Kevin Garnett did well not to blow up at the NBA's officials as he was pushed, hacked & stomped beneath the defensive glass in Games 6 & 7
- Image by Keith Allison via Flickr
Ah, NBA Playoff games… the most obviously rigged sporting events this side of professional boxing. Can you really blame NBA Commish David Stern, though?
Seriously… I mean, it’s just so easy.
Basketball is a game of momentum, and a single terrible call at a crucial moment can squash a big push and start another. Fixing the 2010 NBA Finals was no trouble at all.
However, instead of my usual selection of individual foul calls that changed individual games in favor of the eventual victors, this time I’m going to take a look at the Personal Foul spread over the course of the entire NBA Finals Series between the Boston Celtics & Los Angeles Lakers.
Not surprisingly, the team that won each game was called for fewer fouls than their opponent in every contest except Game 5 (Boston 23 PF’s to LA 22 PF’s).
(See Chart Below)
This disparity was never more glaring than in Game 3.
It was during Game 3 that the Celtics were whistled for 27 Personal Fouls while the Lakers only drew 20. That crucial contest was a huge swing point, and it is obvious why Stern and his Official Fixers would want to swing it towards the Lakers.
LA had just dropped Game 2 at home by a 9-point margin in a game where the fouls were distributed evenly (29 apiece.) A Lakers loss in the first of three consecutive games in Boston would have meant a potentially short series, and could have fulfilled Paul Pierce’s prediction that the Celtics would not need to travel back to Los Angeles for a Game 6.
It also would have meant an epic loss of advertising revenue for the NBA, which makes more on each contest as the series extends to five, six & seven games.
So the Lakers got all the calls in Game 3, meted out a 91-84 victory, and forced a return to the Big Stage in LA after Boston won consecutive home games to retake the series lead at 3-2. In both of those games, the foul difference was negligible (Game 4; 21-23 in favor of Boston & Game 5; 23-22 in favor of LA.) These stats would lend credence to the notion that, when the game is called evenly, Boston typically wins handily.
In this NBA Finals Series, when the Personal Foul differential between teams was 2 fouls or less, the Celtics won three and lost one. LA pulled out Game 1 with a spirited effort on their home court and a 2-foul differential in their favor. Boston won Games 2, 4 & 5 with negligible differentials of 0, 2 & 1 respectively.
Then, in Games 6 & 7, the NBA’s referees took over the series again.
After serving up Game 3 to Los Angeles on a silver platter (think back on that 7-foul differential), the officials gifted the Lakers with ten extra foul calls over the last two games of the series. Typically, a difference that large can be at least partially explained by one team intentionally fouling another late in tight games to preserve clock.
That was not the case here.
Boston only intentionally fouled LA once in the closing minutes of the final two games, a meaningful hack on Sasha Vujacic in the 4th Quarter of Game 7.
The rest of Games 6 & 7 were tilted handily towards the Lakers by a margin of 46 PF’s against Boston to 36 PF’s against Los Angeles. The Celtics’ Kevin Garnett was routinely hacked by Pao Gasol and charging Lakers forwards/guards on the defensive boards in those final two games, a trend that helped the Lakers outrebound the Celtics 40 to 28 at the defensive glass in Game 7.
In fact, intentional fouls played almost no part in this series, as the earlier stages of the 4th Quarter decided the winner in almost every game.
Bearing that in mind, what would you think the Personal Foul differential was in the 4th Quarter of Game 7, a quarter that started with the Celtics nursing a 2-point lead?
The Celtics were whistled for 12 personal fouls to the Lakers’ 5. On fouls that resulted in shots, Los Angeles took a game-changing 21 free throws to Boston’s 6. And this in the final quarter of a Finals Series decided by a mere four points.
To say, “The Fix was on†is not broad enough. Instead we’ll go with, “The Fix continues…â€
2010 NBA Finals Points & Personal Fouls by Game
Game # – Celtics Points (PF’s) – Lakers Points (PF’s)
Game 1 – Celtics 89 (28) – Lakers 102 (26)
Game 2 – Celtics 103 (29) – Lakers 94 (29)
Game 3 – Celtics 84 (27) – Lakers 91 (20)
Game 4 – Celtics 96 (21 – Lakers 89 (23)
Game 5 – Celtics 92 (23) – Lakers 86 (22)
Game 6 – Celtics 67 (21) – Lakers 89 (17)
Game 7 – Celtics 79 (25) – Lakers 83 (19)
