Spurs are horrible

I'm back from a big-time slacking Memorial Day weekend.

Things I missed:

The Celtics winning on the road.

The Spurs blowing the Lakers out of the water.

Something about golf.

A whole 1\25th of the MLB season.

But onto tonight. I only caught the last 20 minutes of the game. When I came in, the game was tied. Over the next 17 minutes, San Antonio made eight shots. It wasn't very pretty. Ginobili was invisible much of the game, and Duncan didn't shoot well at all down the stretch.

In short, the Spurs did not deserve to win the game.

That said, after a couple 3-pointers by Brent Barry and a suddenly on fire Manu, they were only down two with 27 seconds left, Lakers ball. Fisher airballed a shot (where was that against Utah, Fish?) and then Kobe missed another tough shot as the shot clock expired and it looked like San Antonio might have a chance.

Down two, 2.something to go. The Spurs called a timeout and ran Brent Barry off a couple screens to get him the ball at the top of the key. This part of the play worked well, and Fisher had to pop out to guard Barry. Barry pump-faked Fisher into the air, who left his feet and fell forward onto Barry.

Now, I've been saying for a long time that if the defensive player jumps straight up and comes straight down, and the offensive player jumps into him, it should be a foul on the guy with the ball, ie. the one who initiated the contact.

But here, Fisher was clearly moving forward in his jump and landed on Barry.

No whistle, Barry is forced to huck up a desperation 3-pointer that is wide right, game over.

Lakers fans: "It was the last five seconds of the game! Of course the refs are going to swallow their whistles. Stop whining. The Lakers have 28 championships!"

Spurs fans: "That was a foul! Duncan was hacked every time he touched the ball in the fourth quarter and shot zero free throws! This is more evidence of an NBA conspiracy to get the Lakers and Celtics into the Finals. Oh well, it's an even-numbered year."

As someone who hates both teams evenly, I'm going to have side with Spurs fans here. I disagree that refs won't call fouls in the last five seconds of a close game; I've seen them do it before and there was no reason to not call a foul here.

Anyway, I'm not too riled up about it. I could stand to not watch another game in this series, whether there be one or three more.

Fun times.

UPDATE: How on earth did I forget to mention that Joey Crawford reffed this game? Really, David Stern? You sent Crawford to ref a do-or-die game in San Antonio? Crawford, the ref who assessed Tim Duncan a technical foul for laughing on the bench last season? The same Crawford who reportedly challenged Duncan to a fight in the same game? The same Crawford that was suspended from refereeing for the playoffs in 2007?

Wow. I'm not saying this is part of the vast conspiracy by Stern to get L.A. to the Finals, but you may want to at least avoid the appearance of evil here, Mr. Commissioner.