Rockets down 2-0: Loads of chances and one incredible call

These are the games that keep players up at night.

It's not just one crucial, stunning, controversial call.

It's the shots the Jazz nailed at the buzzer. It's the missed free throws. It's the rebound, off the side of the backboard, in the game's last minute. It's Tracy McGrady going from great for three quarters to gassed in the fourth.

But there is that call, too.

Keep this in mind.

"It's not a good way to take a loss by pointing a finger at the ref. that game," Luis Scola said. "We did not lose because of that at all."

He's right, and pretty classy, too.

The Rockets, however, hated, hated, hated that call.

With Andrei Kirilenko running to the corner to defend Tracy McGrady, Scola reached out a hand and held him off. Kirilenko flailed as if he had been shot. McGrady passed to Bobby Jackson. Jackson nailed the 3 to tie the game while official Tony Brothers waived off the shot, calling Scola for holding Kirilenko with 45.4 seconds left. The Rockets never recovered.

"All I can say is look at that play," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "He put his hand on Kirilenko's shoulder. Kirilenko fell back like a a truck just hit him. You're going to make that call? At that time? Of this game? Just six second before Luis went to the basket and he got hammered. The same guy (Tony Brothers) didn't make the call. All the stuff that went on in that game, you're going to make that call at that time? I have a really hard time with that.

"He literally flopped. Let the players decide it. We tie the game, let's see if they can win. That obviously changed everything."

Scola, however, put himself in jeopardy of having that call made. When you extend an arm, as in a drive, it draws the official's attention.

The wrong official made the call. The league changed that in recent seasons. Though Brothers was closest, the call is supposed to belong to the top official, in this case Bennett Salvatore. Brothers was looking at McGrady, though he likely had enough peripheral vision to see Scola's arm extended. Salvatore did not blow his whistle.

The biggest problem, however, is that Kirilenko might have gotten the call with a great acting job. Maybe Scola held him off. Maybe Scola only touched him. It is difficult to tell because Kirilenko acted as if he were hit by a two-by-four.

This is why the league has to address flopping. Acting is not supposed to be a basketball skill.

It was a tough call because Scola did reach out and touch someone. If that is all he did, it should not be called. In a game that rough, a touch foul should not be so crucial. But the league asks its officials to judge whether fouls are real or just well-acted. Kirilenko did a lot of big-time acting and it worked.

The game was never the same.

"You can't call that," McGrady said. "I saw a replay, and that was a bad call. I like Tony Brothers, but that was a bad call. Very, very bad call. Three points down at a crucial point in the game and Kirilenko flops - he flops - and you call the foul on that? It was a bad call. It was a bad call."

The Rockets might have lost, anyway. Jackson's shot would have only tied it. But we'll never know.

There were plenty of other things to keep them up at night. But before heads hit the pillow, you know they spent a lot of time watching the replays of that call.