Game 1: Ref Assignments

[Creation88]

McCutchen
Brothers
Phillips

Kennedy is alternate (via J McDonald) let the conspiracy theories begin.

[gnsf0946]

ugh Brothers is a dreadful ref, not sure if biased or just incompetent

[FromWayDowntown]

This crew had Games 1 & 6 of the East Finals.

McCutchen and Brothers worked Game 4 of the West Finals (with Zach Zarba)

This is the 2nd Finals game ever for Brothers and the first for Phillips.

Brothers was the crew chief for the Rest Gate game in Miami in November. Phillips was on the crew that called the Spurs/Heat game in San Antonio and made a fairly controversial call on Kawhi Leonard late in that game on a Norris Cole drive to the basket.

SPURS
McCutchen
2-0 in 2013 playoffs (W at GST (Gm. 3); W at MEM (Gm. 4)); 9-8 all-time (4-0 in the last 2 playoff years); 4-5 all-time on road
road teams are 5-7 in 2013 playoffs with McCutchen

Brothers
2-0 in 2013 playoffs (W v. GST (Gm. 1); W at MEM (Gm. 4)); 6-2 all-time (4-0 in the last 2 playoff years); 2-1 all-time on road
road teams are 2-10 in 2013 playoffs with Brothers

Phillips
1-1 in 2013 playoffs (W v. LAL (Gm. 1); L v. GST (Gm. 2)); 2-3 all-time (2-1 in the last 2 playoff years); 1-1 all-time on road
road teams are 5-4 in 2013 playoffs with Phillips


MIAMI
McCutchen
1-1 in 2013 playoffs (W v. IND (Gm. 1); L at IND (Gm. 6)); 7-7 all-time (5-5 in Big 3 era); 2-1 all-time at home

Brothers
3-1 in 2013 playoffs (W v. MIL (Gm. 2); W v. CHI (Gm. 5); W v. IND (Gm. 1); L at IND (Gm. 6)); 8-4 all-time (7-2 in Big 3 era); 5-0 all-time at home

Phillips
1-1 in 2013 playoffs (W v. IND (Gm. 1); L at IND (Gm. 6)); 7-1 all-time (6-1 in Big 3 era); 4-0 all-time at home

[timvp]

Ugh. That's not a good crew for a road game.

[FromWayDowntown]

Ugh. That's not a good crew for a road game.

The good news -- perhaps -- is that this crew (or at least the McCutchen/Brothers part of it) would seem likely to have Game 5. Since 1999, in every Finals that has gone at least 5 games, the Game 5 crew has included at least 2 officials from the Game 1 crew. On at least 3 occasions (2005, 2006, and 2009) the same crew has done both of those games.

I don't think the same crew will have both games in this instance, because I doubt Phillips got 2 games in these Finals; assuming Kennedy is working Game 2 as past patterns might suggest, I wouldn't be surprised if a Game 5 crew consisted of McCutchen, Brothers, and Kennedy.

[Obstructed_View]

Kawhi 2 fouls in the first 3 minutes tbh.

[TheGreatYacht]

Talking about refs, I think the NBA refs and Lebron James should watch this video:

[Creation88]

we dodged a small bullet in that Zarba is not with this crew