With 12.3 seconds remaining and Oklahoma City trailing Miami 98-96, Derek Fisher inbounded the ball to Kevin Durant a few feet from the block. He spun baseline, rose up and slightly faded away as his shot clanged iron and LeBron James came away with the rebound. The live look, however, doesn’t do justice to the play. The camera angle from the baseline clearly shows LeBron hooking his arm through Durant’s and eventually swiping down and hitting his leg. In any other minute of the game, that’s probably a foul. But refs like to let things go when the clock is winding down, fairly or not. So there was no whistle, LeBron calmly sunk two free throws and the game was over. Read More »

San Antonio’s win over the Kings yesterday allowed them to lock up the third seed in the West. Now that’s not such a monumental occurrence that it’s worth drawing up a conspiracy theory. But even if the refs aren’t allowed to review a shot clock expiring “at that point in the game” (as Andre Aldridge said), how did the ref standing directly behind Mike Finley not see that it was a shot clock violation with his own two eyes? It took Finley a good one-count after the clock read “00″ to get that shot off…