Jon_Campbell's Blog

NBA officials for Lakers-Rockets Game 6

By Jon_Campbell | View all Posts
Posted Wednesday, May 13, 2009 08:45 PM   4 comments
An unnamed source has informed Covers.com that Mark Wunderlich will be on the floor as part of the officiating crew for Thursday's Game 6 between the Lakers and Rockets.
 
Most will remember - especially Mavs and under bettors - Wunderlich was the official who made the non-call on Antoine Wright six seconds before Carmelo Anthony made the game-winning 3-pointer for the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 against the Dallas Mavs.
 
The NBA issued an apology just hours after the game saying Wunderlich should have made the foul call on Wright, which would have given Denver the ball out of bounds. Instead, Melo hit the shot and you know how the rest goes.
 
Betjamaica.com has the Rockets listed as 8-point dogs and the total is set at 197 for Game 6,
 
You might want to wager at your own risk on this one. But we're probably also safe to infer that Wunderlich isn't going to pull up on his whistle on any 50-50 calls so we can expect a decent number of free throws in this one.
4 comments
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TREE88 says:
05/13/09 08:59PM
Megamaniak says:
05/13/09 09:31PM
Sounds logical.
gfoss59 says:
05/14/09 07:38AM
With respect, I think this is a tad overthought. There are other refs who traditionally call more closer than W., and the last thing the league wants, in fact, is a lot of attention on W. or any other particular official. I think we can all be sure the NBA wants a non-confrontational end to the series, but W.'s appointment doesn't substantially strengthen that, and, in a way, weakens it.

By the way, looked to me like Wunderlich called it exactly right. Dallas didn't inform the ref they'd use their foul, they didn't use the proper technique for making a foul (wrap the arms), and, in fact, he had arms up in the air -- the universal symbol for "I'm trying not to foul him." He got confused when Melo lost the ball, and hung off.

The NBA, like that fellow whose kid got brushed by Big Baby, should apologize for apologizing. It was a good no call.

Jon_Campbell says:
05/14/09 01:08PM
Good post gfoss. I think the way the refs were calling the game, they should have called the foul on Wright but I agree with you that Dallas didn't want to take the foul there. If they did, I just can't believe that they wouldn't have told the refs during the time out before and that Wright would have reacted in the "I-didn't-touch-him!" way that he did during the play. Those two things are too much coincidence for me, so I think Wunderlich ended up calling it the way he felt the Mavs wanted it to be called, rather than the way the league would have wanted him to call it. The Mavs ended up using that as a lame excuse for why they lost but that wasn't why they lost.

Anyway, I do think tonight's game will be called tightly, which is unfortunate because it is really hard to watch some of these games the way they're calling everything.

Cheers

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