What went well and what went wrong.

The Biased Ball was totally biased tonight on the Lakers' side.
So, the question is, why was it close?
The answer is simple, the refs were biased to the Spurs.
Lakers got a fast 22-8 start but the Spurs cut it down to 28-23 at the end of the first quarter.
Why? There were 2 offensive fouls and and a traveling called on the Lakers.
Of course, Derek and Lamar had 2 fouls both.
I just don't wonder why these Spurs fans are complaining about that Barry non-call.
Justice serves right.

Let's just take a look of some of the calls that favored the Spurs :

• The Duncan Euro Travel - This was an easy call. This was worse than a normal traveling call because Duncan took 4 (four) steps in that play. TNT made a good job of replaying it and showing us how Duncan took a trip from Parker's hometown.
• The Manu 3 foot on the line - This was another easy call that the refs would have made. Manu's foot was totally on the line when he shot that basket, and the refs, guess what, called it a 3-point shot. It's just one of those nights where you can't get a call in your favor Laker fans, eh?
• The Odom "block not goaltending" call - Another stupid call by the refs to make that goaltending call on Odom. The ball didn't hit the board before Odom blocked it, and it was shown in the high cam angle. This was a clear block. No more. No less.

These are just plain examples of the way the refs had favored the Spurs (not including those ticky tack fouls on Parker and Duncan).
So if anything, the Lakers should have complained more.
The free-throw disparity was a total fluke.
SA once had a 26-14 advantage in the free throw line. And it just pissed me off, totally.

Anyways, the Lakers still won. Why? Because they were the better team. They played harder than the Spurs and the champs didn't deserve to win this game. That simple.

Numbers, numbers, numbers :

• Kobe attempted 29 shots and ZERO free throws. Amazing? Well, records told us that Kobe's last zero-attempt free throw game dated back in the 2004 Conference Finals versus San Antonio, otherwise known as the 0.4 D-Fish buzzer-beater.
• Brent Barry set a career playoff mark for points, 23 points today.
  
• Lakers got the rebounding edge, 46-37 and had more turnovers than SA, 14 to 8.
• Both teams combined 10-for-38 in the 3-pt line, with LA shooting a much lower percentage(21% on 3-of-14 shooting) than SA (29% on 7-of-24 shooting). Turiaf, Vujacic, and Farmar combined to shoot 3-for-15 from the field for a total of 10 points.
• Barry made more 3 (5) than the entire Lakers squad (3).
• Oberto went 21 minutes without a field goal attempt, the most so far in this year's playoffs.

That's it for tonight. Watch out for my Game 5 Detroit-Boston keys for the game.