NBA Injustice?

Be honest, how fair is today's NBA? We have 'superstar calls' which favor a certain team over another out of sheer presence. A call could go one way or another depending on who your name is or what team you play for. Just ask Byron Russell of the Utah Jazz or Pacer Brad Miller and they’ll tell you.

There is some inconsistency on the basketball court that can be accepted. For starters different referees could call identical scenarios differently out of differences in opinion, and they also have to make a decision in a split second minus the luxury of instant replay like us folks at home.

But this is just one side of the NBA, and should the punishment department of NBA headquarters receive the same benefit of the doubt? They have time to review incidents many times over from many different angles, having discussions before drawing conclusions. Do they use precedents to help form the basis of their outcomes, or are their conclusions purely case by case?

It is inconsistencies in this area which has Peter Vecsey of the New York Post up in arms in his latest column. Stu Jackson, the ex-Grizzlies head man who morphed into the NBA‘s Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, is the person who hands out the punishments to players. He has been far from consistent.

Take last week’s game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons for instance. With 1:16 left in the Pistons win over the Pacers, Detroit up by 22 at the time, Corliss Williamson drives baseline past center Brad Miller. Jermaine O’Neal comes over to help, banged hard into Williamson and was called for the flagarant foul. O’Neal caught Williamson’s leg and hip on the way down, preventing him from falling and hurting himself, but Corliss still took exception to the contact and proceeded to throw the ball hard at O’Neal from only a few feet away in retaliation. The ball hit O’Neal on the shoulder, and he couldn't believe what had just happened. The result: O’Neal confronted Williamson and Pistons peacemakers Ben Wallace and Michael Curry, while a Pacers trio of Jonathan Bender, Bruno Sundov and Primoz Brezec all left the bench.

Jermaine O’Neal was fined $10,000 and was suspended two games for his part in the altercation, while Bender, Sundov and Brezec all received $5,000 fines and 1 game suspensions for leaving the bench. Williamson? He received a $5,000 fine and no loss of court time despite sparking the controversy with his reaction. Had he not thrown the ball at O’Neal the chances are that Jermaine would have been accessed with the flagarant and both teams would have proceeded as if nothing happened.

The major points here? Ball thrown at player, no suspension. Vecsey takes a look at the other projectile related suspensions in the NBA this season then summarizes the punishment scale which he refers to as ‘Jackson Justice’:

• Throw a TV on the floor in the direction of no one in particular and you get suspended two games and fined $10,000 • Flick a wad of gum and get one game and a fine • Hurl a fully inflated basketball at an opponent five feet away and you lose $5,000 in chump change but no court time

Sound fair? It all comes down to one word, inconsistency, although there may be another extremely powerful word that Jackson has now exposed. That word, of course, is precedent.

To be consistent and fair Jackson should now treat each ball-throwing incident just as he has for the Williamson-O’Neal fiasco, regardless of the ramifications.

We can see it now. Shaq fouls player. Player throws ball at Shaq. Shaq retaliates, opening up a suspension possibility. Player is fined $5,000 but misses no games. Who needs Hack-a-Shaq when you can eliminate him all together? The precedent has now been set folks, so it may not be as far fetched as you think.

Via

General Basketball, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers

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Heat facing elimination?

After showing the heart of a true fighter to come back from their horrific start to the season, the Miami Heat seem to have fallen back into old habits. The Heat, who lost to Boston last night despite holding both Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce to under 20 points, have now lost three straight and its fifth and seven games.

''I still believe in them,'' Heat coach Pat Riley said. ``It's a daunting, daunting task. You don't ever, ever, ever, count yourself out until the numbers say you're out. It's just going to get more and more difficult.''

The Heat fell to eleventh in the East, four games behind #8 Indiana and five behind #7 Charlotte.

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Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers

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Hornets maintain hot streak, win streak

It wasn't the shot coach Paul Silas was expecting, but he sure wasn't going to turn it down. Neither was Baron Davis.

Finding himself suddenly wide open on the wing with his team skidding through the final minutes, Davis launched a three-pointer that provided the winning points Wednesday night as the Hornets slipped by Indiana 94-88 for their fourth consecutive victory.

"If I get that shot 10 times, I'm going to take it each time," Davis said. "Especially with the game on the line."

It was a big shot and a big win, not only allowing the Hornets to maintain their late-season momentum with five victories now in a six-game stretch, but also lifting them into a tie with the Pacers for the seventh of eight available playoff positions in the Eastern Conference. Each team is 34-33.

It's the second time since the first week of the season the Hornets have been above .500.

The hot streak ironically came in the Charlotte Coliseum, where the Hornets have struggled all season while fighting the distractions of sparse crowds and talk about the owners' bid to move the franchise to New Orleans.

They completed their home stand with a 4-0 record and now try to keep moving upward as they return to the road for games Friday at Orlando and Sunday at Indiana.

"We've got to go on the road and make it happen," Silas said. "We've got our team back and we're healthy. Now it's time for us to make a push.

"If we play good defense, no matter where we play, we'll give ourselves a chance to win."

Defense has been the mainstay part of the winning streak, with a liberal amount of timely offense mixed in.

Davis was the Hornets' overall leader Wednesday, with 25 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

Other big numbers came on the boards, where the Hornets used their superior size to outrebound Indiana 47-41 and take a 19-10 advantage on the offensive boards. That gave them 17 more shots than the Pacers, resulting in a 23-15 scoring edge on second-chance points.

The leader was P.J. Brown, who grabbed eight rebounds in the first quarter and finished with 13.

"We do a good job of defending, make them miss, but then they go get the ball and it creates extra shots for them," Pacers coach Isiah Thomas said. "They are a big, strong team and we're aware of that and we talk about it. But we still get beat by it."

The Pacers nevertheless surged at the finish, coming from nine points down to within 89-88 with 50.2 seconds remaining. At that stage they had scored on five straight possessions, the Hornets on one of five.

Charlotte took a timeout with 24.8 seconds to play, then got the ball in to Davis. He dribbled almost 10 seconds off the clock, then started to work a pick-and-roll with Jamal Mashburn. When the Pacers didn't switch defenders, leaving Davis open, he delivered.

It was the most dramatic, perhaps, of several big shots for the Hornets in the late going. David Wesley provided two of them, one a three-pointer, with a little over three minutes left as Charlotte built its nine-point lead. And, after the Pacers cut it to three, Mashburn hit a baseline jumper that ended the brief drought.

Indiana MIN FG-A FT-A OR-TR A F Pt Totals 240 31-75 20-24 10-41 20 16 88 O'Neal 40 6-15 8-8 3-16 1 2 20 Artest 25 4-10 1-2 0-5 0 2 11 BMiller 19 2-3 2-2 1-2 2 3 6 Tinsley 31 1-9 2-2 2-2 8 2 4 RMiller 35 6-13 0-0 0-2 3 2 12 Foster 9 0-2 0-0 2-5 0 0 0 Croshere 28 7-13 0-0 1-5 2 3 16 Bender 28 3-6 5-6 0-1 1 2 13 Ollie 17 1-1 2-4 0-1 3 0 4 Mercer 8 1-3 0-0 1-2 0 0 2

Percentages: FG .413, FT .833. Three-Point Goals: 6-17, .353 (Croshere 2-3, Bender 2-3, Artest 2-3, O'Neal 0-1, Tinsley 0-1, R.Miller 0-6). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 7 (Croshere 3, O'Neal 2, Bender, Artest). Turnovers: 9 (Tinsley 4, O'Neal 2, Croshere, B.Miller, Ollie). Steals: 6 (Artest 2, B.Miller 2, R.Miller, Tinsley). Technical Fouls: B.Miller, 4:14 first

Charlotte MIN FG-A FT-A OR-TR A F Pt Totals 240 37-92 15-18 19-47 20 23 94 Mashburn 37 7-24 5-5 1-4 2 1 19 Brown 27 1-3 0-0 8-13 2 3 2 Campbell 31 6-9 6-7 0-6 1 3 18 Davis 45 10-21 2-2 4-8 10 3 25 Wesley 33 6-16 0-0 1-2 3 5 14 Augmon 18 2-5 0-0 2-2 0 4 4 Magloire 17 1-6 2-4 2-6 0 3 4 Lynch 20 2-5 0-0 0-3 1 0 4 Nailon 12 2-3 0-0 1-3 1 1 4

Percentages: FG .402, FT .833. Three-Point Goals: 5-16, .312 (Davis 3-8, Wesley 2-7, Mashburn 0-1). Team Rebounds: 14. Blocked Shots: 4 (Brown 2, Augmon, Magloire). Turnovers: 9 (Mashburn 2, Lynch 2, Wesley, Davis, Augmon, Magloire, Nailon). Steals: 5 (Lynch 2, Brown, Campbell, Davis). Technical Fouls: Magloire, 3:25 first.

Indiana 28 21 19 20 -- 88 Charlotte 32 19 23 20 -- 94

Att.--6,684 (19,925). T--2:10.

Officials--Joe Forte, Leon Wood, Bennie Adams.

Via Charlotte Observer

Charlotte Bobcats, Indiana Pacers

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