No, it was an inbound alley-oop play, he threw it at the rim and Ford caught it in mid-air and stuffed it in. The clock is supposed to start when you touch it, it should've started at .5, but it did at .4. Considering the call of whether or not it was off his fingertips was already insanely close(though it was the right call, it was on his fingertips), like less than half of a .1, it's clear that with one more .1 of a second there's no question, the ball is in. The league should be able to set their own instant replay clock, look at the play again, and determine it.

Also it should've been at .7-.8 seconds from the other play. I don't suspect that'll come up in the protest, but whatever.

That's exactly what I'm arguing though.

I mean, COME ON! Can you really sense one tenth of a second? No.

It makes no sense whatsoever to use a clock that no human can even comprehend.

No, but the clock was started when the ball was noticeably away from him. .1 is kind of a while at bullet passing speed. I can understand human error, but when the same thing has happened to one team three times and to no-one else, when they fuck up the play before it, and when this happens, it's not just an error anyone makes. Maybe they're just plain incompetant, but whatever.

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2484/badcallsj2.jpg

And that's when it's actually at .4 and it's still not there. So the .1 already happened. God knows where the ball was when the clock actually started.

Don't care when the clock started. In real life you can't sense tenths/hundredths of seconds.

Maybe if they wouldn't have let Atlanta come back, just like EVERY other team does, then they wouldn't be getting shitty calls.

They suck.

According to ESPN, the refs are the ones that start the clock... not the Atlanta scorekeepers, so we can't blame them.

It's a bum deal, but from the sounds of it, it does not sound like something that will go very far in a protest, as the refs can not review when the clock was started, only whether the shot was off in time. Plus, there is no way for sure they could say 100% that had it started a little later that Ford would have got the shot off... likely, but not definite. So, at best they'd replay that .5 seconds, but I doubt it'll go anywhere.

Looks like the Hawks will do whatever it takes to make the playoffs.

Though I'd be super pissed if that happened to my team. Did you break anything Shack?

Celts really look good in weaker East Conference.

awful loss tonight. I think I'm actually more interested in what happens with the Raptors this offseason than the remainder of this season for them, looks like we'll definitley limp into the playoffs and get spanked by one of the top four. But this offseason... got a Ford automobile to move, got an expiring stomach Rasho contract to attract other GMs, got a draft pick. Gonna be some important decisions to be made, we have to change our style of play from jumpshooting pussies to more hard work and heart.

Edit: Never mind. Yahoo is slow.

You can't finish people off if you go limp right before you climax...

So we might actually fall to 8th and get the Celtics now. It's funny thinking that 2 months ago I thought there was no way were weren't getting the Cavs in the 4-5 seed matchup, at worst 6th, and whoever got 7th and 8th would get it in an embarrasing default fashion. Amazing how quickly sure things go away when you lose 15 of 21.

yep about fucking time.

Lol, I guess Durant took some sweet sweet revenge on Denver tonight. The Nuggets lost to Sacramento without Artest and Miller and to Seattle on consecutive nights. Talk about taking yourself out of it.

KD's lookin like the real deal lately

Is it the playoffs yet?

So Celtic fans, would you rather get Washington or Cleveland in round 2? It's pretty much a lose lose for you if they play each other (which they should). I'd actually be more scared of Washington, GS proved last year matchups matter, and they've seemed to figure Boston out. Plus Cleveland looks ugly since the trade. Like, really ugly. Actually considering Flip "I've lost to clearly inferior teams two years in a row LOLERZ" Saunders is waiting in the ECF, Washington is probably the biggest darkhorse this year, as crazy as it'd be.

What's a matter with your Raptors, Shack? They're dropping like a stone and Bosh publicly said he doesn't trust his teammates. Sounds like there are a lot of issues there. I'm kind of hoping the Pistons land them in the 1st round at the moment.

On another note, I'm hoping Golden State wins tonight and gets into the playoffs over Denver. The playoffs will be missing something if we don't have GS there.

So if the following scenario happens:

Hornets (NO): W vs. LAC; L vs. @LAL, @SAC, and @DAL
Spurs (SA): W vs. SEA, @LAL, and @SAC; L vs. UTA
Lakers (LAL): W vs. @LAC, NO, and SAC; L vs. SA
Jazz (UTA): W vs. @DAL, DEN, HOU, and @SA
Rockets (HOU): W vs. PHO, @DEN, LAC; L vs. @UTA
Suns (PHO): W vs. GS and POR; L vs. @HOU

then the first 5 teams will all finish with 56-26, while Suns will be 55-27 (doesn't have a combination where all 6 will finish with the same record).

RIP Warriors

Hornets vs Nuggets should be fun though.

Dammit... it's going to take a miracle for the Warriors to get in now.

It really does seem unfair the Warriors will be sitting at home with about 50 wins, and Atlanta will be in the playoffs and may not even make 40 wins. I vote we move GS to the Eastern Conference into the 8 spot and let them play Boston in the first round!

Well when Ford came back, being a back-up pretty much turned him into a selfish baby, so for the next couple weeks every 4th quarter he'd try to do everything himself and shoot us out of every game (the worst being in Orlando where no-one else touched the ball for 6 minutes straight!). At the same time Bosh was injured and we played a hard schedule, so we lost 11 of 14. That losing streak pretty much fucked up our chemistry and it hasn't been the same since. We tried switching things around by making Ford the starter again (which is a move I HATE, even if he's playing better... We should be sitting his ass down and giving him punishment, not bowing to his ego), but it hasn't worked that well. They seem to be competitive for the first 3 and then lie down every 4th quarter now, they just die. We still play Ford in the 4th, and even though he is doing better, he still can't close games worth a damn. The game we won against Milwaukee we played Calderon the whole time and ran them over in the 4th, I hope to see that more from now.

At this point we'll need to win out to avoid Detroit (and hope Philly loses at least one more game), really it's just 3 games because Miami is a gimme, but we'll see. I don't think we'll be touching Orlando even if we play them anyways with this level of play.

Finally, we play like we give a fuck, thanks for the honesty Bosh. And Philly loses to Indiana... most excellent

Sunday in Detroit is definitley the year's biggest game now, and we're finally on ABC for it too. It'll also be fun because there's always lots of Toronto fans from across the border whenever we play in Detroit.

On a side note, Atlanta stealing that game has a huge effect on that 8th seed now. Indiana would be 1 game back at this point instead of 2, a huge huge huge difference. If I was a Pacers fan I'd be pretty pissed.

Very nice win by the Rockets, without Battier and also Alston not doing much. Division is still in play (but they don't own tiebreaker over either Hornets or Spurs), and the home court is almost secured.

Can someone tell me why is the East and West standing so different????

Damn, if the playoffs started today, it's be San Antonio vs Phoenix and LA vs Dallas in the 1st round. Oh man.

Thanks Washington. Now all we have to do is beat Miami and Chicago and we get the 6th seed and Orlando. Though I'd still like to win out for the momentum and confidence.