Lakers Re-Define "Stealing One on the Road"

A league statement this afternoon confirmed what pretty much everyone already knew: Derek Fisher fouled Brent Barry on the Final possession of last night's game four. Joey Crawford (of all people) missed the call. The almost certainly ensuing two hits at the stripe would have sent the game into overtime with the Spurs riding homecourt and the momentum of a late-game surge. Now they find themselves a game away from elimination against a team that's quite frankly outperformed them; their quest for a first repeat in serious peril. Some may cry foul; call this an injustice that serves as this series' most pivotal point. I call it the nature of the game. Let's take a recent, relevant exmaple: Spurs hater as I may be, there's no denying the truth behind last year's Western Semis against the Suns:

- With the two teams locked in their first Epic Game 1, Pretty Tony delivered an inadvertant headbutt to Steve Nash, splitting his nose, sending blood everywhere, and forcing the Suns to play the last three minutes of a game they'd go on to lose without their most important player.

- Down the stretch of Game 2, a serious stretch of calls seemed to be going San Antonio's way; the balance of foul calls was way out of wack and the scales just seemed tilted. I swore there was some kind of referee conspiracy. Then a few months later I found out Tim Donaghy was working that game. Huge surprise there.

- Then there was Game 5, you know, the one the Suns narrowly lost despite having two of their five best players in streets for barely leaving the bench in response to a blatant cheap shot that coudl've seriously injured their teammate. You must've heard that story.

Do I put an asterix beside the Spurs' title last year after they won that series? Nah, they played remarkably effective basketball and earned their rings. But shit happens. It's a shame that the league office and whistle-blowers can take games out of the players' hands but that's a reality every player, coach and fan has to live with. Last year San Antonio was the beneficiary of some questionable outcomes, and this year they've been screwed by them. Call it whatever you want, but for fuck's sake, if you're one of the 219 Spurs fans out there, don't call it unfair.