Today's Referees are:
Scott Foster
Home Team W/L 47/32
Home Team Playoff Win % 75%
Calls 46 fouls/game
48.5% of fouls called on Home Team
Foster has officiated over 720+ regular season games and 25+ play-off games. Foster has 2 years officiating experience in the CBA. Prior to becoming an official, Foster modeled for department store mannequin mold makers. He came into the public eye as the best friend of disgraced referee Tim Donaghy. In his book, Donaghy describes Foster as a very honest and good guy who knew nothing of his gambling. He hasn't given the Celtics any big problems with bad calls that I recall. The only playoff game he officiated for the Celtics was Game 5 in Miami, which the Celtics won and which was well officiated.
Derrick Stafford
Home Team W/L 45/28
Home Team Playoff Win % 50%
Calls 52 fouls/game
49% of fouls called on Home Team
Stafford is currently in his 19th season as an NBA referee. He has officiated 1,000+ regular season games and 60+ play-off games. He worked for the US Postal Service for 10 years, which may explain his quick trigger when it comes to technical fouls. Stafford can be a bit quick with calling technicals so the Celtics have to keep their composure or they could face a couple of quick T's. He averages 1.2 T's on the home team but just .2 T's on the visitors. The only other playoff game that Stafford called for the C's was also game 5 vs Miami.
Bob Delaney
Home Team W/L 42/25
Home Team Playoff Win % 75%
Calls 42 fouls/game
45% of fouls called on Home Team
Delaney has officiated over 1,300 regular season games, 120+ play-off games and 7 NBA Finals games. Delaney was formerly a police officer. He worked under cover in an investigation of New Jersey organized crime and helped to bring a portion of the mob in that state down. While serving as a police officer, Delaney was also a high school basketball referee in New Jersey from 1972 to 1982 and later officiated in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) for four years before being selected by scouts to officiate in the NBA, beginning in 1987. Delaney called Game 2 vs Miami and Game 6 vs Cleveland, both wins for the Celtics.
Overview
The officiating hasn't been a factor for the Celtics since the game 3 debacle vs Cleveland. The refs have called the games fairly evenly. They have missed calls on both ends but weren't one sided. This crew has 3 refs who have been good in the past and don't have a lot of controversy attached to them. I'm hoping for another well called game. That being said, last night's Lakers/Suns game was very lopsided. Lakers shot 20 free throws to 42 for the Suns. As much as I hate the Lakers, I saw several bad calls/no calls go against them and ALMOST felt sorry for them. But then again, they have gotten a lot more help from the refs than the Celtics ever did. You could make a good case that the league wanted to extend the series with that kind of foul discrepancy. Hopefully the Celtics won't face that kind of uphill battle in this game. If the officiating is one sided in this game, the league will be validating all of Donaghy's claims that they try to manipulate games to extend series. I'm hoping for a fair shake from these refs as they seem like a good crew.
Topic: Today's Official Report for Game 4 5/24 (Read 1068 times)