Bail Out Calls

Last night's game was one of the worst officiated NBA games I can remember watching. During the 4th quarter stretch when Kobe decides he needs to prove himself a hero and makes a series of ridiculous, uncoordinated drives through the lane against 1-2-3 Magic defenders, forces up a stupid shot, and gets a whistle, I just about want to throw my television. Talk about rewarding bad behavior. What is going on? He just lunges towards the basket, initiates contact and the whistle blows and Kobe's on the line for free throws. He had 6 free throws in the fourth quarter on 3 plays that were not fouls. Incredible!

Derick Fisher did the same thing in OT, just plows his shoulder into Turkulu and gets a foul. The man isn't even trying to make a basket.

All said, the game didn't get decided by these calls. It could of gone either way, but Howard did shit on offense, the Magic have no point guard, and JJ Reddick sucks complete ass and doesn't belong on an NBA court. He's supposed to be a 3 point shooter? Ariza hits more 3's than Reddick. Did you see Odom reject his layup? Play that clip over. An NBA player takes that under the hoop to protect against the block and slams a reverse dunk. Reddick flicks up a layup like a high school girl and Odom clubs the ball against the backboard. Get the hell off the court and take Derick Fisher with you. I thought this was the NBA finals, not a washed up Euro-trash league.

PS. Bill Simmons has a pretty good stat for Kobe-philes:

Important note: Kobe's reputation as a "killer" at the end of games remains overblown. The site www.82games.com just posted a study of game-winning shots from the last five-plus seasons (regular seasons and playoffs since the 2003-04 season) that revealed Kobe was shooting 14-for-56 (25 percent) with one assist and five turnovers, and made 12 of 15 free throws. So let's say that was 70 possessions total, including Sunday night. ... He only had one assist in nearly six years??? That's why Orlando quadruple-teamed him in that spot. Kobe is a phenomenal streak shooter, and he has a real talent for catching fire with a lead and closing games out ... but you can stop him in one-shot situations simply because he's his own worst enemy. He wants to be a hero, he's shooting it, and that's that.

Another interesting Kobe fact I learned today at work - and this pretty much explains it all - Kobe didn't play on a team until high school. He grew up in Italy practicing by himself after his father's practice. Is this true? I don't have confirmation, but it completely explains his bizarro relationship with teammates. Simmons mentions this in his column, but one of the oddest Kobe moments in the game, he jumps up to take a contested jumper from about 22ft (big surprise, right?) and Shannon Brown runs in to crash the offensive rebound, but Kobe decides as he's coming down to flick it outside to Brown and tosses it straight out of bounds. He starts waving his arms and hands, gesturing to Brown like he's some sort of idiot for thinking Kobe was going to shoot that shot...which 99 out of a 100 times, he does. It was such a strange reaction, once again demonstrating Kobe really has no clue what's going on in anyone else's head but his own.

And although the Laker's won last night, I got quite a bit of enjoyment from Hedo's block on Kobe at the end of the game. Kobe whining because he didn't get a call even thought the replay showed the strip was completely clean and the subsequent smashing of his chair and then getting totally beat on the back pick (which I called - but for Howard, not Lee). Man, that would've been a cool ending.