foul or steal on Pierce?

I am a Lakers fan, and a Kobe fan.

I looked at the replay over and over again, so that I can have a legit argument with my friends; basically, I know they would be complaining about that being a foul and it changed the game.

This time though, they didn't complain. They just said, "we'll see what happens in Boston" and reminded me that Lakers are DOWN 3-2. So I didn't get a chance to recite my argument to them. Well here it is:

Although basketball is a non-contact sport, the players are allowed to have minimal physical contact during the game. Why wasn't it called? Although this is a move that would be called as a foul MOST of the time, it was at the end of the game and the refs didn't want to make/break the game based off of a play they weren't 100% sure on. Most of the times they call that foul, refs don't really see if they player got hit or not, they just give the benefit of the doubt to the offensive player. In this case, they couldn't do that with the game on the line, so they let it go.

Was it a foul? I'd say no. Kobe did touch Pierce on the stomach, but I didn't see any contact on the hand/arm. So hitting the ball loose was a completely fair play. The contact to Pierce's stomach is not allowed, but it didn't cause any disadvantage to the Celtics, because Pierce had already lost the ball, and it wasn't like the ball was 6 inches from his reach and Kobe was holding him back. The ball was long gone and that little bit of contact was not the reason Pierce didn't get to the ball before Odom.

So no; no foul. Even Pierce says it was a great defensive play.

A note just to keep your minds open: James Posey tried to chase down Kobe, but decided to let him go. Posey touched Kobe as he dunked. According to the rules, that's a foul, but no one would call that, even a Lakers fan. Minimal contact is allowed, so long as it does not give one team or another the advantage.

We have the advantage of replays, so we can determine clearly what happened. The refs don't have that use, so they do the best they can. In this situation, with the game on the line(or close enough to it), they probably couldn't identify with certainty whether Kobe had contact with Pierce, so they let it go. As a Lakers fan, I was happy they didn't make the call. As a critic after reviewing the tapes, I say they made the right choice.

As neither a Celtics or Lakers fan, i think of i will supply you with an independent opinion on that play. My ruling: No Foul. gamers are available in touch with one yet another each and all of the time and it is not consistently a undesirable. It became right into a sturdy, sparkling scouse borrow. That being reported, because my team (BULLS) is in the east, I definitely have been cheering for Boston in those finals.

you are right, kobe did not appear to get any ball on the steal, but it left Pierce so quickly it looked like he did. can't blame it on the ref's there, at first glance it looked like a good steal.

it was a foul, but oh well what happens happens, after all game 2 was bs for the lakers.