I am not going to dredge up the colorful history on these two zebras
Joey Crawford and Bill Kennedy with Boston because some of it is years old.
And if you look at the stats you will see plenty of games Boston has won with these characters on the court. These the most
heavy-handed refs the NBA has in their ranks.
Joey is the chief tonight. Both the players and Doc will correctly expect a
tightly called game in which no bs will be tolerated. Doc better
keep his feet on the sidelines and not venture out into the court.
Going to need self-control by both players and coach.
Greg Willard is the 3rd ref, he'll only follow their leads. Joey
as head ref will be the one the Celtics talk to. This could be
a setup of good cop/bad cop where Joey gives make-up calls
for the Celtics and Kennedy puts LeBron and Wade to the line.
All I know for sure is these guys are not shy about infuencing
the outcome of a game. What is the instructions from the head office ?
I do not believe this game to be mandated for Miami.
These goons should be officiating Game 5 in Miami if the fix was in
for the Heat.
Don't underestimate the media and fan-drawing power of a "final" chance
for Boston's Big 3 to round out their 5 years together and possible
retirements of Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett with one last
shot at a ring. The NBE can play this up and it will draw huge media
attention. Especially if it's against the Thunder where they can play up the
old vs young dichotomy and the Perkins against his old teammates thing.
With Bosh out and very questionable if he ever comes back I am not
sold on the idea that Stern is mandating a Heat to the finals this season.
They know they can do that next year and into the foreseeable future.
Therefore it is possible that the Puppetmaster has opted to
allow Boston in the finals ONE LAST TIME.
By placing Crawford and Kennedy in this Boston home game instead of
at Miami it makes me believe that is possible. Why are they placing their most
hard-line, controlled goons in this game, when they could have placed them
in the upcoming Gm 5 in Miami and seal the deal ?
It's one of two things, if Miami is the fix, we know it tonight and that's
it. If Miami wins tonight it's over. But if Boston wins tonight and gets
good treatment from the refs, I'm telling you RIGHT NOW that Miami
can KISS THEIR SEASON GOODBYE. Because it will mean that the
Head Office instructions are Boston to Finals.