CelticsLNShow: Talking Celtics/Lakers– Live at 7 pm Tonight

Posted January 31st, 2010 by Nick Gelso & filed under Random.

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The Big Day is Upon Us…

Beat LA!

The Celtics Late Night Show

Tonight

at

7 pm EST

We will have complete analysis of the big showdown with the Lakers. We will be live with all our usual segments and “The Scotsmen” is all fired up!

We will be taking your calls all night. As always, no call is left behind and no topic off limits!

347.215.7771

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5 Comments

1. Calvin February 1, 2010

   I have about 30 disagreements with what was said over the course of this podcast, many of which would be more clearly understood by anyone who bothers to check out the running blog Lee and I wrote (not that I am holding out hope of people sifting through it).

   Let me just say a few short things about a pet peeve of mine. Lakers/Celtics aside, I find the blaming of losses on referees disheartening and unfortunate, except in rare cases when the calls over the course of a game are so incredibly one sided and horrendous that one has no choice but to consider that the referees directly influenced the outcome of the game. An aspect to the game of basketball is the ability to draw fouls or avoid getting called for fouls, for example. Just because a call is incorrect does not necessarily mean it was not generated by the abilities of the player. Court awareness and saavy is an important attribute of basketball.

   In this particular case, the Celtics were the beneficiary of several incorrect calls including out of bounds calls that went the wrong way. The Pierce offensive foul in the final minute seems to be the greatest source of animosity from the hosts and callers. While I do believe that Artest greatly exaggerated the extent of the damage done, the obviousness of the foul cannot be debated. Replay clearly showed Pierce fully extending his arm with his hand in Artest’s chest. Had he given Artest an elbow or a little bit of a forearm you would have a legitimate argument for a no call, but there is no justifiable situation in which you can allow an offensive player to use his arm to create 3-4 feet of space. The move was essentially a stiffarm, and your criticism should be directed at Pierce for executing the maneuver at the end of the game. Why did it happen? I’m not sure, perhaps Artest had gotten into his head. Regardless, to blame the referees on that call specifically is myopic.

   Reply
2. Nick Gelso February 1, 2010

   First off Calvin, Your “running rivalry recap” has already gotten 80 reads and it’s only been up for a few hours so don’t doubt that people read ur stuff even if they are not commenting.

   Secondly, regarding the officiating…

   During the course of the show, I stated several times that I didn’t feel the refs were to blame. I also stated that the officiating, as with any NBA game, was piss poor but poor for both sides. Both the C’s and Lakers received an equal amount of bad calls. The officials are not blame for this loss.

   Regarding PP’s “push-off”…

   I stated during the first 5 mins of the show that PP did push off but I didnt feel that it was a call to be made to determine a game. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James have all made that type of move. I agree, Pierce obviously extended his arm to evade Artest but what was more obvious was Artest’s acting like he got hit with a ton of bricks. Good acting Ron. Pierce created his own space by doing his patented step back fade-away and it was not created through Pierce’s arm “in artest’s chest.” I realize this is the NBA and I do not blame the Celtics heartbreaking loss on this call but no one would have said anything if that was a “no call” which is what it should have been. After-all, their was a mysterious no-call on Kobe’s shot which had a fewwww extra steps. This is the NBA though so… no big deal.

   Regarding the show…

   At the 11 minute mark (approximately), I clearly stated that the refs officiated this game poorly but were poor for both sides– making this officiating as fair as possible for an NBA game and not to blame for the Lakers win or the C’s loss. Though Celtics fans were understandably upset by the loss and looking for any reason for how the C’s let another one slip away after playing so well, I feel (as hosts) we were quite fair in holding players (such as Ray and Rasheed) accountable and I also pointed out Kobe’s shot as being “remarkable,” Bynum being a monster down low… giving them their due credit.

   Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment with you observations. Next time, you need to call into the show. We’d love to have some live comments from a die hard Lakers fan such as yourself.

   Reply
3. Calvin February 1, 2010

   The point I was trying to make regarding Pierce is that the reason you cannot allow that play to be a non-call is because he used his arm to create several feet of space between himself and Artest, thereby gaining a huge competitive advantage. Had it simply been a forearm or elbow or even a hand on Artest’s chest as their bodies were pressed together (that sounds strangely homoerotic), you would have a better argument for a non-call. That was an offensive foul blatant enough to be called in any situation and necessary because it is impossible for a defensive player in the NBA to recover from that much distance created (illegally). You will see that particular play called 98 times out of 100. I can tell you with certainty that Kobe would have never gotten away with that. In fact, Kobe was called for an offensive foul on a play which involved a slight bump of the elbow earlier in the game, a play nowhere near as egregious as Pierce’s obvious play. Kobe is called for more offensive fouls than any player in the league.

   As far as the referee thing is concerned, it was not as much you as it was the other host and a caller. There was one who made the specific statement that “the Celtics did not lose that game, the referees took the game away from them”, followed by the other guy saying he was inclined to agree. Then he followed it up with a five minute rant about how the NBA helps America and the referees deprived the good people of Boston, etc.

   Also, nobody failed to mention the gift calls that went the other way near the end of the game. The out of bounds play that was clearly off Glen Davis. The phantom foul shots that were given to Ray Allen on a play where he fell seemingly untouched well after the ball had left his hand. And so on. I don’t have a problem with those, because of what I said in my original statement about referee influence being a part of the game. What I do have a problem with is the idea that yesterday’s game was somehow officiated in the Lakers favor. In fact, there was a specific point late in the game where Lee and I both agreed that the Celtics had gotten the benefit of a lot of calls. But if the Lakers had lost the game I would not have blamed it on the referees.

   Reply
4. Matt February 1, 2010

   This could possibly be the most painful thing I’ll say all day…

   Paul Pierce deserved that foul call and the Celtics deserved to lose.

   The arm was extended and regardless of how many Oscars Artest receives for his performance, the call was the correct one. Agreeing with Laker fans (especially the ones I saw at the game yesterday – tight designer jeans, spiked hair, completely metrosexual) is something I never like to do, but in this instance our friend Calvin is right.

   The Celtics did not deserve to win that game yesterday afternoon. Yes, they finally put together 20+ straight minutes of quality “Celtics basketball” but when it was all said and done they couldn’t close out at home (again).

   The thing that worries me the most is that during the championship season the Garden was rocking every night and most team pretty much knew coming in that they were going to be going home with a loss. Now, the intensity is fading and everyone in the building is becoming rather indifferent at times.

   Scheduling and referees are not a topic that should be discussed after any loss. As all great teams do, the Celtics need to turn it up a notch when bad calls go against them. I’m tired of the Celtics allowing their mental instabilities to control how they play the game.

   This is going to open another can of worms, but if they Celtics don’t get their act together they might end up finding themselves in a first round ROAD series as the 5 seed against Atlanta. But then again, the way they’ve been playing at home, maybe that’s a good thing.

   Reply
5. Nick Gelso February 1, 2010

   Well said Matt.

   Reply

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