Boston was screwed in the Finals. Confirmed.

[D-31]

That's only half the story, though -- free throws are where the conspiracy buffs really make their case, since the Lakers shot 51 more FTA than the Celtics did despite Boston taking more shots in the immediate basket area. Using the same methodology outlined above, except with FTA/Poss instead of PF/Poss, we see that Los Angeles took .259 FTA/Poss in a league where average was .263. Boston conceded .285 opponent FTA/Poss during the season, so we would expect L.A. to take (.259 / .263) * .285 = .281 FTA/poss in a series with the Celts; instead, they took .335 FTA/poss. On the other side, we would have expected Boston to have .244 FTA/poss against the Lakers, and in reality they had .249.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=6761

[hkhatir]

GTFO here.
13 point lead in the 3rd quarter of Game 7.
They lost because LA played excellent D, and Boston couldnt find the basket.
Rondo couldn't hit a free throw to save his life during the series and ray allen was broke as a a joke foe the majority of that series.
la was the better team.
child please

[D-31]

GTFO here.
13 point lead in the 3rd quarter of Game 7.
They lost because the refs under orders from Stern gave LA FTs for the entire 4th quarter

Fixed.

[cdt3]

Fixed?

The Lakers deserved to win.

Fisher and Artest and Gasol and Vujacic all hit clutch shots while trying to carry Kobe who was injured with something stuck in his throat and to giving Kobe the heimlick all game.

That is not easy to do my friend.

[Banks2Pierce]

GTFO here.
13 point lead in the 3rd quarter of Game 7.
They lost because LA played excellent D, and Boston couldnt find the basket.

Boston played excellent D and LA couldn't find the basket....until the whistles started flying in late in the 3rd quarter on one side of the court.

[KINGD]

Fixed?

The Lakers deserved to win.

Fisher and Artest and Gasol and Vujacic all hit clutch shots while trying to carry Kobe who was injured with something stuck in his throat and to giving Kobe the heimlick all game.

That is not easy to do my friend.

Artest 7-18, 2-7 from three
Gasol 6-16, 7-13 from the line
Vujacic 0-2,2 points


Yeah, they played so great.

[LAKERFAN24]

This is laughable.

[ShowtimeFan]

LOL, Celt fan...!

[cloud king]

if you'd actually watched the game, you would have seen that Boston simply fouled more, which is why the Lakers had more free throw. i know watching games is a really weird idea but you don't seem to understand stats either.

[erudite23]

That 4th quarter was a joke. I don't care who you are. That said, if Ray Allen can hit a jumper, they win anyway.

[ClubLakers KB8]

if you'd actually watched the game, you would have seen that Boston simply fouled more, which is why the Lakers had more free throw. i know watching games is a really weird idea but you don't seem to understand stats either.

Lakers fan (obviously), and I've seen the game a million times.

The 4th quarter was a foul fest. The only questionable calls I see are:

1.) Garnett had an open dunk which Gasol was late to rotate on. Could have been a foul once he recovered.
2.) Pau 100% traveled on a KEY basket at the end of the game.

Boston simply fouled more. I'm sorry, but it's true. I do feel somewhat bad about the 2 things I noted above because it was a very tight game, but any time I feel that way I think about Game 2 in 2008.

[Believe Donaghy]

LA won the whole series simply by out acting the Celtics. Boston played more old fashioned good defensive basket ball and LA simply just flopped and cried the whole time and got their way. End of story.

[Wavy Q]

LA won the whole series simply by out acting the Celtics. Boston played more old fashioned good defensive basket ball and LA simply just flopped and cried the whole time and got their way. End of story.

[wigglestrue]

if you'd actually watched the game, you would have seen that Boston simply fouled more, which is why the Lakers had more free throw. i know watching games is a really weird idea but you don't seem to understand stats either.

Lakers fan (obviously), and I've seen the game a million times.

The 4th quarter was a foul fest. The only questionable calls I see are:

1.) Garnett had an open dunk which Gasol was late to rotate on. Could have been a foul once he recovered.
2.) Pau 100% traveled on a KEY basket at the end of the game.

Boston simply fouled more. I'm sorry, but it's true. I do feel somewhat bad about the 2 things I noted above because it was a very tight game, but any time I feel that way I think about Game 2 in 2008.

Exactly what he said. The Pau travel is the only thing that really bothered me. But travelling in general bothers me. Travels are rampant, so complaining about any instance is futile, and in this context, a supposed dispute about which team should have won (real answer is always = the team holding up the trophy at the end of the game) (and lol, lend the 2006 Mavs your ear for a while if you want to hear a real sob story) such a complaint would bespeak of nothing but shameless homerism. In other words: Dems da breaks! Simmer down. Luck and ref incompetence and maybe even rigged calls are: PART OF THE GAME. Part of the challenge of winning. Part of the triumph.

[Mamba Venom]

GTFO here.
13 point lead in the 3rd quarter of Game 7.
They lost because LA played excellent D, and Boston couldnt find the basket.
Rondo couldn't hit a free throw to save his life during the series and ray allen was broke as a a joke foe the majority of that series.
la was the better team.
child please

The refs had more impact on the 1st half than on the second. As fans we asked for it and the NBA gave us what we wanted. And as a result the refs had MORE impact.

The conspiracy was that the NBA was afraid to have any of the stars thrown out of game 7. They didnt want us talking about how the 4th quarter would have changed if KG was still in there and I guess they were right but it was tough to watch a game where NOTHING was called and then EVERYTHING was called.

[picc]

Boston crying about officiating after 2008 is as ridiculous as LA doing it after 2002. The league changed the entire rulebook so they could play their "defense".

[J08]

What? Lakers won because celtics got locked down at the end.

Are celtics fan really complaining about free throws, you guys didnt have a problem in 2008 when leon powe got most bs calls. 2008 was more bs thn 2010