Reality: the NBA fixes games

Paul Pierce's 'two techs in the fourth quarter' face.

So Paul Pierce got ejected from Game 1 of the East Semis for two technicals.

Both of those technicals came in the fourth quarter. The first came after Mike Miller got a flagrant foul against Pierce and there was some kind of face-butting incident (that's what it's being called on the dang Twitter and that reminds me of that South Park where Cartman can't laugh at anything anymore after seeing the people with butts on their faces). The second came two-ish minutes later when Pierce set a forceful screen on Dwyane Wade then said something to the ref. Probably not the smartest thing to say something to the ref, but it didn't look like he said anything too extreme to the ref. Good job by the ABC cameraman to stay way far out on Pierce so we couldn't see what he said. Really. Awesome job, guys.

Things like these two technical fouls are the kinds of things that...erm...just seem to happen in the NBA playoffs. These funny calls. The discrepancies in team fouls (last round, game 5 of the San Antonio-Memphis series, team fouls: San Antonio 18, Memphis 28 (at one point, it was 9-21....come on)).

Now, back to tonight's game: the ejection and the flagrant foul were clear signs to me that the powers that be wanted the Heat to take this game, and to do so in convincing fashion because in reality, this is THE series of the 2011 Playoffs. It just is.

But really, what makes for a better story than this game for garnering interest in the rest of the series? D. Wade dropped 38? Pierce got tossed?!?!?! Whoa, this series isn't going to be the one-sided stomping that it really ought to be after all! We've gotta watch game two!


I'm usually not a big proponent for accusing referees of pushing a series in favor of one team or another, but the NBA is an exception. Take this quote from former NBA referee Tim Donaghy in his book Blowing the Whistle from this article on Deadspin.

"In the pregame meeting prior to Game 6, the league office sent down word that certain calls — calls that would have benefitted the Lakers — were being missed by the referees. This was the type of not-so-subtle information that I and other referees were left to interpret. After receiving the dispatch, Bavetta openly talked about the fact that the league wanted a Game 7.

'If we give the benefit of the calls to the team that's down in the series, nobody's going to complain. The series will be even at three apiece, and then the better team can win Game 7,' Bavetta stated.

As history shows, Sacramento lost Game 6 in a wild come-from-behind thriller that saw the Lakers repeatedly sent to the foul line by the referees. For other NBA referees watching the game on television, it was a shameful performance by Bavetta's crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time."

I can't say for sure that a fix was on tonight, but it sure felt like it.