There has been a ton of controversy over the end of the Bulls-Celtics game from last night. I have no idea why frankly. With .9 seconds to go and the Bulls down one, Jimmy Butler drained both free throws securing a 104-103 win. Below is the video to see for yourselves.
First off, I have no clue what Jimmy Butler is doing here, he holds the ball and doesn’t move until 3 seconds are left. However, he makes a nice move and gets a decent look, but Marcus Smart essentially bails him out. You can see even before Jimmy starts his shot Smart grabs his back and fouls him. In today’s NBA that’s a foul, maybe not twenty years ago, but now yes it is. Foul #1.
Then as the play progresses as we can see Smart graze his elbow on the shot attempt. It may not have even affected his shot to be honest with you, it appears it didn’t. However, in today’s NBA the rules are any contact on the shot, no matter how small is a foul. Take it or leave it, love it or hate it. But those are the rules the referees are officiating under. Smart clearly touches Butler’s elbow though, you can see it. Therefore Foul #2.
So, that wasn’t hard, was it? You can clearly see the contact on both plays and even if you give the benefit of the doubt to one, the other is still there. So the Celtics were right, he didn’t foul him, he fouled him twice. So every Bostonian can now shut the fuck up. As well as the rest of the Celtics, it’s just pathetic. The refs didn’t take this from them, and Jimmy didn’t win it for the Bulls. Smart lost this for the Celtics. But don’t tell Marcus that, you’ll hurt his feelings. His defense that it wasn’t a foul was that he’s a great defender, which he is right. Smart can lock down the perimeter, he even had 8 steals the other night. BUT that has nothing to do with this play! Doesn’t matter if you’re the worst or best defender in the league. A foul is a foul. Does he think that being a great defender means that he is incapable of committing fouls? Doesn’t take a sports expert to realize that even the best defenders commit fouls. Christ, what a pathetic comeback Smart.
The only gripe that they can even manage is that the foul was a late call. I can see them being upset with that to a degree but still doesn’t change a fact that it was a foul. Also, Jalen Rose had a really good take on it on Mike and Mike in the Morning today. Essentially he says if that shot goes in, you don’t call it a foul because the game is over as time would expire. Yes, this makes sense logically, because they called the foul on the shot attempt with .9 seconds. You can hear and see the buzzer and light go off right before the ball bounces off the front iron. If the game is over, no point to call a foul, therefore the late foul call. Stop crying Boston, take the L and move on.
