That was the view I had of the three refs huddled around the video monitor for 2:30,
deciding the Sixers' fate. I put myself through it when I got home, I watched the replay, and they made the right call from the replay, the shot was off in time, just in time. The problem is, there shouldn't have been any time left on the clock.
I ran the play back, frame-by-frame, on my TV. The ball was inbounded with 1.8 seconds left on the clock, Harris touched the ball with his right hand to control it, then dribbled. The clock didn't tick down to 1.7 seconds until 6 frames later. Then three frames after that it ticked down to 1.6, then 3 frames later 1.5, 3 frames later 1.4 and so on. It's three frames per 1/10th of a second. It appears to me that they didn't start the clock when he reached out and controlled the ball, they started it when he first dribbled. They gave him an extra .2 seconds. By the way, the ball was out of his hands by less than one full frame, so about 1/3 of 1/10th of a second.
The Sixers are
probably going to file a protest, but I doubt it will be overturned. Truthfully, this stuff happens all the time, the difference was pretty clear when you slow the tape down, but in live action, there's no way to tell. The Sixers got robbed.
I'm so drained right now, I'm just going to give you my thoughts in bullet form. I'd love to hear what you guys noticed watching on TV.
- Sam Dalembert played a great game. Not good, not good for him, but great. He was a dominant force down low and the team was head and shoulders better with him out there. Good to see him bounce back after being embarrassed by Brook (stripper's name) Lopez the last time these teams met.
- Andre Iguodala was the best player on the court. I don't care how many points Harris played, Iguodala faced constant doubles all throughout the second half and he refused to let that stop him. He was handling the ball a ton, in the face of doubles, he was making the right pass, taking the right shots. I'm sorry, but Devin Harris is nowhere near as good as Iguodala and Vince Carter doesn't belong in the discussion.
- Reggie Evans was wholly inneffective tonight and he shouldn't have seen more than 5 minutes. It was clear early that (a) he was doing more harm than good, and (b) when he was on the floor, the Nets were taking advantage of his inability to block shots and driving right to the hoop every time. They needed a shot-blocking pressence down low, Ratliff should've gotten Reggie's minutes tonight.
- 23/37 from the line. That says it all. That's why they lost, more than anything.
- DiLeo's rotations at the end of the game were excellent. He went offense defense for the final 4 possessions, had the right guys on the floor. Getting Speights on the floor for what should have been the game-winner was the difference. That's a clutch play for a rookie to make, and he didn't break a sweat. Kudos to Miller for finding him on the mismatch when he could've easily pump-faked a couple of times and put up a wild shot.
- The Sixers had excellent balance. Offense came from everyone (but Ivey).
- I thought they were running poor offense against the zone. Instead of having Speights flash to the foul line, they consistently had Evans flashing up there. He's no threat from that spot on the floor, Speights is. They should've been running plays for him to get NJ out of the zone.
- This one is from the box score, 1 rebound for Speights in 18 minutes. Not a good sign. He did make a couple of nice plays on defense though, including an excellent show on a pick and roll and a pair of blocked shots.
Player of The Game: Iguodala, 20, 9, 5, 2 and only 2 turnovers.
Team Record: 27-28
Up Next: @ Washington, tomorrow night.
I'm drained. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Anyone keeping a running count of how many times the Sixers lose at the buzzer?
By the way, if I never, ever see a game decided by a Violet Palmer decision at the scorer's table again, it'll be too soon.
8th time this season they've lost within the past 19 seconds.
only
8th time this season they've lost within the last 19 seconds.
As for buzzer-beaters? I counted 3. Dirk, Parker and Harris.
The Ray Allen one could also be considered a buzzer-beater. There was only .5 seconds left.
Rashard Lewis too?
Well if u want to get technical, I think there was about 5 seconds left. Remember Miller dribbled to half court and threw up a contested 40 footer with exactly 3 seconds remaining?
They're all a tragic blur to me at this point.
Ah, lighten up Bri-guy. The 6ers are going to make the playoffs, and they'll avoid the Celtics and Cavs in the first round. Isn't that all that matters? I know they're in 7th right now, but they'll manage at least the 6th seed, I would think. Detroit sucks. Besides 3-6, it's all a toss up anyways once you get in the playoffs, ya know?
I'm having a hard time focusing on the big picture this morning, but you're probably right.
The big picture isn't this season anyway - the big picture is the long term success and building of a championship team - so who cares who they lose to in the first round?
I guess Iguodala is more of the total package, and he definitely made some money decisions tonight with the ball, but Harris is becoming a pretty serious scorer.
Someone also completely shut down VC.
Don't sweat it. He's a ROO KEEE! There'll be nights like this. This is NOR MAL. Hey, Brook (Stripper name) Lopez, a RoY candidate only got 5 boards that game. Happens.
Early in the season, Sp8s got 10 rebounds in less than 17 minutes. He's had more good rebounding games than bad. The thing to watch for is a disturbing trend not an individual bad game. He's proven that if given enough oppportunities, he's gonna do well most of the time.
We know the potential's there, but what he mostly needs righ tnow is the reps. Unfortunately he's not being trusted to try to do more, even when Evans is more or less stinking it up for a bunch of valuable minutes. It's a no-brainer to put Speights in for offense in crunch time. Kid's got all kinds of moxie. I think it may be time to accept that he's probably not going to be an annual contender for the rebounding title but he's showing real 20-10 potential in only his first year in the leeeague. Don't worry, he's still going to be
an above average boarder.
For this stretch run it really ought to be more Speights, less Evans. Speights should not be playing less than 20 minutes unless he's really run up his foul count. If they're really in dire need of hard-nosed defense, slide Rats in there for the O-D switchbacks. Evans gets more than 7 mins a game only in verrry favourable matchups/game styles. I'll bet even Evans would agree.
I realize he's a rookie and he's going to have ups and downs, but that doesn't mean we don't talk about it when he has a down. I talked about what he did very well tonight, but you have to mention it when you see something like 1 board in 18 minutes.
Oh, sure Bri, I agree that noteworthy is noteworthy. It was the "Not a good sign" bit that I was really reacting to. It's just to say that this game, by itself isn't really a sign of anything. Three in a row, or say, three out five? Now that's a growing concern.
Consistency, good or bad, comes with reps. One other cool stat about my man SP8s is his low turnover rate. Pretty darned good for a rookie big man, yes?
How do you think this game would've turned out if DiLeo took 10 of Evan's 17+ minutes and gave them to Speights instead? Think we would've netted one extra basket? I think so.
The Sixers have a pretty good record when Speights gets to play 20+ minutes. Like your previous analysis shows, it's not just about putting in X player, it's also about Y player he's replacing at that position. The net effect of Speights vs Evans is...appreciable.
Reggie killed the team last night. Really killed them, especially in the first half. Plus, the teenagers sitting behind me kept yelling "beard face" at him every time he stepped on the floor, so that added to my annoyance w/ him.
It's pronounced Beard Fa-Say
So many buzzer beaters and on the losing end each time. When Harris' shot went up, I was so sure it was too late. They definitely milked the clocked, the ball couldn't have been caught, dribbled, tipped, caught, and heaved in 1.8. Sorry, physically impossible.
It's amazing, I mean he lost the ball with somewhere between .5 and .3 seconds left, grabbed it out of mid-air and got the shot off before the buzzer. He had extra time to work with from the beginning, but the fact that he actually got that shot off...it still makes me sick.
Look at the bright side. Whatever doesn't kill our sixers will make them stronger, right?
I've always hated that platitude - almost as much as 'I'll sleep when I'm dead'
Platitudes in general - they need to be avoided at all costs.
As for the person who said harris had an open shot - are you kidding me? Iguodala forced a fumble of the ball and his momentum carried him backwards - but he was guarded - 9 times out of 10 (probably 99 out of 100) harris doesn't make that shot - time on the clock or not - the problem is the free throw shooting, both miller and iguodala missed 1 of 2 near the end (if you're measuring 'clutchness', not so much last night) that would have at least made the game in overtime - and if iguodala had made his first - or miller had made both of his - the game plays out differently.
The sixers put themselves in a position to lose the game when they should have been able to be able to win going away if they could shoot free throws.
Maybe the nets got an extra tenth or two tenths (but tell you what - no clock starts 'on time' with human intereaction - it either starts early or late - that's just human error) - but the sixers shouldn't have been in that position in the first place - and i wonder how many of those last second 'buzzer beaters' / last shot losses wouldn't have been with better FT shooting
The free throws killed the, but I wouldn't point at Iguodala. Even if he hits both, it's game over. If he hit the first, I'm assuming you're saying he should've intentionally missed the second. I doubt they would've had him do that, if he misses the rim, the Nets get the ball out of bounds down by 1 point, a full court pass for a two beats you in that situation. They'd still have him make the second.
Don't forget that miller made 1 of 2 as well in the 'clutch' as well - it's not just Igoudala - it's the team - poor free throw shooting again put them in the situation where the miracle shot sends them home - better FT shooting (and rebounding, though it was slightly better than usual last night) would keep the sixers out of that situation.
I'm not arguing whether or not the shot was good - it was called good - protest or not the sixers are going to get the L - sets bad precedent to reverse a call via a protest - i'm just saying the sixers put themselves in that position by shooting 62 percent from the FT line...SIXTY TWO PERCENT.
Hell - 70 percent would be 3 more made free throws - and viola - game over.
Actuallyy if you want to talk about anyone - miller was 7 for 12 from the FT line Lou was 2 for 5 and sam was 3 for 6 - Iguodala shot respectable (6 for 8) and young was perfect.
the league overturned a miami/atl game last season on protest, right? they had to finish it out.
Wasn't that a different situation - something about the foul count on a player? this is a judgement call your arguing here - whether the clock was started 'sufficiently fast enough' - it's just too much of a grey area - like this year - didn't someone get a basket counted that shouldn't have because of a clock violation or something? They filed a protest and the NBA acknolwedged the mistake - but didn't make a change...maybe it didn't affect the outcome - but I don't see this overturning the game - refs lose so much credibility
a)he got the ball b)he dribbled the ball c)he lost control of the ball d)he recovered the ball. all of this happened in less than 2 freaking seconds.come on,give me a f##king break.
You have to laugh at yourself, you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't
tough loss.
The Nets and Pacers are just a tough matchup for the Sixers...they always seem to find a way to lose to these teams. Real and Speightacular is right. (great name by the way ;) )
Sixers are probably going to lose out in the first round no matter what...Its all about next year.
They will make the playoffs...lets see if they can take a detroit or atlanta to 7 games...maybe pull an upset. If they do that and then get raped by either boston or cleveland I would consider the year a success.
Next year the stakes will be higher.
Detroit? How are the sixers playing detroit in the first round?
Right now they could be anywhere from 5-8 but i don't see detroit getting the 4 seed
I think Detroit misses the playoffs. But we could get the 4 and they could get the 5, or vice versa.
At this point, I care about two things.
1. Growth from the guys who I see as the young core of this team: Iguodala, Thad and Speights.
2. Getting into the playoffs.
Ideally, they'll have the highest seed possible, but just get there first, then we'll worry about the second season.
Anyone seen or heard anything on the timeout discrepancy the Nets announcing crew was talking about when the Nets took the timeout right before Vince tied it up. Were Fratello and Marv just wrong in their count b/c it seems like they were correct (that the Nets didn't have any left) as they were saying several Sixer players were asking the refs to call a technical?
If it was correct and they should have been hit with a T then the league would probably do nothing about it just like the Boston/Portland game where Portland ran that play with 6 players on the court and scored and I think the Celts ended up losing that game by 2.
I thought about going back to look at that. ESPN has them using 5 timeouts in the second half, full timeout w/ 5:46 to go in the third, full with 9:03 left in the fourth. Full with 0:42 left in the fourth. 20 second timeout with 0:26 left in the fourth. 20 second timeout with 19 seconds left in the fourth.
They also have an official time out at 4:13 to go in the fourth, not sure where that one came from.
This is an excerpt directly from the NBA Rule Book, page 23.
"a. Each team is entitled to six (6) charged timeouts during regulation play. Each team is
limited to no more than three (3) timeouts in the fourth period. If a team has two (2) or
three (3) full timeouts remaining when the fourth period reaches the 2:00 mark, one (1) of
the timeouts will be changed to a 20-second timeout and it will retain one (1) full timeout."
New Jersey called 4 timeouts in the fourth quarter, which seems to me like it is against the rules.
Would like to know what you found out. Great, just another reason for me to stew over last night's game a little more if they did circumvent the rule book w/o the ref's noticing.
I wish there were somewhere to find the live game feed from the Czar and Marv (maybe you still have it on DVR) b/c I cannot remember but I thought they were kind of hamming it up before the inbound of the ball about them and the Sixer players being correct in that NJ did not have any timeouts left but got one anyway. But initially when the timeout was called Fratello says his notes doesn't have them with any left then he goes something like... well maybe our count is wrong. Then I thought he changed it before the inbound and said his count was right the first time.
They did say they got word from their stat people that the Nets didn't have a timeout. I think the confusion was because the timeout around the 4-minute mark was an official timeout. It was an official's timeout because the Nets took a full timeout at the 9-minute mark. If no one had taken a full timeout earlier in the quarter, that would've been a timeout charged to the nets, instead of an official's timeout, I believe.
Check that. That rule is talking about 3 full timeouts, not including 20s.
Here's the breakdown, each team gets 6 full timeouts for the game. They also get one 20-second timeout per half, use it or lose it, for a total of 8 timeouts.
Here are the timeouts the Nets called in last night's game:
1) 8:41 to go in the first - 20-second timeout
2) 5:22 to go in the first - full timeout
3) 5:01 to go in the second - full timeout
4) 5:46 to go in the third - full timeout
5) 9:03 to go in the fourth - full timeout
6) 0:42 to go in the fourth - full timeout
7) 0:26 to go in the fourth - 20-second timeout (the full turns to a 20 in the final 2 minutes)
8) 0:19 to go in the fourth - 20-second timeout
Looks like they didn't use an extra timeout, Marv had it wrong. I checked the game log on both ESPN.com and NBA.com.
No protest was filed, apparently they didn't have a leg to stand on.