Goaltending? Seriously?
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Our friends at the Orlando Sentinel have a lengthy piece today based on the notion that the series would be tied if not for the referees missing a goaltending call against Pau Gasol of the Lakers on the blown layup by the Magic's Courtney Lee at the buzzer of regulation in Game 2. Actually, when I saw the headline, I thought it was a story about the hockey playoffs. Goaltending? Really? Seriously? I've seen the replay of Lee's miss a couple of times on the teevee this morning and I see Gasol flick the net, but that's a call for a high school game. That's my opinion. What do you guys think?
Gasol flicked the net? How about the shot Dwight Howard blocked with his hand THROUGH THE RIM? Did that obvious infraction get called by the refs? Next thing they'll be complaining about is it was too humid in Florida to play basketball in June. If only it was a bit cooler, maybe the Magic could then beat the Lakers.
I saw when Dwight Howard put his hand through the basket and there was no call.I was stunned.On the Courtney Lee missed shot the only focus should be on how badly the shot was missed as Gasol never had any effect on the play whatsoever.Touching the net is not a goaltend.
The way i see it, the missed goaltending call on Howard and the missed goaltending call on Gasol is even Steven. And that still gives the Lakers an overtime victory in game 2. It's funny how everything evens itself out.
"but that's a call for a high school game"
Precisely the place these referees are hired from.
Game 2 should not have needed to go into overtime anyway. It wasn't even that the Lakers needed to make adjustments in the 2nd half. It's that they had trouble fighting thru Orlando's moving screen. I can't believe the refs only called illegal defense twice against the Magic when they were doing it the whole game.
Yet, early in the game if you watch closely, one of the other shots, Dwight Howard goaltended. So, it would have been tied either way. You can not point fingers at this point anyway.