Usually I watch games alone, but last night 7 people came over to watch the Spurs play the Jazz.  Some were Spurs fans, some were Jazz fans, and some I’m sure, were just there for the popcorn and Krispy Kremes.

As a point of disclosure, I should inform you that I am a Jazz fan, and I am a Spurs fan — and I am a Krispy Kreme fan.

At any rate, the bipartisan crowd of 8 at my house thought the officials did their usual shaky job of calling the game, however, rather than just moan about it like we all tend to do, the raucous crowd at Energy Solutions Arena really got themselves worked up over it.

And I mean REALLY worked up. The abuse this crowd heaped on the officials was criminal. It knew no gender, male and female alike were equally ugly.  And from what the cameras let us see, it knew no race, it knew no age — and unfortunately, it knew no boundaries. I found myself embarrassed for them, because they lacked the good sense to be embarrassed themselves for their behavior.

And it wasn’t just a few bad apples giving the whole bunch a bad rap.  While may have been just a handful of fans who threw things on the floor, thousands were screaming, “Ref you suck,” and humiliating this crew within earshot of the internationally piped ESPN microphones.

In time, it looked to me like the refs had just had ENOUGH of the abuse,  and in the fourth quarter they defiantly decided the crowd wouldn’t get what it demanded.

In a game where both teams were clearly playing physically, the Spurs shot 16 free throws in the fourth quarter before the Jazz shot their first, with just 3:21 remaining in the game.  And by the time the quarter was done, the Spurs shot 25 free throws, and the Jazz shot 2. Keep in mind, in the regular season the Jazz led the NBA in free throw attempts.

If you are a Jazz fan — or a Suns fan for that matter, you might think there is an NBA conspiracy to get the Spurs to the Finals.

Thankfully, the Jazz PLAYERS are quite a bit classier and smarter than  that. To the Jazz players’ credit, they did not get caught up in the whinging.  In the post game, Carlos Boozer simply said that the Jazz were shooting jump shots and the Spurs were shooting free throws.

Carlos is correct.  In the fourth quarter, the Jazz attempted 10 shots outside the paint, while the Spurs attempted 4.

The Jazz shot 250% more outside shots than the Spurs in the fourth quarter, no wonder they didn’t get to the free throw line!

Now NBA refs deserve some measure of grief for how they do their job, although I have to say they did a better job than usual of ignoring flopping.

But the Spurs deserve no ire.  They are a class act — especially coach Gregg Popovich. I hated to see the Spurs players being pelted with things as they walked to the locker room, and I was sorry the on court post game interviews canceled because of security reasons.  The fans were way out of line, and frankly, the Energy Solutions Arena security didn’t seem to be that interested in protected the Spurs as well.

Now, about the game.

In the fourth quarter, I noticed that the Jazz was running its offense out of position.  In the fourth quarter, their spacing was much closer than it normally is, and it looked to me like Deron Williams and Derek Fischer were the main offenders … they were cheating and coming in rather than staying out where they are supposed to be.  Did you notice that the Jazz kept throwing the ball away by throwing it too far out?  Throwing it to where Deron Williams was supposed to be?

The poor spacing of the Jazz was the best thing that could have happened to the Spurs defense. It shortened the distance Spurs defenders had to travel to get to Jazz players, allowing them to swarm Boozer and not pay a penalty for it. It definitely made both shooting and passing much harder for the Jazz.  This resulted in desperate outside shots by Williams, Kirilenko, Fischer and Brown.

It was a 1 point game going into the fourth quarter.  If Sloan would have had his attention on his players rather than the refs, I truly think he could have made adjustments and been competitive in the fourth quarter — or at least been on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.  That was quite a mental lapse for such an experienced coach.

Instead, the team lost all composure, broke down, became frustrated, and then stupid.  In the end, the Jazz fouled the Spurs like a canary fouls the newspaper on the bottom of its cage.

Now, about the Jazz fans.

Generally speaking, the home team will get a friendlier whistle, but there is an old saying about biting the hand that feeds you. If there is a game 6 in this series, Jazz fans may want to remember that one.

The fans didn’t want to see the fact that there were legitimate basketball reasons for the foul disparity.  The poor spacing and outside shooting of the Jazz gave the officials little reason to call fouls.

But likewise there were legitimate human (and humane) reasons for the foul disparity: the Jazz fans gave the officials little reason to call fouls as well.

Unfortunately for Utah, if fans in San Antonio, Dallas, Oakland, or Detroit are obnoxious, people just think their fans are obnoxious.  However, if Utah fans are obnoxious, people connect the dots in weird ways and refuse vote for Mitt Romney. Fair or not, Utah fans are judged differently and need to be aware of that and behave differently.

Look on the bright side: at least it wasn’t a 26 point loss!

I have 3 children attending college in Utah, and 4 more who want to when they graduate high school.  It is my personal experience that Utahans are honestly among the greatest people I have ever known — until you get them at a sporting event or behind the wheel of a car.

Once they remedy those two things, there will be no limit to the amount of good these people will do in the world.

In the meantime, I am impressed that both the Jazz and Spurs players conducted themselves so well under those circumstances.  The Spurs are probably the team of today, but the Jazz may well be the team of tomorrow.