The NBA is lucky Rashard Lewis made a 3 instead of a 2 otherwise Cleveland wins by 1 in regulation (I know technically they missed the FT on Howard's T and made the on on Ewing's, but Ewing's T only happened for protesting the T on Howard)

This series is also showing that lame refs can only do so much, sure they can give Lebron FTs to send the game to OT, but a lame coach like Brown can still find a way to lose. What a joke that he won coach of the year. Stern needs to stage an intervention, the best player in the league can't play for such an idiot.

Brown relies on his assistant coaches more than anyone, and it shows. Overrated.

And that game should never have gone to OT. LeBron had no business going to the free throw line after stumbling forward into Pietrus. The replay clearly shows "King James" stretching out, desperately trying to draw contact after Pietrus fell back, 'pulling the chair' as they say.

Can't imagine how depressed Stern must be now... Maybe he needs to realize that building up only a handful of players is actually counter-intuitive. It's polarizing. Outside of L.A and Cleveland, why are most fans pulling for Denver-Orlando? Because everyone wants to crap on the league's dream and its two entitled brats, er... Superstars. What a surprise. How is special treatment ever a sympathetic burden?

I would not call Kobe Bryant a "spoiled brat."

Unlike LeBron, Kobe was never hyped as the next Jordan before his first NBA game. Kobe never had a multi-million dollar deal with Nike before his first game. Kobe never made it into the NBA Finals in his 3rd year to get wrapped up and smoked in 4 games by Tim Duncan & Co.

Kobe has had to deal with controversy, coaching changes, a truly crappy team the year after the Pistons beat LA in 5 for the title, and a goofball of an ex-teammate who is a crappy rapper with a video game called Shaq Fu.

The similarity they share is the entire weight of the world expecting them to win rings every year.

Kobe was never hyped as the next Jordan before his first NBA game.

actually, he was. he even said something to that effect himself. it's an infamous quote. when Bryant first played against Jordan, there's another famous quote--they called him "Jordan 2.0". and so on.

Kobe has had to deal with controversy, coaching changes,

rape charges, crying (literally) on the sidelines when the Pistons handed him his ass, claiming that the Lakers only had one superstar and Shaq wasn't it, complaining that the league was "out to get him" because they didn't call fouls in his favor enough...

Who is the next Jordan schmordan bunk has been going on for a long time. My first recollection of it was when Grant Hill was drafted by the Pistons, had a good couple of years, and then the injuries piled on him in his prime like they did Ken Griffey Jr. His name has never mentioned in the same breadth as Jordan's since.

As for the rape charges, that was the controversy that I was alluding to.

If you are going to bring up players crying over not getting foul calls in their favor, then any player who has received a technical in the NBA playoffs is guilty of it. In that case, Rasheed Wallace is the biggest crybaby out of all them with his prolific technical foul call history. Fact is, the Pistons had the Lakers number that year and it showed with them swooping LA for the title in 5.

As for Shaq, I wouldn't want that overinflated ego with a pathetic work ethic on my team either. He can keep in shape with his MMA trainer all he wants, but not showing up for pre-season work outs conveys an incredible lack of concern for the "team" and not caring for anyone else but the all great "Shaq."

Clyde Drexler was quite a whiner in his day.

Tonight's crew had some odd spells -- Tom Washington of Blazers Game 1 "These refs suck" fame was front and center at some mystery moments -- but at least they didn't let spacey calls swing the entire game.

I thought the obvious charge by Pau Gasol that turned into Nene's 6th foul deep into the 4th quarter of what was then a 4-point game, was a key moment.
The announcers knew it was a suspicious horrible call and got very quiet. So Pau goes to the freethrow line and Nene goes to the bench. The Lakers were never seriously threatened again.
Denver had played terribly in the beginning of the quarter with all their character-problem guys choking, but they did manage to scrap their way into a threatening position.
With LeBron on the ropes it appeared the refs were in no mood to watch Kobe go too.

Any discussion of what makes Kobe such a jerk has to include his interview with the Colorado police after the rape charge, in which he allegedly ratted out Shaq for paying off women. If true, it shows a real scoundrel at work, who only comes off nice if everything is going his way.

I would love to see Orlando and Denver in the Finals.

The Nene call was a little suspicious, but I didn't think it was that bad. It looked to me as though he threw his right hip out a little. But maybe not. It was close.

The Nuggets fell apart, especially Billups. He was far from a savior tonight. K-Mart is also choking. The whole team threw up brick after brick in the 4th. On the other end, Lamar showed up.

Kobe may have been acquitted on all charges, but he's still creepy.

Orlando vs. Denver will never be allowed -- never in a million NBA seasons. Be grateful for one out of two, and even that is not assured.

Kobe wasn't acquitted. The prosecution dropped the charges against him after the woman he was accused of attacking decided not to testify. I believe that happened right after her identity was revealed in the press.

Yeah I thought the Nene foul was ok, the Nuggets legit complaint last night was that they never got any calls when they drove.

As soon as they called that "T" I thought to myself that it would be rescinded. He was celebrating a great play, and clearly not taunting another player. If they hadn't rescinded it then I'd be squarely in the conspiracy "nut job" camp right now.

The reffing in last nights game was a joke down the stretch, but the Nuggets need to take the refs out of it by not choking in the 4th quarter.

Unfortunately I think you're right Jack. They already are playing the LeBron vs. Kobe commercials! 1 out of 2 is about the best we can hope for, unless of course we get the "greatest comeback of all time" from LeBron courtesy of a Dwight Howard suspension in game 7.

Term limit the refs. Say, two 3-year tours and done, whistle for new blood in the game.

Or also, now there are 82 refs, I think. Double it, and each one works half-as-many games. Or some of them work fewer games as ref interns.

Magic Nuggets, yeah!