The NBA Finals head to Game 5 on Monday night after the Cavaliers fought off a Warriors sweep with a 137-116 win in Game 4 in Cleveland to push the series back to Oakland. While LeBron James and Kyrie Irving led the way with tremendous performances again, and the rest of the Cavs’ supporting cast finally showed up on offense, there was lots of discussion about the officiating in Game 4.
Cleveland went to the free throw line 22 times in the first quarter on the way to a 49-point quarter. Everyone in the arena thought Draymond Green had been assessed a technical foul in the first half, so when he was hit with one in the second half it was assumed he’d been ejected. Instead, it was revealed that the first technical had been given to Steve Kerr, and thus, Draymond was able to stay in the game. There was also a strange no-call on a Zaza Pachulia low blow that led to double technicals (one on him, and one on Iman Shumpert, the guy he punched in the nether region), and some general rough play in the paint that seemed to go unnoticed later in the game.
Whenever the officiating becomes a storyline, one side naturally cries foul and conspiracy theories begin flying about how the NBA is rigging the series to go deeper. Draymond Green’s mother perpetuated the “refs are being paid to extend the Finals” theory on Twitter that many have latched onto, and disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy came in to stoke the conspiracy fire on Monday.
Donaghy, who you will remember as the NBA official that served 15 months in prison for gambling on games he officiated, made an appearance on KNBR radio in the Bay Area to further fan the flames and suggest that the referees will be pushed towards tilting the game in favor of the Cavs again in Game 5.
Tim Donaghy on KNBR: The NBA will instruct the officials to get this to a Game 6 pic.twitter.com/ISsqOT5lOm
— Kevin Jones (@Mr_KevinJones) June 12, 2017
Donaghy says that the NBA will show referees game tape to go over calls that have been missed — this is well known — but what he’s suggesting is that the league will focus on the Warriors’ transgressions in an effort to get refs to call the game tighter on the Warriors and give the Cavs an advantage. Donaghy said the league wouldn’t care who wins, but does want the series to go to six or seven games, offering the perfect ammunition for Warriors fans looking for a reason to believe their scrappy, underdog, monolith of a team is up against the money hungry NBA in Game 5 should things go the wrong way.
There’s one significant problem with this whole theory that the league is rigging games for ratings: the NBA has already made their money. Their revenue from the TV deal is set in stone, the only additional revenue goes to the two teams involved in the Finals for added home games. So, if anything, the Warriors benefit the most financially from the Game 4 win by the Cavs because ticket revenue will be through the roof for Game 5.
The referees can absolutely play a role in dictating the pace of the game and players getting into foul trouble if the game is called tighter, but make no mistake, the reason the Cavs won Game 4 — and the only way they win Game 5 — is if they get another great game from Kyrie Irving and the rest of the team knocks down the open shots that they otherwise missed in the first three games.
There’s nothing the NBA could do about that happening even if they wanted to, and we should probably stop asking for a grimy, disgruntled ex-employee for his thoughts on how things operate.
