but I had our IT guy blow up and clarify a frame of the foul on Roy – it seems pretty clear that he slapped the ball not his arm. But that is always called a foul – they have to in case he misses the shot.

Did you notice where Hayes’ head when he got hurt by Aldridge? In LA’s armpit. Hayes fouled LA before the move which was not a hook – that is when the off arm impedes the defense player. Aldridge made a legal, and usually innocuous, pivot; the only problem was that Hayes had bodied up on him, right hand on his back, left arm reaching, both fouls.

But it was an evenly, if poorly, called game. Frankly, considering the Salvatorre/Palmer were on the ticket, we should be lucky there were not more disputes

The refs have it out for the Blazers. Always have, always will. ;-)

I’m guessing that the questioning of Roy in that thread was partly due to 1a) him not asserting himself until the 4th quarter and 1b) when he finally did assert himself, he was forcing some ugly 20 foot jump shots early in the clock and 2) Ron Artest being one of the single greatest one-on-one defenders in the league in the last 2 decades. Roy has been slow out of the gate this year, but that’s bound to happen when you have to go against Bruce Bowen, Koby Bryant, Raja Bell, RonRon, and in Utah (doesn’t matter who when it’s in Utah… it’s Utah, it’s always hard there).

That must’ve been a brutal loss to take… I know it was a brtutal loss to me when Yao hit the and-one. And then the miracle…

Especially the bit about McGrady for B-Roy. We have such lofty expectations for this season that a few off performances from our former Rookie of the Year, All-Star virtuoso shooting guard have people seeing red. I agree about the clock not starting in time, by the way — IMO though, the Rockets lost the game on the backboards and not the timekeeper’s finger.

Only reason I’d do it is because of age, not because of the skill set. Roy would be the perfect THIRD option for us, but he’s proving that he’s nowhere close to being a 1st option.

Blazers fans can enjoy the win, but they’ll never come out of the West with a total of zero superstars on their team. They have to trade for a true star if they want to be legit contenders.

By the time the first .1 seconds is off the clock, Roy has caught the ball, turned around, jumped, and has the ball over his head about to release it. By the time he releases it, another .2 seconds are off the clock. You can’t convince me that it wouldn’t have been at least close if the game was in Houston and the people running the clock were Houstonians.

say it ain’t so!

How is it not a standardized NBA official instead of a hometown clock operator? And how is there replay in the NBA, but something like that isn’t reviewable?

Honestly, the only reason us Rocket fans aren’t screaming bloody murder about this is because it was game 5 of the season. What if it was game 5 of the conference championship?

It’s not like this was the first time the “hometown clock operator” changed the outcome of a game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-081107

Hollinger writes that it took 23 frames each of which takes a third of a second (he must mean a third of a tenth of a second, 23*0.033=0.076) which would suggest the operator was a good 4 tenths late starting the clock but that Roy still made it in time… barely.

good luck for the season houston…I don’t think you’ll need it. but good luck.

first you are a keen observer of not just the game, but our fans. The game was fairly called despite the occasional “eh..” on a couple of occasions. But here’s the meat and potatos of whats going in in P-town with our fans.

It was a really really r e a l l y long summer for us. The passion was intense all summer in anticipation of our new look team. Greg was coming back, getting Bayless in a trade, drafting Batum, greeting Rudy at PDX with rabid packs of hooting fans, I mean, the crescendo of excitement hadn’t (maybe hasn’t) peaked.

So the season starts with a blowout loss to the LA Kobe, we lost Greg to injury, and Webster sits with a broken foot. Soon we are 1-3 and it felt like our hopes were being dashed. People began venting their frustration and officials are the easiest of targets.
Thats all I think you are perceiving, that we are poor sports to complain about calls, when really its just an easy outlet for us to vent our pent up frustration after having such high expectations.

The Bedgers posted over 2000 comments if I recall over two separate half threads. Doubted 10% of them were biased anti-ref sentiment, but I Bedge wearing rose-red colored glasses as well.

At least MacGrady didnt run out of control into Joel to get the superstar exception* and prompt Marv Albert to gush over T-Macs second half explosion.

Good luck Rockets, I respect your team and fans.

after several years of being the NBAs laughing stock, and restoring what was once a storied franchise, the PTB have assembled a new group of talented players with character. Im glad to see fans like you recognize the strides we have made as a team to restore respectability. Its one thing to earn the admiration around the league, but it was our fans who had to struggle with an era of malcontents and losing, and PTB fans who now reap the rewards of demanding the team return to the core values that inspired a once successful franchise.

I’m also an admirer of the Blazers. Good team, great city, great, passionate fans.