So I read the L2M. 3 points I want to make.
#1. The foul on the last call on Kemba - can't disagree. He was hacked good. The only counter argument is those types of plays often result the same way. You have 2 types of refs -- the type who likes to hold their whistle at the end, or the the "superstar" who likes to make the big call and be the game whether marginal or not. That one was not really marginal, but I have seen that type of play not called several times as well. Still a bad call. Refs should call it, but as I said many choose to hold the whistle at the end.
#2. As for the travel on Powell -- that type of stuff happens all the time and goes uncalled. Little ticky tack things like that often pop up in L2M reports, and in real time its hard to see and you can't expect the refs to make that call against the Raps or Celts. If you can't expect the Refs to call it, can you really say it is a bad call. So to me this is a minor issue, unlike #1.
#3. Interestingly the L2M does address the Nurse issue and does not say it was a missed call "Coaches may be on or off the bench from the substitution box line (closest to the coach's bench) to the baseline. Coach Nurse's (TOR) presence in the corner is not illegal and he does not directly interfere with the play," So that clears it up -- sort of. It was not illegal, but not really appropriate I personally don't think he stood there intentionally to throw off the Celtics -- he was just trying to get close to his players.
But the NBA should come up with memo to coaches clarifying what is acceptable or not. Because you can't have coaches getting close to the action like that.
Obviously the Raptors have not had a Kemba type moment in the last few plays of a game in this series. Both teams have been hacked several times in the middle of games.
I could only think back to game 7 of the Toronto-Brooklyn series in 2014, when Lowry still did not have a big rep. And the final play. He got fouled somewhere between 2-4 times in the last 6 seconds of the game -- once or twice before the ball was even inbounded, once on his dribble, and perhaps on the rejection.
Unlike Boston the Raptors never got another shot to make up for the bad call after that.
