The Celtics lost Game 6 in Cleveland, dropping them to 0-6 on the road in this post-season. After the game, Doc Rivers seemed to have the answers for the teams road woes: bad calls from the officials.

With the Celtics trailing, 72-67, with 49.9 seconds remaining, Pierce was called for a charge after colliding with James.

"I thought the charge call on Paul . . . well, you guys can take it from there," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. "I mean, that's a huge call . . . to make, but listen, we played hard. I'm just going to stop there."

Kevin Garnett followed his coach's example of complaining and chimed in on the matter as well:

"There were questionable calls at the end."

A charge call (which, by the way, always has a 50-50 chance of going either way) with your team trailing by five with under 50 seconds to play cost you the game? I hate to break it to the Celtics, but there were plenty of reasons they lost that game, and not one of them has to do with the officiating.

After 28 straight days of NBA postseason action, with series schedules oddly staggered for maximum television exposure, the playoffs are taking a day off on Saturday. Now, your first inclination might be to ask, Why today? Why take a day off when the Spurs and Hornets played Game 6 on Thursday yet won't play Game 7 until the following Monday?

Well, the answer is simple. The NBA is taking a breather to let its sister league, the WNBA, take center stage on the day of its season tip-off.

Which is a decision that is identical to the play of Hornets hustle player Ryan Bowen: noble but seriously flawed.

Can Kobe and the Lakers close out what has been a very tough Jazz team on the road tonight? Considering the closeness of the last two games of this series, sure, it's possible. But given the fact that home teams are 20-1 in this round of the playoffs and that they're likely to continue to get more free throw attempts, I would say it's a long shot.

Either way, we'll find out soon enough. Join me right here for all the action, beginning at around 1030PM EST.

Kenny Anderson is trying to work his way back to the NBA from the bottom up. After a year of coaching the Atlanta Krunk in the CBA, his agent, Billy Diamond, sent the following email to several members of the New York media, a portion of which was re-printed by Marc Berman of the New York Post:

"Kenny is trying to get into the NBA as either an Assistant Coach or Director of Player Development. He has been a Mentor to Stephon Marbury since high school. Who better to be a mentor than Kenny who played over a decade in the league in the NYC area. Two months ago, Kenny attended an assistant coaches seminar put on by the NBA and will be coaching/teaching in the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp later this month. Two years ago he was a volunteer assistant coach at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ft. Lauderdale, near where he lives and this past season he was the head coach of the Atlanta Krunk of the CBA and coaches Steph's brother Zach.''

I'm not sure his year with the Krunk is his proudest accomplishment: his team went 10-41, finishing the season by losing 18 straight. That said, Anderson gets my props for actually trying to gain experience as opposed to some former players (cough, Mark Jackson, cough) who merely hitch a ride on the announcing circuit and hope something falls in their lap.

Peter Vecsey presents a handful of interesting theories about Don Nelson and the Warriors today. In the span of several paragraphs, he suggests the following theories, all of which need to be taken with a bowling-ball-sized grain of salt:

1. The Warriors are thinking of buying out Nelson rather than risk player mutiny next season;
2. Nelson benched Baron Davis in the pivotal second-to-last game of the season because he was angry Davis "partied" the night before;
3. Nelson benched Davis in a passive aggressive attempt at getting fired so tha he can retire while still collecting his salary;
4. Nelson benched Davis with the Warriors "unspoken blessing" in a passive aggressive attempt to anger Davis enough to opt-out of his contract and leave.
   

Obviously a lot of these theories contradict each other, and even a careful examination of his column makes it difficult to figure out what's based on actual reporting and what's pure conjecture (a frequent problem when it comes to Vecsey). But assuming Nelson is on the way out, it'll be interesting to see if he becomes a candidate for any other job or simply (finally) retires.

Pretty much every team that had even a passing interest in Mike D'Antoni would have to consider Nelson, right? His teams won't play a lot of defense, but they'll score a ton points, put butts in the seats and do wonders for the local mock turtleneck economy. That has to count for something, right?

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Lakers-Jazz Western Conference Semifinals Game 6 this evening. Be sure to stop by later tonight for FanHouse's signature LiveBlog of this game. It'll be Vujacissimo!


1. Over The Back, Against The Wall: Regardless of your feelings on the Pau Gasol put back that clinched the game for the Lakers (and I personally think Okur flopped and am glad the refs didn't call it), the onus comes back on Mehmet Okur. It's not so much a one sided, "Okur has played badly" as it is that he hasn't been able to put it all together. If he scores, he struggles on the glass. If he rebounds, he can't put the ball in the hole. In the one game where he did manage to have a complete game, the Jazz won convincingly. If Utah wants to extend this series back to Staples for a shot to steal what they couldn't in Game 5, Mehmet Okur has to step up tonight.

2. Odom Overdose: Lamar Odom had a simply spectacular Game 5. He's been a joy to watch for the last month and even as Lakers fans have to be wondering when the joyride stops and the old Lamar returns, he's been a major contributor to them winning. He's making smart decisions, being aggressive with openings, playing with confidence, and getting the ball to Gasol and Kobe when he needs to. The Jazz have bad matchups for Odom outside of Andrei Kirilenko. They want to maintain their edge on the boards so they're not willing to switch AK to the 4. But their power forwards are too slow to guard him and Ronnie Brewer has his hands full with that Kobe Bryant fellow you've heard so much about. If Odom keeps playing the way he has? This series ends tonight.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Celtics-Cavs Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 6 this evening.

Nowhere To Go But Up. Or ... Home: Demolished in Game 4. Daniel Gibson out. Unable to get LeBron hot. Rajon Rondo shaking off doldrums. Kevin Garnett. There's a mountain of stuff lined up against Cleveland tonight. They are at home, but as much as it's been a saving grace for teams so far in the playoffs, that's got to end at some point. I hate using cliches, but they're unavoidable in this situation. The Cavaliers are in a position to bond together, give 110%, rise to meet the challenge, and let the hometown crowd buoy them to a Game 7 in Boston. It's not quite that simple though.

Delonte's Inferno: Okay, Delonte West. You're up. Gibson is down, you've been great at home, and this team needs a shooter like nothing else. If the Cavaliers are going to push this thing back to Boston against all odds, they need West to do three things. Create, contain, and close. He's got to spark the offense. He's done a better job of that than even Gibson has done, and has done well both in transition and in the half court set of finding the open man and making the right decision. He's got to contain Rajon Rondo and send him back to his dreadful pre-Game 5 ways, and he's got close out by knocking down and defending three point shots.

Remember those hilarious Nike ads featuring Anfernee Hardaway and his alter ego, Lil' Penny? Well, Lil' Penny is back, and from the looks of things, he's fallen into some bad habits. Just look what happened when he was left unsupervised for a bit during the work day at his (presumably boring) office job.

(Warning: PG-13 for a written word of bad language and pretend hardcore drug use by a doll.)

[HT: You Been Blinded, via BallHype]

A few common complaints from fans of the team that's playing the Lakers in the playoffs go something like this: The refs screwed us! The NBA is fixed! The league wants the big market team from Los Angeles to advance! This is not something unique to fans of the Jazz, they just happen to be the ones currently facing L.A. in a tight series, and their fans just happen to be the ones making this complaint at the moment.

What's different this time though is that finally, a writer from the team's home town tells the fans exactly how completely ridiculous these sentiments are. Gordon Monson, take it away:

To all the Jazz fans who are crying . . . and crying . . . and crying about the refereeing in the Jazz-Lakers playoff series, how about this idea: Give it a rest. It's old and it's tired and it's predictable and it's embarrassing and it's unfounded. Drop the persecution complex. Nobody's out to get you. David Stern is not a grand puppet-master. He's not Vince McMahon.

Since the end of Game 5 I've received complaints from at least a hundred fans about the Jazz getting jobbed in one form or another, or 30 anothers, by the refs. Most of those protestations blast straight past accusations of ineptitude on the part of a few refs, and claim rather that there's a conspiracy afoot, that the NBA wants the Lakers in the Finals, and the Jazz are an inconvenience that must be dealt with by way of a crooked whistle. C'mon, does anybody really believe that?

Amen, brother. Seriously, there isn't anything more annoying than hearing a team's fans blame the refs for losing. I heard a little of this after the Lakers took Game 5.

Last week when there was a large amount of hub-hub about Utah Jazz fans being classless, I understood why a lot of people were upset. The guy holding up one eye? Yeah, that guy is pretty clearly a waste of human space. And if the fans were actually chanting "Cancer" at Derek Fisher? Well, then, they've won "Classless Fans of the Year 2008", hands down. But for rooting against a guy who left their team to go to a rival, when there's not a lot of information (nor should there be) about which hospital his daughter spends more time in, Los Angeles or New York? I'm not a fan of it, but fans are going to boo just about anything. And the LA Times' one-sided over-dramatization of it was a little much.

But if we're going to talk about "Classless Fans of the Year 2008", we have a late contender! Last night, after Robert Horry's "completely clean, incidental, and admirably 'playoff-level'" whack to the injured back of David West, which sent the New Orleans star to the locker room and may affect his appearance in Game 7, a funny little sound started to come from the arena. Slowly it grew louder and louder.

"Horry! Horry! Horry!"

That's right. After a player delivered a forearm that knocked an opponent out of the game with what was obviously a pretty painful back injury, the San Antonio fans decided to chant Cheap Shot Bob's name.

Now that's class.

But then, maybe we should chant his name! I'll tell you why after the jump.