Good News for the Celtics

David Stern does not want this series to be 3-0 so the fix will be in for the Celtics tonight.


But seriously, the officiating has been terrible in the first two games.  Before you get upset, I will concede two things:


1.  The Celtics were not winning Game 1 even with good officiating.
2.  With the injuries the Celtics have, they were probably not winning the series even if they won Game 2.


However, the officiating in both games was terrible.  In Game 1, there were four technical fouls called on the Celtics (excluding defensive three seconds) and none were called on the Heat.  I hate it when players get technical fouls for stupid reasons.  You're giving away a point 80+% of the time.  Especially in the playoffs, you just can't give away points.  And the referees can't be giving one team points by making terrible technical foul calls.  I thought three of the four technical fouls were ridiculous.  Ray Allen and Doc Rivers got called for technicals without doing anything outrageous.  Kevin Garnett got called for a team technical for delay of game for touching the ball after the Celtics scored.  He didn't hit it or throw it away, he touched it.  I was fine with calling a technical on Rondo for getting a little physical with one of the Heat players after a basket, but Mike Breen thought that was a bad call too (and he always defends the refs).


In Game 2, you can look at the free throw disparity and Paul Pierce's fouls compared to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.  But one huge play in overtime completely changed the game.  With the game tied, Rajon Rondo drove to the basket and as he was attempting a difficult shot, he got smacked in the face by Dwyane Wade.  Rondo missed the shot and went down.  With Rondo down, the Heat went down the floor five on four and scored to take the lead.  It was a four-point swing created by the missed foul in overtime.  That's unacceptable.

Yep, no foul there.

Rant about Rondo's free throw shooting:  Rajon Rondo is a terrible foul shooter (59.7% this year).  I am a much better free throw shooter than Rondo is.  He is at least a million times better than me at everything that you do in basketball except for shooting foul shots (he's also a bad three point shooter, but he's a much better three point shooter because my range is about 21 or 22 feet).  Whenever I shoot around by myself, I shoot 100 free throws and keep track of how many I make.  When I shoot on a good rim (as in not the rims at camp), I make about 85 of them (I've made as many as 90, I was really excited when I did that).


But if you think Rondo was missing either of those two free throws if they called the foul, you're wrong.  Rondo was amazing in that game.  Every time he took a jump shot, I had complete confidence that it was going in (something that's never ever happened before with Rondo).  He was not missing those foul shots.  The Celtics should have been up by two which would have made it a different game.  For much of that game, Rondo was playing by himself (especially when Pierce fouled out).  And he almost managed to beat the Heat.  He just couldn't beat both the Heat and the referees by himself.


Go Celtics!