Uneven Calls Help Swing Miami Heat's Game Five Win over Boston Celtics

Am I the only one who watches the officiating in NBA games and feels like they’re in a social experiment, as if scientists in lab coats are watching me from the next room, wondering how I’ll react to the inexplicable discrepancies in foul calls?

Or maybe there’s a team of one-eyed aliens observing me from the mothership, holding clipboards in their tentacles.

“Surely, Gleepglop, when he sees the same hack being called a foul for the squad in white, yet a consistent no-call for the green team, our cover will be blown.”

“I don’t think so, Muckluck.  We made it through the Donaghy fiasco undiscovered, and the Stern-bot is still an effective decoy.”

Yes, the Boston Celtics had an epic collapse in Game 5 of their series against the Miami Heat, and yes, LeBron James was a gigantic stud down the stretch. 

But that whole stretch run was set up by a succession of calls by referees that had to leave some fans other than just me scratching their heads.

With 2:34 left, Paul Pierce drove the lane and appeared to be fouled the exact same way that Wade had all game while accumulating 15 free throw attempts.  No call.  LeBron then came down and drained a trey to give Miami the lead.

Then, with 1:52 left, Jeff Green took it to the hole and was hit. Again, no foul was called.  Miami gets the rebound, James hits another three, game over.

Now, granted, what transpired immediately before and after those plays looked like an old team running out of gas while one of the best players in the game drove dagger after dagger into their crumbling hopes.

And maybe those calls would have just made it a six-point loss rather than 10.

But making those calls fundamentally changes the way the end of the game is played.  If it’s a one-possession game, Boston doesn’t need to jack threes, and Miami can’t just guard the line and jump the perimeter passes.

More importantly, in the game, the Heat went to the line a ridiculous 38 times, compared to 20 for the Celtics.  You could counter this by saying that maybe they were more aggressive attacking the basket, but even a cursory glance at a shot chart for the game shows that to be untrue.

Without a 26-14 edge in free throws made, Miami doesn’t win, even with the big comeback.

By now you may be thinking I’m a sour grapes Celtics fan.  Nope.  I HATE them.  Hate, hate, hate the green.

But I hate bad refereeing worse.

The national media will focus on the 16-0 run that ended the game and once again ignore the story that atrocious calling impacts games. Just ask any Sacramento Kings fan what happened in 2002.