The 76er’s went to the line consistently in the first 3 quarters of last nights game against the Pistons.
But that all changed in the 4th quarter.
The Sixers thrive on taking the ball to the rim and either getting to the line or making high percentage shots. So when you aren’t getting calls, it makes it much tougher to attack the basket.
So the Sixers were shut down in the 4th quarter because of a lack of calls going their way.
The crew working the game was made up of bad call superstars Bill Spooner, James Capers, and Scott Wall. It’s odd that they were so trigger happy during the first 3 quarters of the game and then went silent in the 4th. This leads me to one of two conclusions:
1) The officials simply aren’t consistent. If your calling a game one way in the first 3 quarters, then it should be called the same in the 4th quarter. There were several plays that were called fouls in the first part of the game but the same type of play was not called a foul in the 4th.
OR
2) The officials were swayed by the home crowd in the 4th. We hear about it all the time – officials tend to give the hometown players more calls and look the other way when the visitors get fouled. Did that happen last night? Possibly. Especially considering that the way the game was called changed in the 4th quarter and the Pistons ended up pulling out a win because of it.
Either way, this is something the league needs to look into. The NBA needs to get more consistency out of its officials.
