Jack’s Blog

Throughout the years, the Lakers and the Celtics have played in some of the most memorable NBA finals.  Whether the 2010 version goes down in history as memorable, it certainly will be at the top of the list of “hardest to figure out.”

The series started out looking like a possible Lakers’ sweep, not surprising since it matched the #1 seed from the West against the #4 seed from the (weaker) East - even if Boston did eliminate the Cleveland Cavaliers, owners of the best record in the NBA.  In truth, Cleveland had a great deal to do with its own elimination. 

In Game One, the story line was simple: Kobe Bryant was unstoppable and the Lakers were unbeatable.  Much was made of Kobe’s amazing focus (this blogspace included), ignoring Chris Rock’s antics even after the game had pretty much been decided.

Then came Game Two and Kobe struggled to get anything to go down while Ray Allen set an NBA playoffs record by making eight (out of nine) three-pointers.  The Celtics, displaying remarkable resiliency and an incredible talent for dealing with adversity,  bounced back to win the game and take home court advantage.  With the 2-3-2 format, the question became “Would the Celts be celebrating on their home court?” 

Game Three in Boston saw the home team jump out early to a commanding lead (if there can be such an animal in the first quarter of an NBA game), only to go totally flat for the rest of the game.  Hero Ray Allen looked as though he was kidnapped in Southern California and replaced by some fraud bearing a remarkable resemblance.   Going scoreless, the only consolation Allen could take was shooting a combined 8-17 from three over the course of two games.  He went 0-13 overall and the Lakers were back in control.

With pundits and fans wondering how in the world Boston could even make the series interesting, the Celtics did nothing to contradict them, displaying an inability to run any kind of an effective offense.  Actually, they got good shots, but continually missed them.  Down by three at halftime, it was the feeling of anyone who’s ever been involved in a back-to-the-wall situation that the Celtics would turn to their veterans.  These were the guys who got them here and these were the guys who were going to pull them through.

They were pulled through, but it was their bench who did nearly all the heavy lifting - namely Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Nate (act like a big baby) Robinson.  Kobe knocked down 33, but other than Pau Gasol, the Lakers’ point production was non-existent.  Even the referees contributed to this confusion.  Granted, the guys in the striped shirts have an impossible job, especially with the “game within the game,” i.e. complaining on every call - and non-call (see my 5/26/10 blog).  However, technological progress, in the name of instant replay, has made the referees look even worse (although most of the replays show the zebras got it right, but nobody remembers those - right, Jim Joyce)?

Early in the third quarter, one of the officials whistled Kevin Garnett for a three second violation.  The Celtics had rebounded a Laker miss, advanced the ball upcourt and threw a lob pass to the posting KG.  The replay showed the shot clock at 20 seconds when the call was made, meaning it took the Celts only one second to cross midcourt.  Later on (1:17 to go in the game, to be exact) with the Celtics up six, Kobe Bryant rotated perfectly and was planted outside the restricted area when he took a charge on Paul Pierce.  That was the way the instant replay saw it but not the way the referee called it.  So, instead of the Lakers with the ball, down six, the Celts got an “and one,” effectively ending the game.

The way the series has been going, it was inevitable for Boston to win.  After seeing the heroics of Derek Fisher in Game Three and Robinson and Davis last night, no less an authority on NBA playoff basketball than Magic Johnson exclaimed:

“This has been a great and exciting series, but normally, it’s the SUPERSTARS who win the game in the fourth quarter.  In my 30 years in the NBA, I’ve never seen anything like it.  It’s crazy.”

By now, everybody who knows anything about baseball is aware that umpire Jim Joyce made the wrong call on a bang-bang play at first base in the Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Indians game last night.  Unfortunately for Joyce - and more so for Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga, it came with two outs in the ninth and Galarraga working on a  PERFECT GAME!  Jason Donald (Buchanan High School’s pride and joy) hit a ground ball to the right side and hustled his way down the line.  Replays show that the throw, cleanly caught by Galarraga, beat Donald to the bag.

Joyce, regarded by, seemingly one and all, as a great umpire - with 22 years of big league experience - admitted that while he was convinced Donald beat the throw, after watching the replay, he realized he kicked the call.  Because not only did he cost the Tigers’ righty a perfect game, but a no-hitter as well.  He then, uncharacteristically for an umpire, sought out both Galarraga and Tigers’ skipper, Jim Leyland, and apologized.  Apparently, umpires have a sense of a game’s history and Joyce fully understood he had just altered the course of baseball’s.

A few thoughts come to mind.  One, as the title of this blog states, how would people feel if the call was “out” (putting a perfecto in the record books), but the replay showed the runner was safe?  My bet?  Not nearly the anger that’s occurred by Joyce’s missing it in the manner he did.  Maybe it’s human nature but I think we’d rather see someone get rewarded for an outstanding accomplishment that wasn’t quite so great as it seemed than that person be deprived of what, for all intents and purposes, is a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment.  Yet, the impact is still the same - it didn’t happen as it should have.

As always in situations such as these, people are ready to make wholesale changes, in the name of correcting such a blatantly egregious error.  “We need instant replay!  Go back and change that call.  Galarraga shouldn’t lose out on a perfect game because the umpire blew a call.”  While I understand the angst of the offended people, (no one more than Galarraga himself who has reconciled in his mind that he threw a perfect game), what if that identical call was made in the first inning, e.g. same situation, runner called safe when the replay showed he was out and then, even before the next pitch, the pitcher picks off the baserunner (to avoid all the “well the order of the lineup changed, the game wouldn’t have been the same, . . .”).

Should we go back and say, “That was a perfect game” (or a no-hitter because those don’t come so easily either) “and needs to be corrected!”  There are simply too many what-ifs to consider.  This wasn’t the first time a call was blown - and it had a major effect on a game.  For one, think about Don Denkinger’s call in the 1985 World Series which had a whole lot more of an impact on baseball history than Joyce’s blunder. 

When players would complain about poor officiating, I used to tell them:

“There are three factors that make up a game: players, coaches and officials and of the three, the officials usually make the fewest mistakes.” Â