Through 5

Great piece by Simmons on the refs on ESPN.com today. I agree with most of it. One exception was last night's game against the Nuggs. I thought it was the best officiated game of the series. Maybe that's because Game 4 was the worst, but with a few exceptions, I thought it was pretty fair. Were there a couple of bad calls on Nene? Yeah. Although his sixth could have been judged a block (and was) depending on the ref's angle. As it turned out, it was a bad call. Did Luke Walton foul out on a bunch of bad calls the game before? Sure. But you can chalk that up to home court to a certain sense. In a way, Game 5 was the first home game I thought the Lakers received more calls, got some home cooking. That happens. That's part of one's home court advantage.

But of all people, George Karl complained about last night's game while weasily saying he didn't want to complain. Specifically, he and Simmons mentioned all the times Melo got hacked. As if the Nuggets haven't been grabbing and clawing at the Lakers in the paint. Several times last night Kobe went to the rim and was unrewarded by the officials. That's ok by me. He gets too many calls to begin with. But the refs have treated Melo with kid gloves in every single game prior to last night. And he still took 13 foul shots. I know that's part of his MO. Be aggressive, drive to the hole, draw fouls but Game 5 was the fourth straight game where he shot double-digit free throws and two of those have been on the Lakers home court. And in Game 1, the only game he didn't shoot at least ten FTs (he had 8 in a game where he was 14-20 from the field), the Nuggets went to the line 35 times to the Lakers 24. Add in the terrible no call on JR Smith's jump ball violation in Game 2 and I'd say Denver has had it pretty good in this series. If anybody has been given calls it's them. If Chauncey Billups runs into you and falls down it's always a call. His four-point play against Kobe in Game 3 was an awful call.

As LO pointed out this was probably the Lakers best game of the playoffs. And it wasn't because Kobe and Pau dominated and the offense flowed. It was beacuse they scrapped and played D at the rim. They put in the effort and it paid off. One more effort like that and they'll be playing for the title.

Still, one thing scares me about the officiating and that's this 7 techs equals a suspension rule. It's a horrible rule and it just might cost either Kobe or Dwight Howard a game down the line. I can't speak to how dumb the league would look if one of their marquee guys couldn't suit up for an NBA Finals game because he had too many techs in the playoffs. About as dumb as they looked in the Phoenix-SA series two years ago. People want to see the stars and teams at full strength. I don't know why Denver doesn't have Jason Hart enter the game and try and mug Kobe and get him mad. Thankfully, the L rescinded Howard's sixth T after Varejao tackled him on the way to the basket and I think the league will do everything it can not to let one of these two superstars miss a game. But you never know. Just ask Amare.