We Thought This Was Basketball, Not Rugby

Since most NBA championships are as lopsided as a typical Super Bowl, a Game 7 should be the most dramatic event that the sport has to offer. But even with the Lakers down as much as 13 late in the game, the outcome never really seemed to be in question. Whenever the refs swallow their whistles as completely as they did in this contest, all in the misguided effort to "let the players play the game", it completely alters the style of play to the point that the action on the television no longer resembles what viewers know as "NBA basketball". Instead, it becomes the least tasteful brand of basketball known: Pickup basketball being taken way too seriously.

From the opening tipoff, the refs made it known that pretty much every foul that is usually called would not be called in Game 7. In the first six games only Ray Allen had been allowed to egregiously hump and reach around Kobe without getting called for it. Now, all of the Celtics were given free reign to handcheck, push, and hold anyone driving to the basket. In return, the Lakers were allowed to wildly flail their offhand to create space, and go over the back for offensive rebounds on the bricks they kept throwing up.

Despite all of this, Jeff van Gundy couldn't have been more effusive about how much he enjoyed the game. It's no wonder -- he was assistant coach for the Knicks during the Pat Riley days. These were the worst years for NBA basketball, when the paradigm for winning was as simple as beating the other team up until they were afraid to drive to the basket, and shot jumpers worse than you. Watching the two top teams in the NBA devolve into bad impersonations of this era must have really stirred up some nostalgic pride for him. In recent years the quality of play has been completely rejuvenated by the more consistent calling of perimeter fouls. Allowing the refereeing to revert back to this era is akin to rolling back our plumbing to Bubonic Plague era standards in the name of "letting humanity and microbes compete on a even playing field". The more talented team should win, not the one that responds better to consistent physical punishment.

Despite all of this, the ugliest part of the game was the consistently awful defense of Pau Gasol. We don't know if this is a case of a player being simultaneously intense and soft, or simply horrible, horrible coaching, but either way it was inexcusable for this detail not to be fixed in the game. Every time Kevin Garnett got the ball in the left-side high post, he turned around to face up his defender, Gasol. Every time Garnett did this, Gasol positioned his feet orthogonal to the baseline and got into a defensive crouch. A stance like this telegraphs the defenders strategy -- to take away the right hand. It also boasts confidence in the defenders ability to slide down crab-style faster than the ball handler can drive left and finish. Garnett may have lost a step, but even one step behind he is quicker than most big men -- and he proceeded to abuse Gasol repeatedly by faking to get Gasol off-balance and then driving hard to the left. What is now celebrated as the "block of the night" was Garnett's final use of this 'move'. Instead of getting blown by like he had every time previously in this game, this time Gasol recovered enough to hack the shit out of Garnett's wrist. But like every other foul in this game, the refs neglected to make the call. KG obviously isn't talented at finishing at the left, but for Gasol's stance to be effective a help defender should have been ready to slide in and take the charge whenever KG took the bait and drove to the basket.

Our last impressions of the game were one of pleasant surprise that Ron Artest, still completely insane, played such a vital part in this Lakers team. We never thought he would be able to become just another role-playing cog in Phil Jackson's championship grandfather clock, but he proved a more than able replacement for Trevor Ariza with his stupendous off-the-ball defense and offensive rebounding. We would also be bad bloggers if we didn't link you to Deadspin's excellent series of posts with "disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy" where he breaks down every call he considers questionable.