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Of course. In Boston, it looked as if the refs were favoring the Celts and not calling fouls on players who hacked Kobe.
Then you have people like GhosTown (see his posts on the "Rivers... 2-3-2 format" article) who allege that Game 3 in LA was "FIXED".
If anything, the Boston games were fixed, not the one in LA. At least the one in LA appeared to be more balanced and objective.
Anyway, let's leave aside any accusations from both sides, and chalk it up to the hometown naturally tending to get more calls in their direction.
The point is, unlike what GhosTown says, the games in LA CANNOT be fixed when the head coach himself is calling for a chance in the referee organization.
- JL

jackson thinks the refs are out to get him. however the donaghy fieasco has raised a whole lot more questions than solved. if yao was targeted was van gundy fined because stern wanted to stop the second amendment...freedom of speech? stern has a lot of answers he needs to give. spector should be barking up this tree not belicheat.

when it gos his way he does not complain

pat riley is the best coach

Pat Riley is very good. Just too intense sometimes.

pat is a good coach just these young kids can't handel being treated like that . all they know is people kiss their butts since they were in 6th grade. they tend to get mad when told they are not the man.

I agree with Jackson and I am not a fan of the lakers, Go celtics

i like the idea of the refs being seperate from the NBA but lakers fans they ar e not talking about this series bing fixed but when you beat the kings some how

Some of the non calls when Lebron was getting hacked by the Celtics were puzzling... I take that back they were not puzzling they were obvious calls that went uncalled. Cleavland would ahve beat the Celtics but im sure the NBA did not want to see that happen.

they might need an instant replay or as Jackson suggested officials governed by a separate entity. I do not even see why officials need to be on the floor. For all I care they can each be in a Video room with massive HD screens with tons of angles.

The Lakers were robbed in game 1 and 2 of calls but it is also their fault for not asserting themselves and making the calls mosre obvious to expose the refs. No need to complain to the refs jsut shrug your shoulders with a "what was that??" expression and in time things will change

Dolphinatik. I think the NBA would be drooling if LeBron beat the Celtics. They could deem him the next Michael Jordan for taking down such a power house single handedly.

Understand that in MOST sports the Refs are held accountable not by the league but by thier own Reffing offices. NFL records and shows the refs the screw ups after every game. Not an NFL mandated thing, With all the doubt with the refs in the NBA, why not? if you screw up so many times, your not going to ref, Joey Crawford comes to mind.

Not really, ArmyOfOne.
Think about it. The league gets to market an entire matchup concept that has a proven success formula from past years. Look at all the ads for this year's Finals - they were painstakingly prepared to draw on people's nostalgia from the 80's rivalry.
More importantly, they had to take time to prepare them in advance of the actual Finals, meaning that they were drooling over the prospect of it.
The LeBron-MJ marketing scheme takes a back seat for 3 reasons:
- Just as LeBron is an individual player icon, so is Kevin Garnett (and Paul Pierce, to a degree).
- The matchup already features Kobe Bryant as an MJ-type player.
- LeBron James is still very young, and the league will (most likely) have more chances to market him in the Finals in coming years. Not so with Garnett.
Besides, LeBron had his moment in the Finals limelight last year, and the ratings plummeted. The league would likely want a change in teams this year.
- JL

Looks like flopping was an attempt by the players to "make" the refs do their jobs. Now players will be fined. They've got to allow coaches to challenge a foul call before the fouls shots are taken and, if the coach is correct his team gets the ball. If he's wrong he loses a timeout or two points if not timeouts are left.

Jackson had no complaints last night now did he? If Pierce had scored his usual 20, and the Lakers had lost, wonder what the excuse would have been then.

If thats the best LA can do on their own court with Pierce and Garnett shooting the way they did, LA's in trouble.

This ref is talking it up to get a deal and lesser senetence. Believe nothing this ref says about anything. I guess it is time or new witch hunts in basketball??!! Pathetic.

for..

Phil is right. Officials need to fall under a separate umbrella.

If thats the best LA can do on their own court with Pierce and Garnett shooting the way they did, LA's in trouble.

KPKahder - Salutes Mandy
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Actually KP, they did a lot of things well.

They played defense, they were aggressive in the paint, and they rebounded better.

They still needed over 30 from Kobe which means he can't have an off night and that's still a problem (since LA would need to win 3 more).

Garnett hasn't been an offensive juggernaut this series and Boston still won but it seems they can't overcome Garnett and Pierce having off games.