I had to come and sign up for SBNation so I can join you guys in this thread. I am so disgusted with the way we are getting hosed by the refs. I also hate complaining about the refs in a game, but it’s been blatantly inconsistent. It’s going to be tough but I think we can pull this out still.

Deron is playing out of his mind incredible. I mean he is just playing at a whole other level. Too bad Boozer is asleep and Okur is not 100%. If it weren’t for Brewer on the weak side, this would be far uglier than it is.

but Okur hasn’t been open at the 3pt line the entire game.

can’t make that call in that instance, but c’mon. SERIOUSLY. Memo should have known better and fought to box out.

Good try by the Jazz, but 8 on 5 is just too difficult to overcome.

...can we win Game 6?

If you can take one good thing out of this game it’s that the Lakers bench sucked bad, and at home. They may be even worse in a game 7 with the added pressure. Radmanovic did have his first decent game, but I find it hard to believe that’ll hold up.

The infuriating part is that nobody other than Williams and Brewer showed up. If they’d had anyone else show they could’ve taken it.

This is the first game in LA that I honestly thought the Jazz were going to win (even with 6-7 minutes left), but it’s also the first one in the series that I thought the refs seriously impacted.

I felt that if the Jazz could have even gotten a one-point lead, they would have rolled with it. We had chances, but we just couldn’t convert.

As for the refs, the push off on the Gasol put back, the call on AK when Vujacic (sp?) dribbled off his foot (called by an official on the other side of the court), and the phantom foul on the give-and-go to Odom where he dunked in the open court with no one near him were absolutely dreadful. I got the impression that the refs’ philosophy was to get the Lakers shooting free throws early and often in the fourth, and they did.

On the other hand, we took some bad shots down the stretch, and we couldn’t hit a f*cking lay-up when it counted. So, it’s not totally the refs fault, but I thought that they had a profound influence this game. A guy at forumblueandgold.com said it seemed like Deron Williams against the officials in the fourth quarter…I couldn’t have said it better myself, and he was a Laker fan.

Or could it be he is really an attorney/shark?!

You simply can’t win a close game against 8 players, especially when the other three have one way whistles!

Though I know I should not look past game 6, game 7 is going to be one of the wildest old west shootouts since the Eyrps took on the the Cowboys at the OK corral!

You have got to TAKE the refs OUT of the game, the only way to do that is with a 10 point lead! AT LEAST! They can’t really alter a game when that much if dominance is demonstrated!

WE did not do our part, meaning the JAZZMEN, to hit critical shots at critical times to make such happen. Add the inability to actually make a solid stop upon them, we handed this game to Javie, the AH that he is.

One, two bad calls a game, fine, the game moves very fast at times, but their whistles, seemingly, did not work on one side of the court! Oh and were anticipatory at the other.

The broadcasters will NOT show the fouls! As the NBA has extorted them NOT to do so! “Bank on it”! But I am miffed at how it seems only some announcers will even make a comment on a bad call. That creates frustration on so many points. Hey, is it not the TV folks paying the bills? Call them out, tell them how it’s gonna be a totally fair called game or coverage and revenues STOP! People are very tired of Stern’s dictated finals contestants. And if the problem is coming from the TV folks, tell them to go away today, it will not take long for honorable broadcasters to fill the gap!

I suggest for game 6 and 7 we bring in some Russian reffs! They know the game and don’t give a hoot in hades about Stern! (though they may have a preference for the greatest Russian player to have ever taken to the court).

Watching it live I thought the officiating was bad, but not that bad, in the fourth. Reviewing the tape I’ve discovered I was wrong. The refs stole that game, plain and simple.

The Vujacic dribble off the foot, Odom’s phantom 3-point play (as bad as a call as you can imagine, no one near him), Williams and others getting repeatedly hammered inside, the two Gasol pushes. What a joke. What’s worse, they needed every one of those calls to guarantee the victory. You call just one Gasol push and that’s a 4 point swing and suddenly it comes down to the absolute last second. Call both pushes and the Lakers lose.

I also love how the TV people collaborate with the refs, just like RRR says. I remember watching the second Gasol offensive board at the end and wondering whether or not Okur was just flopping. They keep showing the same angles where you can’t see jack so I think, “hmm, maybe that’s okay, maybe there was nothing.” Then I watch the tape from the standard angle and it’s there clear as day. But no no no, don’t show us the angle where you can see Gasol shoving Okur, just keep it nice and close and vague so most people will go away from the game thinking nothing happened.

On the plus side, maybe these obviously bad, nearly conspiratorial calls will make the refs give ‘em a fair game later. On the other hand, no, that’ll never happen. On yet another hand, the Jazz get hosed in the fourth, don’t play especially well and still almost pull it out. So maybe they can do it, with or with out the refs.