Eastern Conference Finals: A Battle of Incompetence

Watching game 5, I was struck by three things:

1. The utter incompetence demonstrated by the Boston Celtics when they attempted get an open look - any open look - down the stretch. Every possession was Rondo dribbling 30 feet from the basket till there were 8 seconds left on the shot clock and then lobbing some horrid pass to Garnett or Pierce 22 feet from the basket, where they had to chuck up a heavily contested fadeaway jumper or turn it over trying to get closer. It was an embarrassing display.

2. The utter incompetence demonstrated by the Detroit Pistons, namely Rasheed Wallace, in maintaining their composure down the stretch. His technical foul was a huge difference in the game. That one point allowed Boston to intentionally foul to prevent a three point attempt, and after Stuckey missed one of two, allowed Garnett to ice the game with two free throws to put Boston up 4. If I were a Piston fan, I would be furious with him. You CANNOT get a technical foul with four or however many minutes left in the game. You just can't.

3. The utter incompetence demonstrated by the referees in attempting to call a consistent game. First they allowed nothing, then they called everything. A bump was a flagrant foul; a neck tackle was not. It was as absurdly and poorly officiated game as I can remember seeing, and the league should be embarrassed. And as awful as Rasheed getting that technical was, those refs need to swallow their whistles. It's an intense game; shrug it off, zebras.

This series was destined to go seven games from the beginning, and you can rest assured that David Stern has already given the officials a stern (ZING!) talking to, and we will see a clear home team bias for the last two games. We can also be certain that Sam Cassell is looking forward to his own personal version of Red Auerbach's victory "cigar":

UPDATE: Rasheed agrees with point 3: "All that bull(bleep)-ass calls they had out there. With Mike [Callahan] and Kenny [Mauer] -- you've all seen that (bleep)," Wallace said. "You saw them calls. The cats are flopping all over the floor and they're calling that (bleep). That (bleep) ain't basketball out there. It's all (bleeping) entertainment. You all should know that (bleep). It's all (bleeping) entertainment."