Stop the Conspiracy Theories

The only two Spurs games worked this postseason by referee Joey Crawford before Tuesday night were road games for San Antonio. The Spurs won Game 3 in Phoenix in the first round and lost Game 5 in New Orleans in Round 2, with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and Crawford barking at each other heatedly in the Hornets' 101-79 triumph.
As anyone down here could remind you, Crawford was suspended for the entire 2007 playoffs after ejecting Tim Duncan -- essentially for laughing at the official from the Spurs' bench -- in a late-season nationally televised game at Dallas.
But Crawford was a lock to get at least one game in this series, with the league down to a pool of its 20 top officials in the conference finals. Popovich, meanwhile, insisted before tipoff that the supposed Crawford Factor would have "absolutely no effect whatsoever" ... to no avail.
None of that was going to stop local fans from whipping themselves into a conspiracy-fearing tizzy all day once word spread that Crawford would be working Game 4 alongside Joe Forte and Mark Wunderlich, with so many folks out there convinced that the league would do anything to deliver a Lakers-Celtics matchup in the NBA Finals.
The biggest flaw in such thinking? The Spurs might represent the best counter that the NBA has to shoot down conspiracy theorists, given that San Antonio has overcome its small-market status and supposed "boring" label to win four championships since 1999 and draft lotteries in 1987 (David Robinson) and 1997 (Tim Duncan).
NBA vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson said Tuesday through a league spokesman: "Assignments are based on an official's ability and not whether a team likes or dislikes an official."
Brent Barry's 23 points in Game 4 represent a new playoff best, topping his 22 points in a first-round game against Sacramento in 2006.
"It would have been nice [in a victory]," Barry said, "but nobody cares about that now."
The Spurs' primary concern is Manu Ginobili, who quickly restored doubts about his arthritic left ankle by scoring just four points until the game's final minute, when he threw in a big 3-pointer during the hosts' unlikely comeback from 93-86 with 56.5 seconds left.
Although he was widely proclaimed to be healed by his 30-point outburst in Game 3, Ginobili knew better, realizing that much of his success came from his five 3-pointers in the first half as opposed to rediscovered explosion.
"I don't feel like my last step is as strong as probably a couple months ago," Ginobili had said Sunday, "but it's not a big issue."
The results of Games 1, 2 and 4 -- in which Ginobili has totaled just 24 points -- suggest otherwise.
Popovich also said before the game that he has indeed signed a contract extension that will keep him coaching the Spurs through the 2011-12 season, which is the same year Duncan's contract expires. The signature merely formalized a handshake agreement Popovich already had with Spurs owner Peter Holt.