2002 Game 6 vs SAC

[RxOne]

I've lurked on this board since the early 2000's, forgot more ID's and passwords than I can remember, so I know this topic has been covered ad-nauseam here. But since the season has been suspended, I see the "controversy" brought up a lot on social media lately and it's mostly by kids too young to have paid attention when it happened, or people only looking at the box score of that single game.

The point I want to make, which I never see anyone point out, is that the Kings got the favorable whistles through-out the series as a whole.

Game 1: SAC 17 FT / LAL 22 FT
Game 2: SAC 38 FT / LAL 25 FT
Game 3: SAC 35 FT / LAL 15 FT
Game 4: SAC 26 FT / LAL 27 FT
Game 5: SAC 33 FT / LAL 23 FT
Game 6: SAC 25 FT / LAL 40 FT
Game 7: SAC 30 FT / LAL 33 FT
TOTAL: SAC 204 FT / LAL 185 FT

Everyone whines about game six, but Shaq and Kobe account for 28 of those FT's and they were attacking the basket like their playoff lives depended on it, meanwhile Bibby, C Webb, Vlade, Christy and Turkoglu went cold on jumpshots.

SAC was +20, +13, +10 in games they held the FT advantage. Aside from game 6, the other games were fairly close in FT's. (LAL +5, +1, +3) Which is the opposite of what you would expect because Shaq is a paint beast, Frobe is a slasher, you'd expect them to have more FT's than a jump shooting team.

I get it, were the Lakers, and we're gonna get hated on no matter what, but just the way this myth is perpetuated like it's accepted fact still bugs me 18 years later.

[danfantastk32]

I've lurked on this board since the early 2000's, forgot more ID's and passwords than I can remember, so I know this topic has been covered ad-nauseam here. But since the season has been suspended, I see the "controversy" brought up a lot on social media lately and it's mostly by kids too young to have paid attention when it happened, or people only looking at the box score of that single game.

The point I want to make, which I never see anyone point out, is that the Kings got the favorable whistles through-out the series as a whole.

Game 1: SAC 17 FT / LAL 22 FT
Game 2: SAC 38 FT / LAL 25 FT
Game 3: SAC 35 FT / LAL 15 FT
Game 4: SAC 26 FT / LAL 27 FT
Game 5: SAC 33 FT / LAL 23 FT
Game 6: SAC 25 FT / LAL 40 FT
Game 7: SAC 30 FT / LAL 33 FT
TOTAL: SAC 204 FT / LAL 185 FT

Everyone whines about game six, but Shaq and Kobe account for 28 of those FT's and they were attacking the basket like their playoff lives depended on it, meanwhile Bibby, C Webb, Vlade, Christy and Turkoglu went cold on jumpshots.

SAC was +20, +13, +10 in games they held the FT advantage. Aside from game 6, the other games were fairly close in FT's. (LAL +5, +1, +3) Which is the opposite of what you would expect because Shaq is a paint beast, Frobe is a slasher, you'd expect them to have more FT's than a jump shooting team.

I get it, were the Lakers, and we're gonna get hated on no matter what, but just the way this myth is perpetuated like it's accepted fact still bugs me 18 years later.

Yes...I completely agree that this is one of those times yet again, where the narrative is total BS. One night, in a fit of complete boredom (and I'm sure a 12-pack) I remember going back through all the playoffs from the 99-00 season to the 2010-ish season, and if I remember it correctly (this was about 7-8 years ago....and god knows how many beers...so give a guy a break) we actually got the FT advantage in I think only 3 series. I'm gonna say 4 to play it safe. We had a pretty decent advantage that series in 04 against the T-Wolves in the WCC. Our only time, in all our series, where Laker haters might have a gripe. I think we had a series against the Jazz. Some other series....and I want to say we had the advantage against Portland in the historic 00 series. But those three were barely, and let's also throw in the 'hack-a-shaq' that skewed things slightly. But even despite that, it was ony 3 - maybe 4 series where we had an advantage. And really that T-Wolves one was the only 'decided advantage' in all of them.

Another thing I'll throw in there: This Sacramento series was gonna be nothing but another pulverization by the Lakers. Game's 1 and 2 were in Sacramento...and we went in and controlled game 1, start to finish. And then they POISONED our second best player...and it took a real horribly reffed game-2 on top of it (Sac got major calls, and FT advantage in that game) to bring it back to LA split.

Take away the fact that they poisoned Kobe, and had to give them a couple games with awful calls....and that series was a sweep.

It's the part I've always hated about that whole thing. They never belonged in the same room with is. I just laugh whenever I hear Cow-Town folk say they got robbed. They freakin poisoned Kobe, and still needed the refs.

[RxOne]

Another thing I'll throw in there: This Sacramento series was gonna be nothing but another pulverization by the Lakers. Game's 1 and 2 were in Sacramento...and we went in and controlled game 1, start to finish. And then they POISONED our second best player...and it took a real horribly reffed game-2 on top of it (Sac got major calls, and FT advantage in that game) to bring it back to LA split

I distinctly remember feeling the same watching back in the day. Like the NBA banked on this being a good series but SAC was no match for us.

[Beethoven]

I watched that game several times to see if i was biased due to all the hate past many years and i still don't see the "conspiracy" .
I roll my eyes whenever i see debate about this these days.

If they where going to make the Lakers win they would not have relied upon that Rob making the last second 3 to put us tied instead of going down 1-3. Too much to overcome and just inconceivable to think they would have trusted we execute that last play out to a tee to win that game 4

[Sedale Threatt]

This dude at least took the time to rewatch and chart every call. That's still a subjective enterprise, and there were obviously a handful of calls that could have gone the other way, or were flat-out wrong.

https://www.82games.com/lakerskingsgame6.htm

But hey, that's sports. More specifically, that's homecourt advantage. Some dude wrote an entire book on that, with the specific advantage basically coming down to officials being influenced by screaming fans over the course of 2-3 hours. That's across all sports, with home teams getting more stoppage time in soccer when they're losing, home teams recovering more fumbles in football (which is especially interesting given that would seemingly be cut and dried), home teams getting more generous strike zones in baseball ... on and on. The actual performance of the athletes themselves isn't impacted much at all in comparison.

https://www.amazon.com/Scorecasting-Hidden-Influences-Behind-Sports/dp/0307591794

So did we benefit here and there? For sure. But you're doing a pretty crappy job of rigging a game if it's a 1-point margin in the final seconds. And that's before we get to Game 7, in which the Kings peed down their collective legs. Or looking back on Game 5, when Webber wiped Fish out with a moving screen on Bibby's winner.

[snaquille oatmeal]

Wrong! I’ve made this point several times especially about game 5

[Dmkorc23]

I don't know why statistics are even necessary. Basic understanding tells you that a team that has 2 superstars attacking the basket will result in more fouls and thus free throws being awarded as opposed to a jump-shooting team.