This time, maybe the Portland Trail Blazers had good reason to whine.
The team with the reputation for complaining about officiating pointed to a crucial offensive foul call that helped doom the Blazers' comeback in Game 3 of the NBA Finals."That was the backbreaker," Portland's Buck Williams said.
With five minutes to play in the third quarter and his team trailing 60-56, Terry Porter drove to the basket and collided with Chicago's Bill Cartwright.
Porter had no doubt he would get two free throws. Instead, referee Mike Mathis called Porter for an offensive foul, Chicago went on a 14-4 run and the Blazers never recovered.
"We seemed to be coming after them. We could have been down two after that play," Portland coach Rick Adelman said. "Then they built up an 8- or 10-point lead and we never got back in it."
Porter couldn't believe the call.
"Ooh, I would like to see the replay," he said. "That was a huge turning point."
The ragged Blazers, plagued by turnovers and cold shooting, had trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half and were down 54-45 at halftime.
When Chicago coach Phil Jackson was called for a technical foul with 6:06 left in the quarter, Porter sank the free throw to cut the Bulls' lead to 60-56.
Then came the offensive foul that Porter couldn't understand.
"I thought they'd called a flagrant foul or something at first," he said. "I think Bill was even turning around and looking. But Mike said I jumped into him."
Chicago outscored Portland 14-4 over the next 61/2 minutes and the Blazers never recovered.
"We had some momentum go
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ing. We were getting back into the flow," Porter said. "I thought I drove strong to the basket. I didn't see the replay but I definitely didn't think I jumped into him."
The replay seemed to show Cartwright was moving when he made contact. The Bulls' center, though, had no complaints about the call.
"He jumped into me and threw his arm out. That's Terry's game," Cartwright said. "He wants to draw contact."
Besides, Cartwright was in no mood to listen to Portland's complaints about the officiating.
"I don't think I had another call after that," he said.
Cartwright fouled out with 8:46 to play.
The offensive foul was just one of Porter's problems Sunday night. His inability to score was a major factor in the Blazers' sputtering offensive performance.
Porter is averaging 23 points in the playoffs, 26 in the Western Conference finals against Utah. But he took just seven shots on Sunday, and made only three of them for a total of seven points.
"Sometimes I pass the ball and it just doesn't get back to me," Porter said. "We don't do a good enough job of moving the ball in some stretches. A lot of that had to do with why I only got seven shots."
Chicago's defense had a lot to do with Porter's problems.
"They definitely seemed to have more pressure on Terry," Clyde Drexler said. "But for our part, we must be aggressive on offense and make more things happen for ourselves, because Chicago is a team that can take things away from you."