People, and most emphatically Mark Kiszla, have been complaining that the goaltending/basket interference non-call cost the Nuggets game one. There are a few things that need to be cleared up, because like anything, the explanation is more complicated.

The call itself was horrendous and game altering, costing Denver about half a win in the single possession. There is an huge difference between being up by one and down by one with less than a minute left. BUT, what most fans care to ignore is that the Thunder had two rebounders(Ibaka and Seflosha) in perfect position to tip the ball in, as KMart was not in very good position.

What may have been worse for the Nuggets was the previous possession, Gallinari "dribbled the ball out of bounds." But it was one of those calls that almost always goes back to the offense. And in this situation, Denver wasn't needing to be bailed out by the Thunder cheating because of a failed box out.

The MOST egregious officiating was the ref's coup of the entire first half. This was a game that was well on it's way to being a 20-30 point blowout, possibly by halftime. But as the Nuggets ran the floor and scored quickly with open threes or layup/dunks, the Thunder played traditional halfcourt basketball, and were routinely bailed out with early free throws, suffocating the pace of the game. It would be way too time consuming to get into each and every missed and-one for us, or touch foul they were awarded, but I will say that the six guys(of which I am the only Denver fan) I watched the game with, all agreed that the Thunder were given no fewer than 15 points of momentum killing free throws until the game was close again.

You won't ever hear about first half massive biases being discussed by the line-toeing analysts at ESPN. Let's all face it, US professional sports aren't real, and we're all just kidding ourselves to expect true parity. I just wish basketball wasn't such a cool idea, and that the country's best athletes didn't impress us so awesomely while playing it, because in the end, we'll always be disappointed.