One word - traveshamockery

If you guessed that this is a combination of the words “travesty” “sham” and “mockery,” then you’d be right. And really that’s the only way to describe Game 3 of the Thunder/Lakers series. With what can only be described as home cooking all night long, the Lakers used a 42-28 free throw attempt disparity to pull out a 99-96 victory. Since this is my blog, you’ll get my opinion, and I’m not going to pull any punches here - this was one of the most poorly officiated games I’ve ever seen. There have been some very obvious missed calls in this series (most notably the Metta World Peace clothesline of not 1 but 2 Thunder players here) but even commentators Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy were making comments on how bad the calls were. At least 2 “fouls” by Harden on Kobe were clean blocked shots, and a potential game changing rebound by Kevin Durant is negated when he’s shoved to the ground and loses control of the ball, with no foul called - replays clearly showing the bump and shove by Pau Gasol.

If you take away the free throws made by Kobe for the non-fouls, and add in even one point off of free throws that KD would have made (more likely two, since he’s an excellent free throw shooter) this game becomes a Thunder win. And I’ll admit that there were likely some other Thunder fouls that were not called, but the obvious pro-Laker bias in the officiating makes one wonder if a call came directly from David Stern to the referees before the game that went something along the lines of “the Lakers are going to win tonight, right?” And don’t act all shocked…there’s a former NBA referee serving time in prison RIGHT NOW for gambling on games he officiated. An officials conspiracy is far from an impossibility.

Several times Kobe gets calls because he’s Kobe, and similar contact with any other Thunder player goes uncalled. When the unbiased guys broadcasting the game for the national TV audience are telling you that these are bad calls or no calls, then you know the officiating is poor. If I’m Scott Brooks, I’m sending a tape of this game to the league office, and at least getting a public comment from the NBA that this game was not called correctly. Is this going to change the outcome? Of course not. But maybe it will improve their chances at getting a win in game 4, scheduled for Saturday night in LA. #ThunderNationRISE