To me, the amount of calls/missed calls that went against the Pacers...and then the timing and situation of the late game calls...I don't know man, I'm not really a conspiracy theorist normally, but when taken in totality its difficult to explain it all away.
Haliburton's waived off shot...clearly the wrong call, thats points taken off the scoreboard.
Brunson's foul that was reviewed and reversed...clearly the right call initially, why it was even reviewed was strange to me...but then to overturn it...no possible explanation for it. At a minimum, he hit him with a ton of body. But then he also brought his arm down on the offensive players arm... That's also points taken off the board, and 1 less foul on Brunson.
They called a foul on a ball Haliburton poked away late in the game. The Pacers had to use their challenge on that, and it was overturned. It looked obviously clean live, and not sure why they'd be calling it that closely in the first place in that situation. They sure weren't on the other end, it didn't seem. Pacers won the challenge, but that took away a likely break out layup or dunk.
They called that kicked ball that obviously wasn't a kicked ball. At best, it would have hit him in the thigh, and bounced off, and wouldn't have been a kicked ball. Why make that call? That also took away a likely breakaway layup or dunk.
The illegal screen on Turner. Illegal screens are sporadically called in the NBA, so its not like they don't ever call them (like refs never did on Edey/Purdue). But in this particular game, moving screens on both sides were rampant, all night long. I'm not sure they called a single one. So to call a marginal one, with the defensive player ultimately flopping, and then passing on the opportunity to "get it right" via the review and overturn the call... Its hard to explain or understand.
The last one was the dead ball foul call, that gave Brunson that 1 shot free throw. First of all, players grabbing and holding defensively happens literally every single play in the NBA...especially on out of bounds plays. That was the 2nd dead ball holding call they had made in the 2nd half...both on Brunson's man. And then to make that call in that time and situation... inexcusable.
To quote one of my kids..."the whole thing was 'sus' ". The Pacers have the better overall team. If they can win game 2, I think they could win the series easily. But it seems like they might be swimming up stream a little bit.
