Empty the Bench

Unbelievable and unacceptable.

Those are the only two words that come to mind when I think about the way Game 4 was called between the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons. Danny Crawford & Crew did exactly what we here at ETB dislike about too many of the “high-profile” officials in the NBA today: they asserted themselves into the game’s main storyline and made a point of putting their imprint on how the game was to be played.

That should never happen. Never, ever, ever. Never.

Nobody is tuning into the game between these two great teams to watch them shoot free throws. Or to watch one side-out play after another on non-shooting foul calls. Or to see any kind of rhythm or groove for both teams be thwarted by endless stoppages of play because of touch fouls on the perimeter.

And nobody tunes in to watch the officials at work. They are there to be seen not heard, and when they are heard, something is amiss.

And yet that’s what we got in Game 4, a crucial tilt in the best-of-seven series in which both teams tried their damnedest to make entertaining. Despite the lopsided final score, the Celtics valiantly fought from behind for about 43 of the game’s 48 minutes. And the Pistons simply took care of business on the backs of a few thrilling individual performances by Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell, and Rip Hamilton.

Danny Crawford Photo Credit: Icon SMI

It was a fun game when the referees weren’t pulling back on their reins and making it as much about them as about the actual attraction people in attendance and watching at home are there to see. Referees are there to ensure the rules are abided by and to penalize the offender(s) when they are not. To make tough calls. To make the right call. I respect that their job is a difficult one, especially in pressurized situations like tonight’s game at the Palace most certainly was for both the Celtics and Pistons.

I don’t, however, respect the officials when they pull an ego effort like the one that was pulled Monday night by Danny Crawford, Bob Delaney, and Scott Foster. Anybody who’s familiar with ETB knows I’m a Pistons fan, but this column (rant?) was getting written no matter who won the game.

The Celtics were still in the game halfway through the fourth quarter despite shooting 31% from the field as a team; they stayed in it by attempting a whopping 39 free throws after the Pistons were whistled for 32 fouls, by far the most either team has logged this series. Of course, the Celtics weren’t completely let off the hook with 24 fouls of their own. All in all, the Celtics took 13 more free throws than the Pistons, and the 65 combined free-throw attempts 56 foul calls (!!) is a single-game high thus far through both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals.

Except in the most egregious of situations, outright blaming the officials for a loss in the playoffs is not something I usually support. Sure, from time to time I get fired up about a non-call or a bad call like every other NBA fan out there, but that’s par for the course this late in the season. Title hopes are on the line, and the last thing you want to derail your team’s chances is a little man in a little outfit with a whistle who knows he has the power to change the game.

Unfortunately, that’s what happened in Game 4—the officials changed the game. They made absolutely certain it was played the way they wanted it to be played. And their message to the Pistons and to a lesser degree the Celtics was this: don’t be aggressive.

And that is simply unbelievable and unacceptable.