Disappointment (game 4 thoughts)

Isaac Romero

May 26^th, 2009

     I have been watching the NBA playoffs for 20+ years and have seen allot of great moments and tons of bad situations in the playoffs. I realized tonight that I am witnessing some of the most disappointing games in quite some time. The L.A. Lakers were beaten down tonight by a very sad 19 points and the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets played well and the Lakers let them. I just witnessed one of the weakest efforts in NBA history. I am starting to realize that the Lakers have been putting in these types of efforts since the start of the Lakers prior series with the Houston Rockets. Any team with the talent of the Lakers that gives up 20 rebounds and performs as bad as game 4’s showing is clearly lacking in effort, class, concentration, killer instinct, and the balls to win a championship. I am not trying to take away anything from the Nuggets, however when Carmelo Anthony is 0-10 from the field in his first 10 shots and ends up with a 3 for 16 effort and the Lakers get out hustled and out worked for a -18 rebounding differential that I question the L.A. Lakers effort. I watched the game and I have looked at the stats and all I see, feel and can come up with is disappointment. Any team with a chance to go up 3-1 should have tried a bit harder than shooting 68% from the charity stripe. Also, the last 5 Lakers losses have been by a total of 57 points where the Nuggets last 4 losses have been by a total of 12 points. When the Lakers lose they really seem to call it in.

I am calling them out on their lack of effort in the playoffs. The funny thing about all this is the L.A. Lakers are still in control of a series in which they clearly have not played a great game (by Laker fans standards’). What a DISAPPOINTMENT the L.A. Lakers are to the fans and the NBA. The Lakers should win the series but it is a waste to the fans that a great team like the Nuggets do not get the ‘A’ game of the Lakers night in and night out.

    I have witnessed so many bad calls in 20+ years of watching NBA basketball that I long ago realized that it’s a waste of time to even mention how badly the refs are in the NBA. Yet, this year is steadily becoming the worst year of all time in bad calls. There were 84 free throws in game 4 of the Western Conference Finals and 86 free throws in game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Any NBA team that goes to the line 50 times in one game better have Jordan, Bryant, Lebron, Shaq and Kareem on the team. This has happened twice (Denver49, Orlando 51) in the last 2 days. Also, why are these 2 teams (Denver and Orlando) getting so much love and don’t even try to sell me that ‘they are the more aggressive teams?’ I hate to repeat what men have been yelling at the TV’s for years and that phrase is “fucking let the players play!”  

I am so frustrated that I do not even want to look up the technical foul situation in these playoffs or the so called flagrant foul calls. The NBA refs are making ‘make up’ calls like a politician running for office in this country. I do understand that the athlete in this era is as whinny as a baby looking for its momma’s tit but this many fouls this often for every team is crazy.  I also understand that the league has made it hard to even guard anyone or god forbid breathe on a superstar like a Kobe or Lebron but I would love for the refs to swallow the whistle for just a small bit of a quarter. I will not back off my stance that the whole thing is fixed at some higher level but I am from Vegas and I do notice that the lights are still on in Vegas and the NBA is showing a profit. How the NBA is showing a profit, I do not know? Wait, I do know, it’s because people like me still watch the playoffs and even though I am disappointed and frustrated I will still watch how the whole thing plays out. It’s my WWF, my soap opera and I have to keep watching the wreck that the NBA has become even when it is DISAPPOINTING!