"he fouled me. right. there."

well, this theory has now been summarized elsewhere (truehoop), but yesterday morning at zingerman's, phoebe and i realized what was (probably) happening during the no-call at the end of game 3. think about what you heard on tv -- the commentators are saying, "well, the spurs have to foul here, and they have to foul before the shot. that will end the game if LBJ goes to the line to shoot 2 free throws." so the refs gather together during the timeout and say, ok, if a non-shooting foul is marginal, let's not blow the whistle unless we really have to. let's let the players decide the game and not give san antonio the benefit of the doubt unless the foul really disrupts play significantly. so, what happens? bowen grabs lebron's arm and doesn't let go. i've seen this a lot in sort of weird situations -- the team that is trying to intentionally foul often has trouble getting a whistle the first time. sometimes it's to stop the clock, and it's like the refs are saying, "ok, you can foul to stop the clock, but we're not going to help you out -- you have to really commit a foul before we're willing to reward that strategy." when you watch the replay of bowen grabbing LBJ, you can see that it's a foul, and you can see lebron beautifully create a shot that is 100% in continuation. but, in real time, if you're watching bowen grab the arm, you actually have no idea that lebron is going to be able to make that continuation in a convincing fashion. if you blow the whistle when you see the grab (even though that is the accurate call), in your mind, you have to suspect that it is a call that will benefit the spurs. once LBJ is fully separated from bowen and going into his shooting form, you can't really blow the late whistle while he is completely untouched. i really think the ref was trying to give lebron the benefit of the doubt, and protect his chance to get a shot off. unfortunately, lebron took the bowen-bait and put up that shot from so far away, thinking the call was guaranteed. i'm sure next time he'll let bowen grab him around the waist and then drag him all the way to the 3-point line where he will hoist a shot from a reasonable distance. and, if the refs are following the same policy, there will be no call unless the contact persists into the beginning of the shooting motion. we are two weeks away from the nba draft. basically, i am just waiting to buy league pass and start watching every trailblazers, warriors, knicks and pistons game starting november 1st. until then, i will scrap by on trade rumors, rare tigers appearances on national tv, and the possibility of attending weird warriors promotions like meeting monta ellis at a cell phone store in milpitas. oh yeah, and the new r. kelly album. damn, 28's!