So...Hollinger..

[Murphy3]

Does this win count? Please let me know.

[Underdog]

Huck Follinger

[bernardos70]

Auck him in the Fss

[chumdawg]

It's a +9. Plus-nine is very good.

[Dirkadirkastan]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Huck Follinger

Let's not forget he is a closet Blazer fan anyway.

[xrobx]

in case you were wondering.... he blames the refs.

http://twitter.com/johnhollinger

he was at the game btw

[Dirkadirkastan]

Originally Posted by xrobx

in case you were wondering.... he blames the refs.

http://twitter.com/johnhollinger

"Quick side note: Blazers are losing this game on merit. Refs have been horrid both ways. But this is worst officiated game I've seen this yr"

Ehm... not really.

[Murphy3]

Yeah, he kinda does the old trick of not blaming the refs while he blames the refs... He doesn't want to look like he's whining about the officials, but that's exactly what he did.

[Usually Lurkin]

. No it doesn't. And neither does the Spurs' 8 point loss to Memphis. Look at the season MOVs for the respective teams. It's in the numbers. SOS for last 25% of games is a much stronger predictor of bed wetting. It's all in the numbers. The numbers can't lie. Ginobli's bald spot.

[xrobx]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Yeah, he kinda does the old trick of not blaming the refs while he blames the refs... He doesn't want to look like he's whining about the officials, but that's exactly what he did.

of course he did, he needs some excuse to validate the 15th ranked mavs beating his precious 6th ranked failblazers in portland

[sefant77]

Hollinger is excellent in such crap.

Like ripping of trades and signings (like Marion) with a small line at the end "...but maybe it will come different blabla"

[ShaggyDirk]

I all for saying haha on you, but let's wait until the playoffs to say "I told you...frack face"

[Dirkadirkastan]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Yeah, he kinda does the old trick of not blaming the refs while he blames the refs... He doesn't want to look like he's whining about the officials, but that's exactly what he did.

That's true. I guess I didn't think his tiny brain was capable of such complexities.

[MavsFTR]

He truly sounds like such a biased ass. What'd the mavs ever do to him?

[sefant77]

Originally Posted by MavsFTR

He truly sounds like such a biased ass. What'd the mavs ever do to him?

Fucking always with his formula, the formula giving him his recognition and income.

He is scared and pissed.

[bernardos70]

Let's take a trip through Hollinger's power rankings and see how a theoretical playoff bracket would look like if his rankings were the NBA's own:

In a thrilling first round match up, the #1 seed San Antonio Spurs host the hobbling Mavericks, who barely hold on to the 8th seed and will not have homecourt in any series, unless the play the raptors in the Finals.

In other noteworthy matchups, #3 seed Suns host the decadent #7 Lakers, #2 Jazz plays 7th seed thunder.

Finally, and perhaps the most thrilling matchup: the 4th and 5th seed battle of the Portland Trailblazers and the Denver Nuggets, who will play in Montana's biggest YMCA for the duration of the series, for the first NBA playoff game in a neutral court.

[MavsFTR]

Originally Posted by sefant77

Fucking always with his formula, the formula giving him his recognition and income.

He is scared and pissed.

Hmm well it really is a bullshit formula. I hope the mavs continue to defy his retarded logic

[FINtastic]

We even managed to beat Portland after their excellent midseason addition of Nicolas Batum!

Although this win didn't take place on a neutral court so we probably lose points from Holly on that front.

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

We even managed to beat Portland after their excellent midseason addition of Nicolas Batum!

Although this win didn't take place on a neutral court so we probably lose points from Holly on that front.

Road wins count more.

[twelli]

"Note to JJ Barea: w:en Dirk has Andre Miller on Him don't wave him off and take it yourself."

ha ha

[sefant77]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

Road wins count more.

We beat "his blazers" with help of the refs. Secretly -5

[FINtastic]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

Road wins count more.

Yes, but you forget that Hollinger really likes his neutral courts.

He probably fantasizes about his first time taking place on a neutral court.

[ghazi]

WEird year for Hollingers formula. If he makes his predictions based solely on the formula, disregarding variables, he'll have a Magic/Jazz FInals, Spurs > Lakers and Mavs losing in 1st round.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

Yes, but you forget that Hollinger really likes his neutral courts.

He probably fantasizes about his first time taking place on a neutral court.

How do we feel collectively about the Mavs chances in a neutral-site series against the Blazers? Would the venue be randomly chosen by the NBA? East coast?

[chumdawg]

Maybe neutral court means you have to get a road win. Kinda like win-by-two or like a tennis tiebreaker. That would be pretty cool. And could lead to much extra revenue!

[xrobx]

oh you'll love this.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...weird-whistles

by john hollinger

PORTLAND – Earlier this week, the NBA had to own up to a missed call at the end of the Utah-Oklahoma City game, but that seems like small potatoes now. The league might have to apologize for all 48 minutes of Dallas’s 83-77 win over Portland.

i want to murder this man

[jthig32]

The bashing based on his Twitter feed on tonight's game is pretty ridiculous. He gave the Mavs credit. And this recap was good as well:

PORTLAND – Earlier this week, the NBA had to own up to a missed call at the end of the Utah-Oklahoma City game, but that seems like small potatoes now. The league might have to apologize for all 48 minutes of Dallas’s 83-77 win over Portland.

Let me explain: I never like to mention officiating in a story because I feel like it cheapens the winning team’s accomplishment. Besides, part of winning basketball is knowing how to react to the officiating and staying composed when the calls go against you.

Tonight, however, I’m making an exception. I have to. It’s unavoidable; I’d be burying the main story if I didn’t. First, though, let me emphasize that Dallas won on merit: They completely stifled Brandon Roy, got 40 points from Dirk Nowitzki, and were a half-step quicker to most of the loose balls. They also reacted better to the officials than Portland to earn a huge road win in the battle for Western Conference seeding.

Nonetheless, the other story tonight is what everybody in the arena, regardless of which side they were cheering, will remember about this one: Put simply, this was as badly officiated a game as I’ve ever seen.

The calls were equally horrifying both ways, so the Blazers can’t use it as an excuse. It didn’t favor one team; it just turned the entire game into a mush of clutching, grabbing ugliness. In a related story, the winning team shot 33.8%. This wasn’t “letting them play” as much it was preventing them from playing.

As for blown calls, take your pick. My personal favorite was a triple-dribble in the open court by Roy that 20,693 of the 20,696 people in the Rose Garden Arena saw clearly. Unfortunately, the three that didn’t were officials Ken Mauer, David Guthrie and Sean Wright.

You could nominate ten to fifteen other egregious misses and have just as strong a case. A brief highlight reel would include Erick Dampier hitting Rudy Fernandez right across the face on a drive with no whistle; a foul called on Nicolas Batum for allowing Jason Terry to take a Pamplona-esque running charge at him off the ball; Dirk Nowitzki being assaulted by three Blazers on a crucial late possession that led to a steal and a three-point play for Portland; Brendan Haywood either jamming or dislocating a finger on a hack by Fernandez that went uncalled; and Dampier blatantly hacking Andre Miller on a drive about 18 inches from Mauer’s eyes, the replay of which nearly caused a riot. (Portland's crowd, incidentally, did not handle this with much class; several fans threw things and had to be escorted out).

Mauer was the culprit for most of the misses; normally among the league’s best zebras, he was unrelentingly awful. This isn’t revisionist history either – by early in the second quarter I had Tweeted that he’d uncharacteristically blown several calls, and it turned out he was just getting warmed up. Both Andre Miller and Blazers coach Nate McMillan picked up technical fouls yelling at him in the fourth quarter; those calls were merely questionable as opposed to overtly awful, but by that time Portland was overcome by frustration.

Which takes us to the second part of the story, the part that ultimately matters: Dallas won. The more experienced Mavs reacted better to all the blown calls, put their heads down and kept plowing away.

As McMillan put it afterward, “Get to the next play.” Portland didn’t always do it tonight and it cost them, perhaps dooming them to a No. 8 seed and a first-round pairing against the Lakers.

The Blazers can point to plenty of other reasons they lost besides the refs. They shot 10-of-49 on shots outside the paint; for a team built around offense and shooting, that won’t get it done. They missed seven free throws, committed 15 turnovers and, as I mentioned, gave away four free throw attempts on technical fouls; the Mavs stayed composed enough to not pick up a single tech, even though the bizarre officiating gave Dallas just as many excuses to vent its anger.

“We got upset about some calls,” said Roy, “but we just didn’t make shots. I think we reacted – maybe we overreacted. But I don’t think the technicals were the reason we lost. Offensively, we didn’t execute well.”

They’ll need to execute much better – and focus much better – if they’re going to get very far in the postseason. With upcoming battles against the Lakers and Thunder, they’ll need to regain their composure quickly. They might take a look at how the winning side reacted to the same environment tonight, and take a few pointers from it.

[Murphy3]

Not really Thig. This recap is probably an attempt to escape criticism for his in game tweeting. Yes, he made mention a time or two about mistakes the refs made concerning the Mavs but he went on and on about those that were missed concerning the Blazers. It gave the feel of a guy trying to cover his own butt.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Not really Thig. This recap is probably an attempt to escape criticism for his in game tweeting. Yes, he made mention a time or two about mistakes the refs made concerning the Mavs but he went on and on about those that were missed concerning the Blazers. It gave the feel of a guy trying to cover his own butt.

No, he really didn't.

[Murphy3]

Yes, he really did.

[Murphy3]

Hollinger didn't want to face criticism, so ..what's the common thing for people to do once they've shown their asses while whining about officiating during a game?.. backtrack just a bit and say that the officials did a poor job all the way around.

[dude1394]

g

a foul called on Nicolas Batum for allowing Jason Terry to take a Pamplona-esque running charge at him off the ball;

I wasn't able to watch the whole game but I did see this one. And hollinger is full of crapola on it. Yea jet and this dude got tangled up with NO call, but then jet went running down the sideline seemingly right at this dude but before he got to him he veered sharply away, the dude followed him and body checked him.

He reminds me of drunk fan at the arena who's just screaming to hear themselves scream.

[jthig32]

I question whether you even read his list of tweets from last night. There wasn't any whining about the refs costing the Portland the game, and he singled out specific calls that went against both teams as they happened.

You're having trouble being objective about Hollinger if you read his tweet log last night and come to the conclusion that he was whining about the officiating on behalf of Portland.

It really was a horribly officiated game. No reason to not talk about it.

[particleman]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Hollinger didn't want to face criticism, so ..what's the common thing for people to do once they've shown their asses while whining about officiating during a game?.. backtrack just a bit and say that the officials did a poor job all the way around.

Hollinger never once even implied that the officiating was benefitting Dallas more than Portland (even though it was, in my opinion). He never "backtracked" on anything. What the heck are you talking about?

[mavsfan1000]

I definitely think Hollinger is hiding his bias against the Mavs.

[ribosoma]

Although I think his formula is trash, I do think the game was called poorly. It would be much easier to take Hollinger seriously if he wasn't such a douchebag in his live chats. I thought his post game summary was dead on. He said the Mavs won on merit, adjusting to how the game was being called (or miscalled).

The irony is that Hollinger is getting shredded by Blazers fans for not writing that they were jobbed and that the officials gave the game to Dallas. Poor guy. Not only is his life's work being exposed as fallacy, but nobody seems to like him.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

Maybe neutral court means you have to get a road win. Kinda like win-by-two or like a tennis tiebreaker. That would be pretty cool. And could lead to much extra revenue!

Now we're thinking outside the box. That's what I'm talking about! They have an "away goals" tiebreaker in soccer--maybe something like that as well?

[ribosoma]

Originally Posted by mavsfan1000

I definitely think Hollinger is hiding his bias against the Mavs.

I think he's just emotionally invested in his rating system. The better the Mavs do, the more useless his formula is. It's understandable. This wouldn't be the first time he was proven wrong.

An interesting article on Hollinger and the Mavs (sorry if it has already been posted):

http://www.examiner.com/x-7561-Dalla...-Hollinger-etc

[FINtastic]

Originally Posted by ribosoma

The irony is that Hollinger is getting shredded by Blazers fans for not writing that they were jobbed and that the officials gave the game to Dallas. Poor guy. Not only is his life's work being exposed as fallacy, but nobody seems to like him.

lol, I did think that was ironic as well. Poor Hollinger just can't win these days.

[kg_veteran]

Several things:

1. If Hollinger thought that was the worst officiating he's ever seen, I have to question how much hoops he has watched. Sure, there were some bad/missed calls, but give me a break.

2. Why is Hollinger horrified by officiating? Did he mean to say "horrible" instead of "horrifying"? Either his command of the English language is not that impressive or he's easily frightened.

3. How was the officiating the "main story" of the game? Hollinger says that although the officiating didn't favor either team, it "turned the entire game into a mush of clutching, grabbing ugliness." His contention is that it was awful officiating that made the teams shoot poorly. I didn't see that at all. What I saw was two teams who were busting their butts on defense all night and couldn't make jump shots (Dallas was 13-46 outside of 10 feet; Portland was 11-51) because: a) they were expending a lot of energy on defense and b) the vast majority of shots were contested.

I don't really think Hollinger was making excuses for Portland, but he was definitely whining about the officiating a lot in his tweets. I guess I'm just jaded, but I didn't think it was all that awful. In fairness, he did point what I thought was the larger story (at least as far as the officiating went): Portland lost its composure from the top down, and Dallas didn't. The Mavs could have gone into conniption fits on several occasions, too, but they didn't. And I really like that -- it's something that has long been a weakness of this team, and it's the sort of resolve that they have to have to win in hostile environments.