Round 2, (2) Nuggets vs. (6) Mavs

I think I picked the Mavs in the bracket, but since I can't access it, I'm not sure.

Anyhoo, this could be an entertaining and competitive series, but I think the Nuggs get them.

If the Nuggs play like they did last round this one will be over in 5 too. With Dallas' style of play there would be a lot of fast break baskets of TO's for Denver if they are playing good D.

Denver matches up up with them well. Billups guards another big vet PG, so he won't be beat off the dribble much. Jones pestered Paul, so it should be easier to contain Terry. Melo has more size than Howard and should be able to post him up. Kmart will handle Dirk pretty well. Nene has much quicker feet than Dampier and should be able to out quick him at times. I really don't see any advantages for Dallas. Obviously Dirk is a handfull, but Kmart is one of the better on ball defenders.

and they got the birdman!

and JR Smith hates Cuban so...Nuggets in 5

Nugz>Mavs

At this stage I'm hoping for a Denver title.

Chauncey deserves it and I guess the rest of the Nugs do too...

Um, probably not - fuck 'em.

Chauncey deserves it enough for all of them, though

It's funny how the Mavs made the Spurs look old and slow, and now, they're the ones that look that way.

Great end to game 3. All the Mavs are flippin' out that foul wasn't called. I would ask this...If that shot bounces of the rim and they win the game will they still be complaining it wasn't called? No. The fact is you've gotta play through the whistle and if you wanna make sure you commit a foul then you've gotta do it like you mean it.

Mavs=done. Thank You.

Nuggs could really use Dice now vs the Lakers, damn he could have won a title there, the Nuggs are super hot right now, its possible...Chauncey is on his way to the HOF if he wins the tile this year with Denver

HOF for Chauncey? That's a big call - although having 2 rings would certainly help his case.

Are there any "establishment favourites" multi-time NBA Champs not in the Hall?

Mavs got robbed...who gives a fuck?

They didn't get robbed. Wright claimed he fouled Melo onpurpose, but then why did he not wrap him up like people do on intentional fouls? Why did he throw his arms up after reaching in as if to say "I didn't touch him?" It's all BS if you ask me. He tried for the steal, didn't get it, and didn't think Melo was going to make that. Once he made it he cried foul (literally).

I didn't see the play last night. I finally saw it today for the first time and thought, thats what all the hubbub is about?

It's funny how things would be different if Melo had missed the shot.

Bad defense.

Agree with Fool - poor D.

But credit to Melo for making that shot.

Yeah, that was a clutch shot. Melo can hit clutch shots. So can Chauncey and so can Smith.

I wouldn't mind having Smith coming off our bench - he can fucking shoot it.

I once saw a game where he hit 6 3's in a quarter of something like that. It was insane. He wasn't on fire - he was the Human Torch.

He hit 13 in a game earlier this year. 13. The last one was ridiculous.

Remember when :we: almost had Smith for Flip Murray?

13? Holy Shit!

That wasn't the game I was thinking of - the game I was talking about happened last season.

Just remembered: Doesn't Denver have some cap issues? Could we get Smith? Joe would love him lol

He's BYC until July 1st.

Would they be happy with Amir and AA or #15?

They didn't get robbed. Wright claimed he fouled Melo onpurpose, but then why did he not wrap him up like people do on intentional fouls? Why did he throw his arms up after reaching in as if to say "I didn't touch him?" It's all BS if you ask me. He tried for the steal, didn't get it, and didn't think Melo was going to make that. Once he made it he cried foul (literally).

i think it's pretty much robbery when the refs admit they saw the foul and didn't call it after the game

I heard a ref say he didn't see it. When did they say they saw the foul?

I haven't seen anywhere that the ref admitted seeing a foul and didn't call it. I saw the league said it was a blown call though.

This is a plausible explanation for Wright putting his arms up:


Wright was seen pulling back and raising his arms straight up as Anthony hoisted the winning shot, but the Mavs argued -- which the league's ruling would appear to support -- that Wright was merely trying to avoid a shooting foul once he realized that his charge into Anthony's shoulder on the dribble didn't sway Wunderlich.
"Antoine was so sure he fouled him," Carlisle said, "that he stopped."


The problem I have is why not wrap Melo up when he fumbled the ball at his feet? He wasn't going to get a shot off. Foul him and give them 3 seconds to get a shot off.

My bad, it was only 11. Only.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSm_Tpi7DPw

The last one will make you throw-up.

Fade away swish. Nice.

He's made a few in the playoffs this year from 3-5 feet beyond the arc too.

The NBA admitted officials were wrong when they didn’t call an intentional foul the Dallas Mavericks were trying to commit before Denver’s Carmelo Anthony(notes) made a game-winning 3-pointer Saturday.

Dallas had a two-point lead and a foul to give when Denver inbounded the ball with less than 8 seconds left. Antoine Wright(notes) was clearly trying to foul Anthony, and bumped him twice.

But the whistle never blew and Anthony swished a 3-pointer from in front of the Dallas bench with a second left that gave the Nuggets a 106-105 victory and a 3-0 series lead.

“At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony’s three-point basket,” Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said in a statement issued by the league about two hours after the game.

“It’s a shame the game had to come down to this, but that’s the way it goes in the NBA sometimes,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press after the league’s statement.

Cuban was visibly upset on the court after the game, but had declined comment while standing just outside the Mavericks’ locker room.

In the aftermath of the scandal involving former referee Tim Donaghy, the NBA has begun publicly acknowledging certain officiating mistakes.

Donaghy is serving a prison sentence for betting on games he officiated and taking cash payments from gambling associates for information to help them with bets.

A day after Game 4 of the Western Conference finals last year, the NBA said a foul should have been called against Derek Fisher(notes) of the Los Angeles Lakers on the final possession. That could have given San Antonio a chance to win the game and get even in the series.

Fisher jumped and came down on Brent Barry(notes) in the final seconds of a two-point game. No foul was called and Barry missed badly on a 3-pointer as time expired.

Mark Wunderlich, one of the three officials for that game last year, was part of the crew for the Denver-Dallas game Saturday night and was the one closest to Wright and Anthony.

“I’m almost as disappointed for Mark as I am for us. … It’s a call he makes 100 percent of the time,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after Saturday’s game.

Added Wright: “I was positive a whistle was coming, just like everybody else was positive the whistle was coming. I made a play on the ball like I was told in the huddle, and the call wasn’t made. … I’m upset like everyone else in this locker room, and I feel like we have a right to be upset.”

If they don't call them with a simple grab, coaches will start to have their players foul harder and harder. The pussy league doesn't want that.

Has it been made public if Carlisle went to the officials before the final play and actually told them that they were going to foul with the ball on the floor? You know, "We have a foul to give, and we're going to take it before the shot".

That's something that good coaches do. If he didn't do that, it's partially on him, IMO.

If they don't call them with a simple grab, coaches will start to have their players foul harder and harder. The pussy league doesn't want that.
I disagree. Most of the time players, and fans for that matter, want the officials to swallow the whistle in the closing minutes and let the players decide the game. unless it's a clear foul, you don't want ticky tack shit causing the game to go one way or the other.

To say they should call minor contact down the stretch is stupid. Suppose Rick told him to play D straight up and not foul. Suppose they did blow the whistle and Melo got a shot up (and went to the line for 3 shots). Everyone would be bitching because the refs "bailed the shooter out" with that call.

To me it's all on the player. If you're going to intentionally foul someone you better tell the ref or make it look like a foul. Going for a steal and hitting the guys wrist is not an intentional foul. He's just changing his tune afterward because he screwed up.

I disagree. Most of the time players, and fans for that matter, want the officials to swallow the whistle in the closing minutes and let the players decide the game. unless it's a clear foul, you don't want ticky tack shit causing the game to go one way or the other.

To say they should call minor contact down the stretch is stupid. Suppose Rick told him to play D straight up and not foul. Suppose they did blow the whistle and Melo got a shot up (and went to the line for 3 shots). Everyone would be bitching because the refs "bailed the shooter out" with that call.

To me it's all on the player. If you're going to intentionally foul someone you better tell the ref or make it look like a foul. Going for a steal and hitting the guys wrist is not an intentional foul. He's just changing his tune afterward because he screwed up.

I think you are missing my point. I was talking about situations where they want an intentional foul.

I'm not saying call ticky tack fouls at all. I'm saying in an instance where everyone in the arena knows there is going to be an intentional foul, if the refs don't call on a simple grab for an intentional, the coaches will start to tell the players to step up the foul. The league doesn't want that.

I think you are missing my point. I was talking about situations where they want an intentional foul.
How do you know they want to foul? I understand your point if the team is trailing and has to foul. Dallas was leading by 2 points. How is the ref supposed to know they want to foul? Certainly that is the most common practice (to use the foul to give), but I'm sure not all coaches do it. Some may not think it's worth the risk of getting a shooting foul. How do you know if the coach wants to foul with 5 seconds left, but not with 2 seconds left?

The point is, the ref shouldn't have to get into the head of the coach/player. He should simply call what he sees, and sometimes in late game situations the refs try not to take over a game. Unless the coach or player told him they were going to foul, I don't see how you can view that as an intentional foul. Yes, he got him on the arm. But I have not heard one person that said that looked like the intent to foul.

How do you know they want to foul? I understand your point if the team is trailing and has to foul. Dallas was leading by 2 points. How is the ref supposed to know they want to foul? Certainly that is the most common practice (to use the foul to give), but I'm sure not all coaches do it. Some may not think it's worth the risk of getting a shooting foul. How do you know if the coach wants to foul with 5 seconds left, but not with 2 seconds left?

The point is, the ref shouldn't have to get into the head of the coach/player. He should simply call what he sees, and sometimes in late game situations the refs try not to take over a game. Unless the coach or player told him they were going to foul, I don't see how you can view that as an intentional foul. Yes, he got him on the arm. But I have not heard one person that said that looked like the intent to foul.

The coach or player should tell the ref.

Agreed. Did they is the question. I highly doubt it because you can bet they'd be telling everyone that would listen now that they said they were going to foul.

On this one, I don't think so, I was talking about more general terms of intentional fouling and that the league won't want really hard fouls to make sure the refs call it.

The only thing I remember Carlisle saying is something like "61 fouls called in that game and when we wanted a foul, we could'nt get it"

Thats way, WAY short of saying "I told the ref we were going to foul there"

I heard someone talking about this yesterday (either on ESPN or ESPN Radio) and whomever it was (escapes me) tied it into Chuck Daly.

He said that he could remember many times when Daly would pull all of the refs together during a timeout and look at each of them in the eyes and say, "Let me be clear, once the ball is inbounded, we are going to foul before the shot".

Did Prick speak up, or did he just snort and cough like he typically does?

It's a no brainer that it's the coaches responsibility.

Most of the intentional fouls are two handed (to make sure the ref sees it no matter the angle). They aren't hard, but players usually have a hand on the back too.

Cubes might want some additional security when he's out and about from now on.


Nuggets' Martin: I'll talk with Cuban

ESPN.com news services

A day after Mother's Day, Kenyon Martin lobbed a verbal salvo to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in defense of his own.

Martin, whose mother was verbally confronted by Cuban after Saturday night's game, said he was going to "take care of it" as early as Monday night, as the Nuggets looked to sweep the Mavericks in their second-round playoff series.

"I don't feel I need to call his name in the media and all that, but it's a little personal," Martin said after the Nuggets' shootaround in Dallas, according to a report on The Denver Post's Web site. "And I'm going to take care of it."

The incident, during which Cuban referred to Martin as a "thug" or a "punk," according to an earlier report in The Post, was part of a raucous postgame scene the NBA said it was reviewing.

Cuban told the Denver newspaper by e-mail that as he walked off the court after the Mavericks' Saturday night loss in Dallas, he saw Martin's mother, Lydia Moore, as a fan was yelling that the Nuggets were "thugs."

"That includes your son," Cuban said to Moore, according to his e-mail to The Post.

Martin's agent, Brian Dyke, had a different take on the incident, The Post reported. According to Dyke, an unprovoked Cuban told Moore, "Your son is a punk."

Neither scenario amused Martin.

"Don't say nothing to my kids or my family," Martin said, according to The Post. "If you got something to say, say it to me. But I'm going to take care of it. I'm not going to do the whole media thing, back and forth. That's his thing. I'm more of a face-to-face type of dude."

"So whenever the opportunity presents itself, then I will address it. But I got a game to go win. At some point I will, but I got a game to go win, first and foremost. So that's my focus and concentration right now."

Asked if he thought the confrontation was Cuban's way of trying to get under the Nuggets' skin, Martin said yes.

"That's what he's trying to do, but it ain't going to work," Martin said, according to the newspaper. "I'm focused on what we need to do as a team. That's what I'm here to do. But if other things present themselves along the way then you got to address them. And this is one of those situations. I don't back away from nobody except the law."

Martin said he had not experienced anything like this during his nine-year career in the NBA.

"Nobody in his position, not at all," Martin said. "But of course, a college game where people in the stands are saying stuff to your family, that's fine and dandy, during the course of the game. But when the game is over, you don't say nothing to nobody's parents; especially mine. My mom or my kids, you don't have no words for them. I'll take care of it."