Once again, the city of Atlanta deals a tough blow to T.J. Ford and the Raptors.
Atlanta has been a tough place to play for T.J. Ford and the Toronto Raptors.
They missed one of his baskets last year that ended up costing the Raptors the game, he was carted off the floor on a stretcher earlier this season and had a game-winning basket taken away from him at the buzzer in Wednesday’s overtime loss.
How sweet would it have been for Ford to return to Atlanta -- a place where he was carried off the floor on December 11 after a flagrant foul by Al Horford -- and put in the game-winning lay up at the buzzer? It almost happened but instead the Raptors suffered a heart breaking overtime loss at the hands of the Hawks.
The play in question will be discussed for at least a few days as Toronto players and coaches were still shaking their heads leaving Philips Arena after the 127-120 overtime loss. Ford appeared to have dropped in a perfect inbounds lob from Carlos Delfino as time ran out to give the Raptors a two-point win. But after reviewing the play, the basket was disallowed leading to all sorts of questions.
Now before everyone starts to blame the Atlanta Hawks minor officials at the scorer's table -- who were already reprimanded early this season as the league up-held a Miami Heat protest and had the final portion of a game replayed -- the time keeper is only one of four people who may have started the clock early on Ford's lay up. Yes, the NBA uses the precision timing system that gives the time keeper and all officials the ability to start the clock. You would hope that with four people doing the honours, at least one of them would get it right. There is a belief that the official time-keeper is shut out of the system in the waning stages of the game but this is not true.
Canadian Ron Foxcroft, inventor of the FOX 40 whistle and the precision timing system that has been used for the last 10 years in the NBA, said that the official timer is always one of the four people with the ability to start and stop the clock.
"We can attach the belt packs used by the officials to a laptop to transfer the data and see exactly who started the clock," said Foxcroft in a conversation following the game.
The rule says that 0.4 seconds is the cut off point for a player to be able to catch and shoot the ball. For those of you who are of an older vintage, you will probably remember that this as the Trent Tucker rule, and when there is 0.3 seconds or less the ball must be tipped into the basket for it to count. Some recall Derek Fisher's miracle shot with 0.4 seconds remaining on the clock that beat the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs when he was able to catch, turn to shoot and score off an inbound pass in May 2004. Well in Toronto's overtime loss, it was reported that it was one of the officials, Eric Lewis, who had a quick finger akin to the kind that a home team timer would have.
Never mind the fact that it looked like there should have been more than 0.5 seconds on the clock after Mike Bibby's corner three-ball that tied the game, it boils down to someone starting the clock early.
There are only two times when the precision timing system is subject to the human element. It stops automatically when used with a FOX 40 whistle and the official blows the whistle to make a call. But when the ball is in-bounded and when the clock is stopped following a basket as the ball clears the net in the last minute of each quarter, the last two minutes of the game or overtime, human judgment is a variable.
Rumour has it that efforts are being made to put sensors on the backboard to help eliminate either the quick finger or lazy finger following a basket late in the game but this part of the precision timing system is still being developed.
There was talk following the game as the Raptor coaching staff was making its way to the bus that the ball was tipped on the pass from Delfino to Ford. However, if that was the case, then the ball would never have made it to Ford before the buzzer and the game would have ended with the ball in the air.
Human reaction time would dictate that with 0.5 seconds on the clock plus the time it takes to see Ford touching the ball and hitting the button to start the clock that there would be at least another tenth of a second added for Ford to score the ball. But instead, the refs blew it. Or did Toronto do itself in with its play in the final quarter and overtime? Maybe it should have never come to this for the Raptors.
Toronto knocked Atlanta on its wallet by building up a 17-point lead with 1:10 to go in the third quarter. The Hawks then proceeded to get off the mat and come back to tie the game. Toronto had chances to foul late in the final seconds but Mike Bibby's savvy play had Ford having second thoughts about committing a foul that would have given Bibby two free throws instead of a game tying three.
Ford saw the Bibby pump fake and did not want to risk fouling on the shot to potentially give Bibby, a 77 per cent free throw shooter since joining the Hawks, three free throws to tie the game.
If a protest is launched by the Raptors it may be disallowed under the guise that the entire incident is based on it being a judgment call by the officials, making a reversal of fortunes out of the question for Toronto.
Could this be a blessing in disguise for the Raptors? It may very well be. They could use another win right now, but remember last season's game in Washington when Morris Peterson's prayer was answered after a major brain cramp by Michael Ruffin? Well that win and simultaneous loss for the Wizards helped cement a first-round match up between New Jersey and Toronto. The win didn't matter to the Raptors but if Washington had the win, they would have edged the Nets and been Toronto's first-round opponent in their sorely-depleted state.
Thankfully for Toronto, there are no more trips to Atlanta scheduled this season.
