Joey Crawford

[Mel_13]

Or maybe, the home team -- which always has an equal or better record than the team that won Game 1 -- just plays better in most of those cir stances while the road team frequently falls prey to the temptation to relax after getting Game 1.

Nah -- you're right, it probably has NOTHING to do with the quality of the teams and is pretty much only a matter of home cooking by officials.

Undoubtedly true, but some of the assignments seem to be the result of something other than a normal, automated, unbiased rotation.

[romsho]

Here we go, look for Yao to foul out of this game on all the stupid one sided ticky tack fouls Crawford is gonna call on him. Crawford is going to blow his whistle loud and often. He's going to make it so the Rockets can't pack the lane and give Kobe a free path to the hole.

Arghh..just having this guy reffing this game pisses me off beyond words.

Joey Crawford was the 2nd choice. The Celtics are down 0-1 at home tonight, so Bennett Salvatore was busy.

[IronMexican]

Or maybe, the home team -- which always has an equal or better record than the team that won Game 1 -- just plays better in most of those cir stances while the road team frequently falls prey to the temptation to relax after getting Game 1.

Nah -- you're right, it probably has NOTHING to do with the quality of the teams and is pretty much only a matter of home cooking by officials.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Or maybe, the home team -- which always has an equal or better record than the team that won Game 1 -- just plays better in most of those cir stances while the road team frequently falls prey to the temptation to relax after getting Game 1.

Nah -- you're right, it probably has NOTHING to do with the quality of the teams and is pretty much only a matter of home cooking by officials.

of course it has something to do with that, but IMO there are some cir stances where the lower seed wins in 5 or 6 games and looks like the better team the entire series except for that one fluke game.

The 2007 Suns Spurs series is a perfect example of this, or the 2007 Mavs Warriors series where S-Jax got ejected in game 2.

[FromWayDowntown]

Undoubtedly true, but some of the assignments seem to be the result of something other than a normal, automated, unbiased rotation.

I don't know about that. I actually track playoff officiating assignments and have now for several years. I haven't ever picked up on some sort of arbitrary pattern of assignments that seem aimed at ensuring an outcome of any particular game.

Just look at the assignments so far in Round 2. Each of the 7 crew chiefs (Javie, Foster, J. Crawford, Wunderlich, Salvatore, D. Crawford, and McCutchen) has been assigned to one of the 7 games played after tonight. Danny Crawford worked Sunday in Denver, Foster and Wunderlich worked Monday in LA and Boston, Javie and McCutchen worked the games last night, and Joey Crawford and Salvatore are working the games tonight.

For the sake of completeness, Joey and Salvatore last worked on Sunday -- Game 7 in Atlanta. Javie and McCutchen, Tuesday's crew chiefs, last worked on Saturday -- Game 7 in Boston. Wunderlich worked the fame last Friday in Miami and Foster had worked last Thursday in Game 6 of Orlando/Philly; Danny Crawford had last worked last Tuesday in Game 5 of Houston/Portland.

Graphically, the crew chief assignments have looked like this over the last 8 days:

TUE -- Wunderlich, J. Crawford, McCutchen, D. Crawford
WED -- Bavetta, Javie
THU -- J. Crawford, Foster, Salvatore
FRI -- Wunderlich
SAT -- Javie (+McCutchen)
SUN -- J. Crawford (+Salvatore), D. Crawford
MON -- Wunderlich, Foster
TUE -- Javie (+Bavetta), McCutchen
WED -- Salvatore, J. Crawford

To me, that looks like a fairly regular rotation. In Round 2, everyone is working in rotation based mostly on when he worked last. In fact, I'd be willing to guess that the crew chief on Thursday night in Cleveland is likely to be Dan Crawford. If it's not him, it will be Wunderlich or Foster.

I'd even be willing to guess that the 2nd and 3rd officials in Cleveland tomorrow night will include at least one of: Sean Corbin, Marc Davis, Ron Garretson, and Derrick Stafford.

[DrHouse]

All I know is the Lakers better be getting some home lovin' after the Game 1 fiasco when they legitimately got screwed on 3 consecutive calls down the stretch.

The worst being LO called out of bounds on an easy dunk attempt that would have cut the lead to 4 instead of ballooning to 8.

[Artest93]

All I know is the Lakers better be getting some home lovin' after the Game 1 fiasco when they legitimately got screwed on 3 consecutive calls down the stretch.

The worst being LO called out of bounds on an easy dunk attempt that would have cut the lead to 4 instead of ballooning to 8.

Don't worry, Kobe will end up with 20+ free throw attempts

[Mel_13]

To me, that looks like a fairly regular rotation. In Round 2, everyone is working in rotation based mostly on when he worked last. In fact, I'd be willing to guess that the crew chief on Thursday night in Cleveland is likely to be Dan Crawford. If it's not him, it will be Wunderlich or Foster.

I'd even be willing to guess that the 2nd and 3rd officials in Cleveland tomorrow night will include at least one of: Sean Corbin, Marc Davis, Ron Garretson, and Derrick Stafford.

Wow, you are clearly the expert here. Referee conspiracy theories probably have as much truth to them as Area 51 theories. And to be sure, I don't buy any talk that refs have certain spoken or unspoken marching orders from the league. Just that my impression, with absolutely no historical analysis to support it, is that some of the high profile refs have certain tendencies. So when the Spurs have made deep runs, I know we're going to get Rush and Javie at least once each. I always want to see Javie on the road and Rush at home. Javie just seems impervious to the crowd and Rush seems more easily swayed. So if such tendencies actually exist, and if the league has a preferred outcome, they could make a schedule that preserved a normal rotation and still took advantage of such tendencies.

I know, Area 51.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

[FromWayDowntown]

All I know is the Lakers better be getting some home lovin' after the Game 1 fiasco when they legitimately got screwed on 3 consecutive calls down the stretch.

The worst being LO called out of bounds on an easy dunk attempt that would have cut the lead to 4 instead of ballooning to 8.

So you actually want the officials to blow calls or call fouls deliberately to favor the Lakers? How about just hoping that the game is called correctly and that there aren't any blown calls?

I'm sure you'd be ridiculing a fan of any other team who said his team should get that kind of treatment.

I agree that Derosa blew the out of bounds call on Odom; I don't think Brothers missed the Kobe touched it last call -- it appeared pretty clear to me that the ball had touched Kobe before going out of bounds, no matter how much Kobe disagreed. But in the end, none of that would have mattered if the Lakers had made their 3's (or exercised better judgment in shot selection) or if Pau had bothered to attack the rim and look to score or draw fouls or if any Laker would have done anything to slow down Aaron Brooks late in that game.

Come on -- sometimes teams lose because they don't play well. If you thought the Lakers played well enough to deservedly win a second round playoff game on Tuesday night, I think your standards are pretty low.

[FromWayDowntown]

In fact, I'd be willing to guess that the crew chief on Thursday night in Cleveland is likely to be Dan Crawford. If it's not him, it will be Wunderlich or Foster.

I'd even be willing to guess that the 2nd and 3rd officials in Cleveland tomorrow night will include at least one of: Sean Corbin, Marc Davis, Ron Garretson, and Derrick Stafford.

Just a chance to toot my own horn.

Tonight's officials in Cleveland: D. Crawford, V. Palmer, D. Stafford.

Got 2 of the 3.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

I don't know about that. I actually track playoff officiating assignments and have now for several years. I haven't ever picked up on some sort of arbitrary pattern of assignments that seem aimed at ensuring an outcome of any particular game.

Just look at the assignments so far in Round 2. Each of the 7 crew chiefs (Javie, Foster, J. Crawford, Wunderlich, Salvatore, D. Crawford, and McCutchen) has been assigned to one of the 7 games played after tonight. Danny Crawford worked Sunday in Denver, Foster and Wunderlich worked Monday in LA and Boston, Javie and McCutchen worked the games last night, and Joey Crawford and Salvatore are working the games tonight.

For the sake of completeness, Joey and Salvatore last worked on Sunday -- Game 7 in Atlanta. Javie and McCutchen, Tuesday's crew chiefs, last worked on Saturday -- Game 7 in Boston. Wunderlich worked the fame last Friday in Miami and Foster had worked last Thursday in Game 6 of Orlando/Philly; Danny Crawford had last worked last Tuesday in Game 5 of Houston/Portland.

Graphically, the crew chief assignments have looked like this over the last 8 days:

TUE -- Wunderlich, J. Crawford, McCutchen, D. Crawford
WED -- Bavetta, Javie
THU -- J. Crawford, Foster, Salvatore
FRI -- Wunderlich
SAT -- Javie (+McCutchen)
SUN -- J. Crawford (+Salvatore), D. Crawford
MON -- Wunderlich, Foster
TUE -- Javie (+Bavetta), McCutchen
WED -- Salvatore, J. Crawford

To me, that looks like a fairly regular rotation. In Round 2, everyone is working in rotation based mostly on when he worked last. In fact, I'd be willing to guess that the crew chief on Thursday night in Cleveland is likely to be Dan Crawford. If it's not him, it will be Wunderlich or Foster.

I'd even be willing to guess that the 2nd and 3rd officials in Cleveland tomorrow night will include at least one of: Sean Corbin, Marc Davis, Ron Garretson, and Derrick Stafford.

Or maybe, the home team -- which always has an equal or better record than the team that won Game 1 -- just plays better in most of those cir stances while the road team frequently falls prey to the temptation to relax after getting Game 1.

Nah -- you're right, it probably has NOTHING to do with the quality of the teams and is pretty much only a matter of home cooking by officials.

^^^^^^

I hate it when objective fans burst everyone's bubbles with logic and reason.

Seriously, let us babies have our bottles with our biases every once in a while. It's what makes the playoffs the playoffs when fans get in the heat of the moment.

[Indazone]

There's nothing in that analysis that says anything about ref assignments to a particular game. So what if Stern shortened his own rotation of refs. Big F deal. The fix is still in.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

There's nothing in that analysis that says anything about ref assignments to a particular game. So what if Stern shortened his own rotation of refs. Big F deal. The fix is still in.

I agree to an extent. If the league always operated by the books, and respected the sport the way it always should...Lakers would have lost game 6 in 2002..

The fact that Donaghy was an example of refs gambling, proves that it's naive at times to always assume the best in those running the league, or within the league. We can sometimes assume we're going overboard with league conspiracy theories. But not always rule it out, especially when there's $$$ to be had to tip certain games into tainted territory.

Rigged games can still be beaten though. Tim Duncan winning 4 ships' is proof of that.

[FromWayDowntown]

There's nothing in that analysis that says anything about ref assignments to a particular game. So what if Stern shortened his own rotation of refs. Big F deal. The fix is still in.

To the contrary, I think it tends to show that the assignments are essentially blind and that the league would have to plan incredibly far ahead, with time-machine like foresight, to get a particular official assigned to a particular game to ensure a particular result.

If you're so convinced that the league is fixing games, why watch? It seems to me an exercise in futility to keep an interest in something that you believe has a pre-determined outcome.