You went with a Fish Over a Snake?

Last night in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, the great coach Phil Jackson made a decision I will never understand, and of course, Kobe is going to catch the flack for it. With the Lakers down by 3 and 4 sec's left in the game, Phil Jackson used Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba, as a decoy and called for Derik Fisher to take the game tying shot. I have seen Kobe make 3's from almost half-court to win games, so I just don't understand the logic. But this is not what had me the most upset last night, that would be a 69-year-old man.

That man is Dick Bavetta, one of the most respected referees in the NBA. So respected that ESPN never has a bad thing to say about the guy, until today. J.A. Adanda, a ESPN.com writer, pointed out in the 2nd article of this link, that Mr. Bavetta was making calls to help out the visitors. I am never one to complain about the referees, and that is saying a lot coming from a former player and current coach, but this game was called terrible. There is really only one thing that refs do that gets under my skin, that is when they are inconsistant. And that crew last night was a great example of that. I won't get into all the reasons for that, but I will just touch on one major example that changed the outcome of the game. Early in the 4th quarter, Denver's PG, Chauncey Billups, tried to make a pass which he basically threw right at the shins of LA's Pau Gasol. Bavetta called a kick ball and Denver got the ball out of bounds. Now with about 20 secs left in the game, Kobe was attempting to drive to the basket with the Lakers down 2. He did a crossover dribble to split Melo and Denver's Nene (yes that is his full name), and the dribble went right off of the foot of Nene. The ball bounced away from Kobe and it ended up being a jump ball situation. That was basically the exact same play that was called a kick ball earlier in the game, and it was not called here, on a much more important play. Then they blew a massive violation call on Denver's JR Smith during the jump ball that all but cost the Lakers the game, well besides the whole Fish over Snake thing.