t so much to say about this issue, this might have been one of the shortest articles I would have ever written on this site. Not because I couldn’t elaborate for days upon what I’m saying. Not because there isn’t ample fodder for such a discussion. Certainly not because it’s a discussion that doesn’t need to take place; it does.

The reason for my possible brevity tonight?

I’m just too damn mad.

However, I wasn’t able to sum it all up in just a few sentences, and am glad, in a way; for it’s allowed me to vent a little, and my television (which might have gotten something thrown at it) is probably better off for it.

I’m not a fan given to whining about losses. I’m also not a fan given to screaming at the television set about all the bad calls I see. Furthermore, I’m definitely not the kind of fan who sees everything that’s called against his team as unfair, and everything that’s called against his team's opponents as being deserving.

In fact, I’ve sat and watched games with friends at times who are exactly that way, and have pointed out their mistakes in judgment to them.

I’m of the opinion (granted a very minority opinion it seems, listening to many fans) that a game isn’t worth winning if you don’t do it fairly.

This is precisely why when I see a player (even one on my team) attempt to fool the refs, I become disgusted with them. For instance, I’ve watched, at times, as receivers for the Dolphins (and other teams) have come up after attempting to catch a pass acting as if they’d caught it, when it was clear even without slow-motion replay that the ball had hit the ground and that they knew this.

Most fans would probably find nothing wrong in such an action; at least not if the player was on their team. I myself, however, look upon that as cheating, and a sickening display of unsportsmanlike conduct.

During my own playing days (I played Little League and Pony League baseball, high school b-ball and football, as well as a little b-ball in college), I never once tried to do such a thing. This wasn’t because I was some saint, but simply because my parents, especially my mother, instilled in me a sense of fairness and honesty.
Worse than an individual trying to cheat the game in this fashion, though, is when a crew of referees or officials do all they can to skew the results in favor of one team at the expense of the other.

Such is what happened last night in American Airlines Arena.

Throughout three quarters of play, the refs seemed determined to call fouls on the Heat and allow the Cavs to do whatever they liked.

Even with that, the game was fairly even, and the battle between the contest’s two biggest stars, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, were similarly drawn.

Entering that fourth quarter though, the Miami Heat players hadn’t yet tasted what the refs would be feeding them over the final 12 minutes.

Despite the Miami Heat jumping out to an 11-point lead in that quarter, and looking like they were going to run away with the game, the refs had other ideas.

Over a seven minute span, I personally counted twenty blatant fouls committed by Cavs players that the referees apparently were too blind to see. This was punctuated by a play where Miami had stolen the ball and Eric Spoelstra yelled out to Mario Chalmers to call a time out.

Chalmers dribbled to the left to cross the time-line and indicate the timeout to the ref. Once he’d crossed the time-line, LeBron James closed on him with the apparent intention of fouling him and did just that. As James was fouling him, Chalmers launched the ball toward the rim from nearly half-court, thinking the ref had just given Miami a timeout.

However, he was seriously mistaken. The referee hadn’t given him a timeout, and hadn’t called James for a foul either. The Cavs were able to rebound the long shot and run down the court against the obviously discombobulated Heat squad and launch a three-pointer by Mo Williams to bring Cleveland within three points of the Heat.

Now, of course Mario was partly at fault for not holding on to the ball until he was certain the ref had allowed the timeout. However, even if the ref wasn’t going to allow the timeout, the fact he allowed James to blatantly foul Chalmers with no call is a clear indication of what was going on in this game.
The Cleveland Cavaliers won the game, as I’m sure you have already figured out, beating Miami 107-100. LeBron James isn’t to be faulted for the refs glaring errors. His game was superb, as he ended the night with 42 points, eight rebounds, four assists, one steal, and one blocked shot.

Dwyane Wade also put out a Herculean effort in the game, scoring 41 points, grabbing seven boards, notching nine assists, blocking two shots, and garnering another career-high this time with seven steals. Yet, his efforts were all for naught, as the referees handed this game to the Cavs.

I haven’t seen a game’s officiating crew so blatantly hand a game to one team since Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic. That game had me convinced for nearly a decade that the NBA was fixed. I told this to everyone I knew, and believed it.

I'd come to hope, fighting my belief I held for nearly 10 years, that the NBA was no longer fixed, or that I may have been wrong in my earlier assessment. Last night’s game gave me grave pause in believing in that hope.

I don’t want to believe the game is fixed, despite the evidence my own eyes have seen over the years, and despite the case of NBA referee Tim Donaghy. However, I truly am becoming dismayed at the number of times I watch a game and see the refs blow calls a five-year-old could easily make.

Perhaps my bias toward my team, the Miami Heat, has gotten the better of me. Let’s hope so. For if not, then the game just wouldn’t be worth watching, and that would be a shame since there are so many talented players like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade I just love watching play ball. 

And yes, I understand Cavaliers fans, and many others, will simply take away from this article that I’m a whining Heat fan. I can only hope they don’t. For I’m not, and never will be. I will root for my team, but at the same time recognize that their own poor play is responsible for most of their losses.

Last night, however, was not one of them. Miami was robbed!