Literally, in the sense that Derek Fisher fouled Brent Barry on the Spurs’ final possession, some no-call contact that the league later conceded should have gone whistled. And in a “mood creating” sense, as the ref’s descretion adds a sense of controversy to the proceedings. What if Brent Barry, who’s hit 95% of this season’s free throws and 82% on his career, had been awarded a pair? The Lakers, who won the game by two points, may have needed to play five minutes of OT to secure the same win. Who knows if they’d have pulled it off?
In all honesty, it’s not worth worrying about. The past can’t be changed. Calls get blown all the time. And if everything had been handled perfectly, Barry likely wouldn’t have been in the position to tie the game up, because a previous missed shot by Fisher grazed the rim and went out of bounds of Robert Horry’s leg. Correctly ruled as such, the Lakers would have been granted a fresh shot clock. But the refs ruled it an air ball, so Kobe Bryant had to rush an errant jumper rebounded by Tim Duncan, which set up the Barry-Fisher sequence. Along with this entire mess.
In the end, it all evens out to some degree. The Lakers outplayed the Spurs by a long shot over the course of Game 4. And the Lakers walked away with a win. Sounds about right.
Discuss:
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What made this a hard call is the fact that Barry didn’t shoot. Derek went up, then Barry started a dribble. My understanding is that when you are going up you should be allowed to come down. Barry made the forward move that made the contact. If Barry wouldn’t have dribbled and just continued to shoot in 1 motion it would have been a foul, but since he went into a dribble how can you call it to decide a game?