Re: 12/08/2010 Game Thread #20: Pacers Vs. Bucks
Sorry this is going to be lengthy, but I'd rather just get everything off my chest in one post/rant.
I decided to sleep on this one before posting again. Thought maybe it would give me a chance to look at things from a different perspective. Instead, I woke up this morning and am even more pissed off about the way things finished up last night.
So apparently Jim told the players on the plane after the game that they were going to protest the game because the refs never went to the monitor to review the last offensive possession on Roy's "airball," and the clock should have been 0.0 sending the game to overtime.
Now, I actually agree with this. The ball did graze the rim and probably should have run out the clock, but it was a home game for the Bucks, and a home clock operator. Of course he is going to have a quick finger on that play, but that isn't the point.
If O'Brien was aware of this, why wasn't he going ballistic on the sidelines demanding that they check the replay before the final play was even run? If he had requested it, there is almost no way that the referees would not have gotten together to review the tape. At that point in time, every tenth of a second is far too valuable.
My guess is that he didn't become aware that the ball caught a piece of the rim until after the game was over, and he's just searching for something or someone else to blame for his huge mistake at the end that cost his team another vital game. How about some self accountability, coach?
There is no way for anyone (try as you might, not even you Unclebuck) to defend what O'Brien did at the end of the game. His biggest mistake did not even come with 0.5 left on the clock. It came with 2:33 left when he needlessly substituted for James Posey in for Josh McRoberts. Josh was having a very good 2nd half, it seemed like he had a direct hand in about half our baskets. If he doesn't make the mistake of inserting Posey, his even more boneheaded move putting Foster in, never is even under consideration. You let McRoberts finish the game. He earned it.
I don't even think Posey played bad last night, but it makes zero sense to remove your leading rebounder and assist man for the part of a game that every single possession can win it or lose it.
As Naptown_Seth mentioned earlier in this thread, this is not a case where hindsight is 20/20. I was watching the game with my dad and my brother, as soon as Josh got taken out, I looked at them and said, "What is he doing? Josh was playing good and again he's taking him out. This is like Oklahoma City all over again. If he doesn't put him back in before this game is over, he doesn't want to win that badly."
Sure enough, he stayed on the bench for the duration. We also took bets on if Josh would have touched the floor during overtime. There is no doubt in my mind it would have been an exact replica of OKC in which Posey would have played the whole five minute period. When the final play came around and we saw who was on the court every one of us said something like, "Foster? FOSTER!?!? This isn't good." Nope, it wasn't good. It cost us the game.
If we lose games because our players make dumb mistakes in the heat of the moment, or have poor shooting nights, I can handle it. I am not above giving them their share of the heat when that is the case. But when a coach makes a glaring mistake in a crucial time, it really irks me. Like I said in another thread yesterday, O'Brien is not God. He is not completely infallible. The man makes mistakes. I've never coached at that level, but I have coached enough games to know you simply do not do what he did at the end. It isn't even debatable. If you make that mistake, you own it. You apologize to your players (the first person he should have been apologizing to was Jeff Foster) for not giving them the best chance to win the game. You say to the media, "This one's on me. I'm going to get back to it and work as hard as I possibly can to make sure it never happens again."
O'Brien never takes that kind of responsibility. He always wants to blame someone else. He's blaming the officials for last night's loss. He needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Sorry this is going to be lengthy, but I'd rather just get everything off my chest in one post/rant.
I decided to sleep on this one before posting again. Thought maybe it would give me a chance to look at things from a different perspective. Instead, I woke up this morning and am even more pissed off about the way things finished up last night.
So apparently Jim told the players on the plane after the game that they were going to protest the game because the refs never went to the monitor to review the last offensive possession on Roy's "airball," and the clock should have been 0.0 sending the game to overtime.
Now, I actually agree with this. The ball did graze the rim and probably should have run out the clock, but it was a home game for the Bucks, and a home clock operator. Of course he is going to have a quick finger on that play, but that isn't the point.
If O'Brien was aware of this, why wasn't he going ballistic on the sidelines demanding that they check the replay before the final play was even run? If he had requested it, there is almost no way that the referees would not have gotten together to review the tape. At that point in time, every tenth of a second is far too valuable.
My guess is that he didn't become aware that the ball caught a piece of the rim until after the game was over, and he's just searching for something or someone else to blame for his huge mistake at the end that cost his team another vital game. How about some self accountability, coach?
There is no way for anyone (try as you might, not even you Unclebuck) to defend what O'Brien did at the end of the game. His biggest mistake did not even come with 0.5 left on the clock. It came with 2:33 left when he needlessly substituted for James Posey in for Josh McRoberts. Josh was having a very good 2nd half, it seemed like he had a direct hand in about half our baskets. If he doesn't make the mistake of inserting Posey, his even more boneheaded move putting Foster in, never is even under consideration. You let McRoberts finish the game. He earned it.
I don't even think Posey played bad last night, but it makes zero sense to remove your leading rebounder and assist man for the part of a game that every single possession can win it or lose it.
As Naptown_Seth mentioned earlier in this thread, this is not a case where hindsight is 20/20. I was watching the game with my dad and my brother, as soon as Josh got taken out, I looked at them and said, "What is he doing? Josh was playing good and again he's taking him out. This is like Oklahoma City all over again. If he doesn't put him back in before this game is over, he doesn't want to win that badly."
Sure enough, he stayed on the bench for the duration. We also took bets on if Josh would have touched the floor during overtime. There is no doubt in my mind it would have been an exact replica of OKC in which Posey would have played the whole five minute period. When the final play came around and we saw who was on the court every one of us said something like, "Foster? FOSTER!?!? This isn't good." Nope, it wasn't good. It cost us the game.
If we lose games because our players make dumb mistakes in the heat of the moment, or have poor shooting nights, I can handle it. I am not above giving them their share of the heat when that is the case. But when a coach makes a glaring mistake in a crucial time, it really irks me. Like I said in another thread yesterday, O'Brien is not God. He is not completely infallible. The man makes mistakes. I've never coached at that level, but I have coached enough games to know you simply do not do what he did at the end. It isn't even debatable. If you make that mistake, you own it. You apologize to your players (the first person he should have been apologizing to was Jeff Foster) for not giving them the best chance to win the game. You say to the media, "This one's on me. I'm going to get back to it and work as hard as I possibly can to make sure it never happens again."
O'Brien never takes that kind of responsibility. He always wants to blame someone else. He's blaming the officials for last night's loss. He needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.
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