Recap Part I: Cleveland 117, Portland 118 2OT (or the time the Cavs got jobbed by the refs three seperate times at the end of the game)
2012-12-01
The Montreal Screwjob had nothing on this.
Note: Given the length of this game and the egregious nature in which the Cavs were hosed by the refs, this is going to be a two part recap (maybe). Here’s Part 1:
I’ve spent a lot of time not trying to live and die by sports: Football, the Cavs, the NBA, the over thirty rec league at the Y, and pickup games with junior high kids. I’ve tried not to scream “MISS!” at the top of my lungs at terrified JV high school girls as I’m closing out on a 3. I’ve tried not to yell at the TV. I’ve tried not to get worked up about calls. I’ve tried. I think that’s one reason I fast forward through games now. The artificiality removes some of the drama, and distills the basketball down to an emotionally manageable form. But I watched tonight’s game in real time, agonizing through commercials and all: through the game’s dizzying highs and mind boggling lows. I was prepared for valiant defeat or glorious victory. But sometimes the universe is unfair — well, most of the time. The Cavs were hosed on three separate calls at the end of Saturday’s game, any one of which could have won it. These are not problems that will cost anyone their job or life. This is not peace in the middle east or finding enough food to eat. These are what Chris Rock calls, “White People Problems.” But I’m still stewing.
Call #1: About 30 Seconds left in regulation. Aldridge puts up a lame shot on which he is fouled. The equator of the ball is parallel with the rim at least 6 inches away from the basket on the way down, when Tristan Thompson makes a stupid play to swat it out of bounds. The Refs call goaltending and look at the play for no less than 2 minutes (I honestly don’t even know if the call is reviewable). According to the rules, for a shot to be called a goaltending, “the ball, in the judgment of the official, must have a chance to score.” Now if by “chance,” you’re thinking of Lloyd Christmas’s chances of getting in Mary Swanson’s pants at the end of Dumb and Dumber, you’d be about right. Then you’d have about the 1 in a billion probability that matches what the ball had of of going into the basket through some weird trick of rotational physics or TNT going off somewhere on South Euclid and trickling the ball into the basket a la Caddyshack.
Call #2: 2nd overtime, about 20 seconds left, Cavs up 1. Tyler Zeller shot fakes from the left baseline, drives into Hickson, double clutches a shot as he’s being hip checked and then catches his own miss and gets called for a travel. Zeller does the absolute right thing here: he puts the onus on the official to make a foul call for the hip check. In this case it’s either a turnover or a foul. In the case where it is a turnover or a foul, if the foul is obvious, it must be made. I don’t care if there’s 20 seconds left in the game. If those calls aren’t made, then in the last twenty seconds defenders can just hip check players out of bounds and not get calls. It was a doubly dubious non-call because Anderson Varejao got called for the exact same call on a Lillard drive in the first overtime when he went straight up with less contact against a driving Lillard.
I can live with the first two calls/non-calls . They suck, but calls like that happen. They’re judgment calls. Call #3 makes me not want to watch NBA games.
Call #3: 2nd overtime. In ONE OF THE WORST END OF GAME SEQUENCES I HAVE SEEN IN AN NBA BASKETBALL GAME, the Cavs are up 1 with 3.4 seconds left. Cavs have just rebounded rebound the ball after some great defense, and then are playing keep away from the Blazers. Alonzo Gee passes ahead to Pargo who has no one on him and can dribble out the clock. Gee clearly has gotten the pass away by 3.3 seconds left as can be seen here.
3.3 seconds, and the ball is out.
In real time, by the time clock is at 2.5 seconds (the time at which the foul occurred), the ball is in Pargo’s hands.
This is the most damning picture. It shows the ball clearly in Pargo's hands at the time the foul is called.
The game should be over. Amazingly, the refs give the Blazers a foul call and put Gee at the line. One of three things should have happened here:
- The clock should have been adjusted to a time that Gee actually had the ball, which was about 3.4 seconds, and the foul should have been called there. Of course he was never actually being fouled when he had the ball.
- The refs should have called this a foul on a player without the ball. According to the rules, the Cavs should have received a free throw and possession of the ball.
- The refs should not have called a foul and let the game end.
There are no other options. We all know what happened next. Gee made 1 of 2 at the line, the Blazers called timeout and Batum hit a ridiculous 3 pointer from the right corner to win. Now maybe if we get the ball and 1 freethrow, the result would have been similar. What GALLS me is that the refs never went to replay to settle this. They didn’t want to get the call right. They wanted to get out of town. Editor’s note. I’ve redacted this statement because it’s unfair and untrue. If anything, this call increases the odds of prolonging the game.
Furthermore, Byron Scott bears some culpability here as he never even lobbied for them to look at it, and seemed wholly aloof and unconcerned. There’s a point at which your aloofness is a detriment, Byron. It was tonight. Maybe the Blazers still win if we get a shot and the ball. I’m sure a parallel universe exists with this possibility.
And in the grand scheme of this universe one loss on a night at the beginning of December will not matter much, but the Cavs deserved this win. I wanted to write a glorious recap of this win. (It’s 3/4 written, and I don’t know if I can finish it). The universe seems arbitrary and capricious tonight, and NBA officiating should be better. Maybe Vince McMahon David Stern should pull a Popovich and send Leon Wood, Mark Lindsay, and Ed Malloy home from this road trip early.
Part of the argument in this case comes down to how “possession” is defined. If an offensive player throws a ball to another player, does he still technically have “possession” until the receiving player catches it? Is this a “loose ball situation?” The NBA Rule book seems to address this in rule #12, section 10 http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_12.html : “all personal fouls which are assessed against the defensive team prior to the ball being released on a throw-in and/or away-from-the-play, shall be administered as follows” actually when reading that and the rest of the section, it’s as clear as mud. My point… Read more »
Continuing a theme from when I did the recaps here way back when: There were 245 possessions in this game. The Cavs had 244 chances not to let that call decide the game for them. You leave it in the hands of the refs, you accept the consequences. ——– If this is the case, and refs have so little impact on the game then why have refs at all? See, this assumes teams should never be even AND that refs shouldn’t be counted on to be competent. I don’t buy either. Teams are going to be even, and games will… Read more »
1.) I don’t mind a recap like this, written in the heat of the emotion. Heck, it was a bad call. 2.) Kj, homerism aside, and no one is denying that was a goaltend, Dion’s mistakes and poor execution were the single biggest cause of the loss tonight. Which is not surprising: he’s a rookie. 3.) J Krolik – what’s with the public criticism of a staff writer? You hand your blog over to a different editor and you kind of have to accept there’ll be stuff that isn’t how you want it, right? Wouldn’t an email be the best… Read more »
Love the “Montreal Screwjob” image and kudu’s for the indepth recap. I had to go to work mid third quarter and missed the end to a compelling game. Dion is Saint Weirdo for those of you who haven’t embraced it yet. He could drive to the rack at will and chooses to jack up a contested 27 footer with 13 seconds on the clock. It’s not a malicious nickname. It’s him. Trick or Treat Tony Allen is already taken. Love him as a player, but the shot selection… I’m confident that it will improve and he’ll become a solid 20-5-4… Read more »
Hey Thatguy, are you blind? Did you not see the goaltending no call on Dion’s layup at the end of the half? The replay CLEARLY showed that the ball hit the glass before the Portland player blocked it. Automatic goaltend when that happens. That is not an opinion. That is not a judgement call. That is a FACT. That one blown call costs us a gas that we lost by a point.
I know you’re a troll but that point needed to be made…
You guys can complain about calls all you want. If Dion had shown up to play from the opening tip, they win this game. But also, if they had won the game, you can go to a Portland blog and there would be ref complaints over there.
You can’t put it on the refs when the savior of the franchise (according to some very vocal people on these boards) decides he’s going to take the night off.
Holy recaps! You guys may want to look up the definition of “recap”.
My recap….Cavs win this game in regulation if not for one Dion Waiters who had a horrendous game. My other point, if Cavs had Lillard instead of Waiters, they win this game going away in blowout fashion. AND they’d have a healthy player going forward and not an uncoordinated player who steps on other peoples feet. Nice pick Grant.
Except John, the missed goaltending call on Waiter’s shot at the end if the half!! We can show at LEAST 6 blown calls go against in a game we lose by one point. It’s ludicrous to suggest the Cavs should’ve overcome that many CLEAR blown calls… Look, John, I’m pretty sure I’ve watched the Cavs a whole helluva lot than you this year (which has been every game so far) and this has been a theme this year! Neither rookie gets any calls and even Andy doesn’t get as many as he should. A team playing this hard EVERY NIGHT… Read more »
The Cavs did get hosed on the gee foul. I sort of thought they should have just sent the whole team flying towards the rim and flop on the last .2 s play. I thought about the Danny Granger make up call that earned Mike Brown a hefty fine.
It was kind of a ridiculous shot. He was wide open of course. The Cavs need to do a better job at end of clock defense. Exciting game. Tough loss but at least they put on a show for the hometown fans.
incredibly frustrating game to watch. i agree that the refs blew these three calls that ultimately resulted in us losing…but we also had some pretty boneheaded possessions down the stretch like that shot clock violation where varejao’s desperation shot was blocked. we’re not going to win many close games without kyrie. that sloan, gibson, casspi, thompson, zeller lineup that ran for half of the 4th quarter was beautiful. lots of things to like in this game, almost too many to list given the length of this game. thompson actually flushed some dunks without getting blocked. he played excellent defense against… Read more »
I see where you’re coming from, and I think we’re in sync. I would have gone with a recap mentioning the call, then broken this out as a separate post with a title like “was a phantom foul called on Alonzo Gee?” Also, Alonzo could’ve made both free throws. But again, I’m a fogey.
Oh, I agree, John. I agree… but. When a game ends like that and no one seems to care or notice, I’d rather write about something little that no one cares or notices about, even if it is a complaint, than recap in the same style as every other game in the 82 game schedule. I hope the illustration is lucid, complete, and valid. I do agree with your criticism, calls are an excuse for losing, and 3/245ths of the reason we/they lost. I probably should not have called this a recap, since it isn’t. It just sucks. Feels like… Read more »
Continuing a theme from when I did the recaps here way back when: There were 245 possessions in this game. The Cavs had 244 chances not to let that call decide the game for them. You leave it in the hands of the refs, you accept the consequences.