For whatever it's worth, this would certainly seem to indicate that Joey Crawford and Mike Callahan have Game 4; I literally have no idea who the 3rd might be for that game.
I'm very curious about a couple of things associated with the way the referees are assigned for the rest of this series.
1. For the last two years, the Finals alternates all worked Finals games at some point during the series; in 2011, the alternates for the first 4 games didn't work any Finals games at all. If the league is sticking with 12 officials for this round, it's hard to come up with a likely 12th official (given the assumption that Joey and Callahan will be the 10th and 11th) other than one of the 3 alternates so far -- John Goble, Ed Malloy, Bill Kennedy (maybe Tom Washington, who did work 2 games in the conference finals). It's interesting to me that unless the league is expanding the pool of Finals officials, either Kennedy or Malloy (or perhaps both) won't call these Finals. (it's a good kind of interesting, since I'm not really sure why either has been a Finals official in prior years).
2. In the past, with the 2-3-2 format, the league could use a fairly simple pattern to assign officials to Finals games, which kept the general rule about limiting the number of instances in which an official would work multiple games in the same series in the same city. It has long been true that the Game 5 officials are (almost always) some combination of the Game 1 and Game 2 crews and that the Game 6 officials are some combination of the Games 2-4 crews and that the Game 7 officials have been the Game 3 and Game 4 crew chiefs along with a third (in both 2010 and 2013, the Game 7 crew was the Game 1 chief, the Game 3 chief, and the Game 4 chief):
Game 1 (@MIA) McCutchen, Brothers, Phillips
Game 2 (@MIA) J. Crawford, Malloy, Mauer
Game 3 (@SA) D. Crawford, Capers, Davis
Game 4 (@SA) Foster, Callahan, Kennedy
Game 5 (@SA) McCutchen (Gm. 1), Brothers (Gm. 1), Malloy (Gm. 2)
Game 6 (@MIA) J. Crawford (Gm. 2), Callahan (Gm. 4), Mauer (Gm. 2)
Game 7 (@MIA) D. Crawford (Gm. 3), Foster (Gm. 4), McCutchen (Gms. 1 & 5)
With that rotation, only McCutchen, Joey, and Mauer worked more than one game in Miami and nobody worked twice in SA. (this logic basically applied in 2010, which was the last prior instance of a 7 game Finals).
This year, with the 2-2-1-1-1 format, if you use the same logic, you end up with almost everyone who works multiple games working each of those games in the same city. Thus, if history holds and the Game 5 crew will be either the entire Game 1 crew or some combination of Games 1 & 2, then you end up with an entire crew (likely Foster, Mauer, and Capers) that will have worked 2 games in SA and the Game 6 crew (should it be necessary) will most likely be a crew that will have worked almost exclusively in Miami. I'm not sure if the league will see that as a big deal or not; in theory, it's not a big deal at all (and the league will undoubtedly say that its officials call the games the same without regard to which gym they happen to be in), but if you end up with a big-time homer on the road twice, that could potentially be an issue.
How they call Kawhi's play will be critical. Thus far, he has not been allowed to play at all, getting into foul trouble early in games 1 and 2. Big difference from last year, where Kawhi was a good scorer and excellent rebounder against the Heat. If that trend continues, Spurs will struggle.
Leonard needs to stop using 2 hands on Lebron. The good refs know that is a foul. Lebron is virtually unguardable if you don't foul. They should just put Leonard on Wade or Lewis and put Green on Lebron. Green is the least important of the starters. Leonard is important on the offensive end as well.
The sad part is, LeBron uses hands on everybody and still always ends up with 1 foul at the end of the game.
Uses hands and forearms, dude clears out and pushes off before he gets the ball and as he's driving
He did great game when we closed out OKC.
Brothers will not be reason if we lose. It will be be because Spurs do not pass ball or they miss gimmies.
i feel like they could announce any trio of refs and the posters here would say "omg we're ed."
just stfu, we beat the thunder in OKC with brothers. we won game 1 in miami last year with mccutchen, and he also reffed game 7, which hardly had controversial calls, also in miami
Yep basically it. And they will make bad calls. Refs have the toughest job.
We are screwed with this rigged refs tonight! We are screwed if the refs don't allow our defenders to play! Rigged bas s! Lebroom can push off and get away with an offensive foul and we can't even blow on the without the whistle blowing! these crooked refs!
Who's the 1 again?
OKC close outWho's the 1 again?
Wrong, we had him for game 5 lmfao, get your facts straight
That was Danny Crawford, you mixed up Brothers and Crawford like I did!
Rather have Brothers on the road than at home.
nevermindWho's the 1 again?
this definitely isn't reassuring to me. I keep hoping Silver is better than Stern, but we'll find out. the officiating in game 2 was bull , we'll see if the league continues to push Lebron and his quest for a bogus threepeat.
Zarba is pretty bad. Definitely overwhelmed by the moment.
Solid game by the refs. Overall very even.
Spurs won in OKC in game 6 with Tony Brothers reffing and now won game 3 in Miami with Brothers. Can you all stop ing now?
Refs made multiple bail-out and momentum killing calls in favor of the Spurs in the 4th. Miami continues to storm back if not for refs
Good game by refs. Couple tough, but good calls by Brothers. I am surprised
No complain about the refs tonite tbh
Brothers made plenty of great calls. Some of which went against Lebron
Thought for a second to start the 3rd, Spurs were going to have some phantom calls but the Heat had 2 or 3 offensive fouls that killed their momentum.
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