With the Celtics trailing by three and 10 seconds remaining against the Sixers Monday night, Kevin Garnett was called for an illegal screen. Most people seem to agree that the official made the correct call, but the question is should he have made it at such a crucial point in the game. As far as illegal screens are concerned, this was more in line with something that happens dozens of times throughout a game and is rarely ever called.
“I wasn’t fond of it at all,” Doc Rivers said in his postgame press conference. “I think Kevin got three off-the-ball offensive fouls. You know, listen, if you’re going to tell me Kevin was the only one moving on picks tonight then I’ll live with that. But he clearly was not the only one. He was the one that got the call tonight. We put ourselves in that position. At the end of the day, if you put yourself in a position to let someone else do something you can lose games.”
With how open Paul Pierce ended up after the pick, the official probably felt obligated to make the call. However, you have to be very sure of a call in order to affect the outcome of the game like that. Even the Sixers players looked stunned that the official made the call, and I’m sure they would have been furious if it went against them. Surprisingly, Garnett himself was very restrained with his postgame comments.
“I’m not going to make a big stink about it,”he said adding that he had already been warned about the way he was setting screens. “(Referee Mike Smith) made a great call. I just thought in that situation you let the players decide the game. But hey, he felt like that was an illegal pick and that’s what it is.”
Whether you’re a fan or not, K.G.’s assessment is spot-on. It was the right call, but there are certain situations where you have to swallow the whistle and let the game play out. Monday night at the end of Game 1 was one of them.
