Good news again, Cavs fan. Scott Foster has been assigned to tonight's game. I posted about him in the Cavs game four in Chicago, and predicted a win based on his assignment. (we did win, albeit on LeBron's buzzer beater)
To rehash a bit, although Foster was blasted by the media for the 304 phone calls he exchanged with convicted ref Donaghy between December 2006 and April 2007, during which time Donaghy admitted he shared inside information with two known gamblers (
Ex-ref Tim Donaghy: "... It seemed like Foster had money on Portland and Salvatore had money on Houston" | CSN Northwest), he came out clean and Foster is kind of the solution to a road team getting screwed by bad reffing.
Donaghy responded about one game in which Foster was helping the road team, Portand:
Tim Donaghy:"Maybe so...But, in that game he was trying to help Portland as the road team because they were getting screwed by Salvatore who couldn't referee a girls 5th and 6th grade game without messing it up..."
In fact, in 9 playoff games this season in which Foster was a referee, the home team won only 11% of the time! This is a pretty incredible stat.
Jason Phillips is also assigned to tonight's game and also reffed the above game four in Chicago, where the Cavs won. In seven playoff games he reffed this season, home teams won only 42 % of the time. Referee Pat Fraher is also assigned to tonight's game in in five playoff games he reffed this year, home teams only won 20% of the time.
The NBA got the memo once again. Cleveland = Finals ratings. The smart money is on Cleveland for a win! The line has move from 1 point in favor of Atlanta to 1/ 1/2, but that tells me gamblers are taking Cleveland, perhaps because of the ref assignments, whose games they are assigned in the 2015 playoffs tend to be won by the visiting team.
Cleveland wins today and gains home court advantage!