It's Magic

by Ziller on Apr 12, 2009 9:41 PM PDT in Recaps Comment 50 comments

That the referees counted Michael Finley's three good without the benefit of replay ... that's perfect. It seemed like a joke when the refs moved on with the game, and Randy Brown had to tell Andres Nocioni to go to the huddle. When Shareef Abdur-Rahim asked Danny Crawford, "That was late. Watch the replay." "We can't," Crawford replied. "Oh," said Abdur-Rahim. I mean, it seemed like everyone was like -- "Ok, joke's over, review it and reverse it." Like Crawford would keep a straight face walking up to Kenny Natt ... and then pull out a gun with daisies coming out of the barrel. "HA! HA! You shoulda seen the look on your face! Of course we'll review it."

Sadly, as has been the case this entire season, that was no joke.

Final - 4.12.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
San Antonio Spurs	24	30	20	21	95
Sacramento Kings	25	36	16	15	92

Complete Coverage >

For those that missed it, game tied at 92. S.A. ball, roughly 2.5 seconds separate the game and shot clocks. Sacramento's defense stifles Tony Parker's penetration (a true rarity), and T.P. kicks out to Michael Finley with one tick left on the shot clock. Finley rises ... the shot clock goes off ... Finley fires, in. Crawford, the nearest referee, is watching Finley's feet. He counts it good. The other two refs don't dispute it. Review shows the shot clock expired by at least a half-second. No matter, as a shot clock play isn't reviewable by the refs. The Kings get the ball with 1.3 seconds, and Nocioni airballs the wing three.

It's a sad story only made brighter by the fact that ...

... the Kings will have the most ping pong balls on May 19.

No sleep til the No. 1 pick.

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Whatever - we were at the game

my wife was SURE it was late in real-time, I thought it was probably late.

Even in a seaon like this, with ping-pong balls on the line, I want the game Called Right!

Tonight, I feel no comfort in getting screeeewed.

So imitate the action of the tiger!.
- lend the eye a terrible aspect
and teach them how to war!
Henry V iii

by lietothegirls on Apr 12, 2009 9:46 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I was there too!

But the only reason I’m mad is cause I’ve gone to 4 games this season, and aside from this game/blown call, they’ve won every time I’ve showed up. I almost made a significant statistical improbability happen!

settles for ping pong balls, & a friggin new coach

If yr not happy with the results, lower yr expectations.

by tokyo on Apr 12, 2009 11:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh the irony, TZ

you mention who they stopped Parker from driving inside for once. Had they just let him go by like usual it probably would’ve been a two with more than a few seconds left on the clock

www.mancancook.net

by vfettke on Apr 12, 2009 9:51 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I would love

to see a re-enactment of the Finley play, but with the Lakers on the brink of elimination. And I would like to see it called exactly the same way, with Finley drilling the deciding shot after the shot clock had expired, followed by an entire summer of Laker whining.

That would somehow make this season a little bit easier to digest.

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Apr 12, 2009 9:51 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

Yes, except for the fact

that they would magically come up with a way to review the play for the Lakers.

by atthehive on Apr 12, 2009 9:53 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

no shit

So imitate the action of the tiger!.
- lend the eye a terrible aspect
and teach them how to war!
Henry V iii

by lietothegirls on Apr 12, 2009 9:56 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Section, you verbalized well what I could not..

by avishai on Apr 12, 2009 11:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I would like that too.

More than almost anything.

by mayfieldcol on Apr 13, 2009 6:18 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Absolute Travesty

That was a total travesty that caused the Kings that loss.

We should be playing 5 more minutest with the right to go into overtime.

BOOK IT!

by kingme18 on Apr 12, 2009 9:58 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Not for nothing

But had they called it correctly, we would have had the ball with 3 seconds left. Go back and check the time left when the shot clock strikes zero.

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Apr 12, 2009 9:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I should add

that we probably would have then suffered a 5 second violation, and then the Spurs would have hit a game winner at the buzzer…

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Apr 12, 2009 10:00 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs

I hate this

Portland would have had home court advantage with a SA loss.

NBA reffing is terrible.

draft dejuan blair

by Cablinasian on Apr 12, 2009 10:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Personally

I’m internalizing all of my Kings’ induced anxiety and anguish until May 19th. Which will realistically only lead to a Travis Bickle like explosion when the Grizzlies inevitably win the Draft lottery…

by rbiegler on Apr 12, 2009 10:13 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

LOL Rb

Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Apr 12, 2009 10:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's a good day...

I’m envisioning the royal fucking-over that will be the Phoenix Suns winning the lottery, followed by the Warriors and Clips. At least we’ll have the 4th pick locked up!

"It's shyte being Scottish. We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the fuckin' Earth. The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic, trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some people hate the English. I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonized by Wankers -- Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized by . . . It's a shyte state of affairs to be in...and all the fresh air in the world won't make any fuckin' difference!"

by PhutureKings on Apr 12, 2009 10:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm thinking

It’s about time for the Knicks to beat the odds again.

by furious.d on Apr 13, 2009 9:12 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

But you'll feel much better

when the inevitably pick a trigger happy SG

www.mancancook.net

by vfettke on Apr 13, 2009 8:15 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

If i cared, which I don't, I'd be pissed

But since I don’t care, yay more ping pong balls? I just can’t wait until the playoffs start, and I won’t feel like I’ve taken part of another beating. This season has been one big blur of crap and being beaten up. Hopefully next year is competitive from 1-82. This has to be the worst year in franchise history BY FAR.

Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Apr 12, 2009 10:13 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

There's a larger problem

The Kings got the ball back with about 45 seconds left, there was plenty of time to get a play together and get a decent shot while still guaranteeing they’d get last posession with at least 10 seconds on the game clock. They farted around for 20 seconds, came up empty, and the Spurs were effectively handed the last shot.

Why weren’t they thinking 2 for 1? I sure as hell was.

Rocks are free, and slingshots easily stolen.

by andy sims on Apr 12, 2009 10:40 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

me too

mentioned it in the game thread. Total Natt-up on that one

Ball movement ... is like jogging for most people: They do it occasionally, and it makes them happy. Then they go back to not doing it. - Henry Abbott

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 12, 2009 10:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Or Beno-up

Cuz Beno did have the ball in his hands. (Did anybody else notice Garcia barely get over the half court line cuz Natt was talking to him? I wonder who is more to blame for that too.)

Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Apr 12, 2009 10:52 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That non-call

was Natting Bulltheus.

I think the best thing possible for the Kings right now would be to end the season on a high note. Win the last two games. No reason not to. And the next day, let Natt go.

by Aykis16 on Apr 12, 2009 11:29 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

Hooray! Bulltheus is catching on...

Now what epithet do we pin on musselman?

by avishai on Apr 13, 2009 12:05 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Man, that's Mussed up?

Sharlon Schoop - de favoriete Nederlandse honkbalspeler van McCovey Chronicles.
You always have to be one step ahead of your drunk friends
--Daisy Owl

by Viliphied on Apr 13, 2009 1:33 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

We feel for you in Rip City, the Kings and their Fans were robbed of a season ending high!

What happened at the end of that game is a travesty! I don’t have to go very far into my memory banks to remember when the Blazers had the worst record in the league and bright spots were hard to find. Let’s hope that the league reacts as strongly to this injustice as they did to the 6 player fiasco between us and the Celtics! Shot clock violations need to be reviewable in the final two minutes of the game!

I hope karma smiles on you Monday and you take care of the Nuggets, and not just because it would help the Blazers! You guys deserve a good memory going into the summer rather than that Spurs hijacking!

Good luck with the Ping Pong Balls!
Brian from Rip City and BlazersEdge

by krollb on Apr 13, 2009 12:26 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Another Blazer Fan Weighing In

As a Blazer fan who abandoned the NBA for five years due in no small part to a) the infamous Kings-Laker series, b) the fact that I lived in NY under the Isiah Thomas administration (absurd), and c) some pretty lousy Blazer teams, I find that this call has somehow summoned all of the demons back and tainted the most fun year of the NBA I’ve had since 1992. Who knew a call like this in a game in Sac-Town could do that. I hope the feeling goes away soon.

Since when is that call NOT reviewable? I’ve watched at least 150-200 NBA games this year and can’t think of one (save Blazers putting 6 on the court against the Celtics) where I’ve seen a play that critical to the game not get reviewed.

by LewPDX on Apr 13, 2009 7:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Worst officiated pro sport by far

Last night was just more proof. It really wasn’t a difficult call, to be honest. Finley wasn’t too far into his shooting motion when the shot clock expired. Just sad.

by otis29 on Apr 13, 2009 4:42 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

STOP with the number 1 pick!

Talk about jinx. gah! seriously. we already only have a 1/4 chance at BEST to get the pick.

by Citadel 29 on Apr 13, 2009 5:51 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

At least we're not trying to figure out who might

drop to 11 or 17 like past drafts.

"Shut up and Coach!"
Vfettke

by SavageBeast on Apr 13, 2009 8:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

truth SB

Though I am eager to see who falls to that Houston pick (pretty please)

So imitate the action of the tiger!.
- lend the eye a terrible aspect
and teach them how to war!
Henry V iii

by lietothegirls on Apr 13, 2009 9:08 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I

just know we’re getting the 4th pick. I just know it.

They've done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time.

by what_the_crap on Apr 13, 2009 9:42 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's been a while since the team with the #1 odds

got the #1 pick. I think this year the Kings will do it.

I didn’t see the game. What’s the rule in that situation? Did the refs not review the shot because they can only do so if it comes on a game- or quarter-ending buzzer and not on a shot-clock buzzer? Or do they have leeway and simply chose not to use it?

by MiledAnimal on Apr 13, 2009 11:04 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

exactly

they can only check it out if it was the end of the game clock, they can’t review 24 second violations. But like Peaches said last night, they should and that will probably be changed over the summer. Although the Kings suck and the game basically meant nothing, I’d hate to see that happen in a playoff game. Everyone thinks the NBA refs suck anyway, this would add more fuel to the fire.

They've done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time.

by what_the_crap on Apr 13, 2009 11:07 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I cant remember the percentages...

But even with the worst record in the league and thus the most ping pong balls, you are still more likely to end up at #4 than at any of the first 3 picks. pretty crappy but true…

PS that noncall was a bunch of bulltheus. totally mussed up….

GO KINGS! BEAT DENVER TONIGHT!`

RUDY > MJ

by myemic23 on Apr 13, 2009 12:48 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not true

Worst record has a 25.00% chance at #1, a 21.47% chance at #2(that’s a 46.47% chance for a top 2 pick) and a 17.72% chance at #3(that’s a 64.19% chance at a top 3) and of course a 100% chance at a top 4.

So it’s approximately:

1 in 4 for #1
1 in 2 for top 2
2 in 3 for top 3

Link

Ball movement ... is like jogging for most people: They do it occasionally, and it makes them happy. Then they go back to not doing it. - Henry Abbott

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 13, 2009 3:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I am not a genius on odds by any means...

I just remember Kevin Pritchard saying that we were more likely to end up with the 4th pick than any of the first 3 picks when the blazers had the worst record. I am not really catching what you are throwing out with that stuff. I don’t see why you would add the percentages together and then conclude that that is the likleyhood of getting a top 3 seed. My lame brain would think that:

1st pick: 250 out of 1001 combination’s is a 25% chance obviously.

Now say the team with the 2nd worst record wins that 1st pick. that takes 199 combos out of circulation. That leaves the kings with 250 out of 802 combos left. which is a 31% chance at the 2nd pick

Now if the team with the 3rd worst record wins the 2nd pick, that takes away another 138 combos which leaves the kings with 250 out of 664 combos. which is a 38% of getting the 3rd pick assuming the teams with the 2nd and 3rd worst records won the 1st and 2nd pick. If a team farther down the chart snatches a 1st or 2nd pick, it only makes the kings odds worse. So the way I see it:

1st pick: 25%
2nd pick: 31%(at best)
3rd pick: 38%(at best)

They have 3 chances to win but everytime they draw there is a greater chance of a team not named the kings getting said pick.

RUDY > MJ

by myemic23 on Apr 13, 2009 4:21 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

If it were the way you are saying

then our chance at the 2nd pick would be greater than the 1st. 25% chance at number one, but when they pick for number two, we’d still have 250 balls and one less team to draw against. So, it would be 25% – 25+% – 25+%.

And they actually couldn’t even list a % for 2 or 3 because the chances at 2 if the team with the 2nd worst record drew #1 would be better than if the 14th team drew #1.

So, the % on that chart are overall percent chance for that pick. ie if you drew the 3 picks in the lottery 1000 times, percentages say the Kings would end up with the 1st pick ~250 times, the 2nd pick ~215 times and the 3rd pick ~177 times or a top 3 pick ~642 times out of 1000. Actual numbers of course will vary.

Ball movement ... is like jogging for most people: They do it occasionally, and it makes them happy. Then they go back to not doing it. - Henry Abbott

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 13, 2009 5:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think I know what KP meant

I just remember Kevin Pritchard saying that we were more likely to end up with the 4th pick than any of the first 3 picks…

This is true: ~36% chance to pick 4th, ~25% chance to pick 1st, ~22% chance to pick 2nd and ~17% chance to pick 3rd.

More likely to pick 4th than any of the first 3 picks individually, but more likely to pick in the top 3 than to pick 4th.

Ball movement ... is like jogging for most people: They do it occasionally, and it makes them happy. Then they go back to not doing it. - Henry Abbott

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 13, 2009 5:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That sounds right when you put it like that....

I wish you luck though, the draft lottery is pretty fun, especially if you win it! I am sure you think Griffin would look nice in a kings jersey…

RUDY > MJ

by myemic23 on Apr 14, 2009 12:36 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

the only way

to make this right is for you all to beat denver. signed a blazer fan

by 2phattoplay on Apr 13, 2009 10:52 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't understand why the refs said they can't review it. At the Portland - Houston game when Roy hit that miracle 3 to win the game, the refs reviewed that shot to make sure he got it off before time expires. What's the difference?

by dario argento on Apr 13, 2009 12:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Last shot of the game (or quarter?) is reviewable. Since there was time left on the clock, this one was not. Pretty dumb rule, but thus it is written.

Greg Oden = Robert Parish (HOF, 4x NBA champion, 9x NBA All-Star). The only other rookie with more than 500 points, 400 rebounds, and 65 blocks in under 1400 minutes played. Since 1946.

by Norsktroll on Apr 13, 2009 12:10 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wish we had beat them just because they disrespected us by sitting Duncan in a game that clearly made a difference in their division.

Coming to you live from the land of interim coaches.

by LeaguePassAddict on Apr 13, 2009 3:15 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, it was obviously bs, should have gone into OT.

But it’s about damn time we got a lucky break!

by Linix129 on Apr 13, 2009 3:45 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Summing it up in one photo -

A referee tank.

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Apr 13, 2009 5:50 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I looked at the picture for about 5 mins before I realized she was holding a football.

"If you don't have anything good to say, LIE" - Mom

by HighTops on Apr 14, 2009 1:36 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Outstanding HT

I salute her!

Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Apr 14, 2009 2:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs