Officiating has been a hot topic throughout the Utah Jazz’s first-round series with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Game 6’s crew has a wealth of experience calling the action.
If you’re a Utah Jazz fan, you’ve likely had a rough couple of days recently. After all, when your team has a 25-point lead midway through a close-out game and somehow finds a way to lose by eight, that’s not good times.
Although the team is as much to blame for its late-game collapse as anything, referees and missed calls have continued to be a hot topic in the series. And that chatter became a full-on roar during Game 5 thanks to this Kane Fitzgerald special.
Fair warning, Jazz fans (as if you haven’t watched it a hundred times already)… this is not for the faint of heart —
This is Rudy's fourth. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/Iwg8V4REWO
— Kris (@5kl) April 26, 2018
That call sent Jazz center Rudy Gobert to the bench. The Russell Westbrook-fueled run that stole the game for OKC began just one minute later. Again, the officials didn’t do it all, but that and other calls definitely helped set the stage for Utah’s downfall.
With Game 6 looming, it would seem the NBA doesn’t want any funny business this time around. Either that or the fix is in, if you’re part of the tinfoil hat crowd. Per the league’s referee assignment sheet, it’s sending some of its most experienced officials to Salt Lake City for the Jazz’s second go at the close-out.
Scott Foster, Ron Garretson and Eric Lewis have drawn the assignment for Jazz-Thunder, Part VI. That’s a combined 66 years of experience calling NBA action with more than 420 playoff and 23 NBA Finals games between them, according to the NBA Officials website.
Mark Ayotte, a veteran of 13 years as an official, will be the man at the Replay Center Secaucus, NJ.
But what exactly does that mean for the hometown Jazz? Here are the numbers from this past season, as recorded by NBAStuffer —
- The home team won 62.7 percent of the time when Foster was the lead official this past season.
- In terms of foul differential, though, he only called 0.3 more fouls on the road team than the hosts on average.
- Lewis and Garretson had home team win percentages of 60.5 and 42.9 as members of the crew. The latter number could be disconcerting, but we’re talking about a seven-game sample size.
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So, what does this all mean? Not much, if the Jazz don’t do their part. Officiating aside, executing their gameplan and keeping cool under pressure will be Utah’s key to finishing off the Thunder.
That said, it sure is nice not to see Fitzgerald’s name on the docket.