Bull-Celtics: Are Playoff 4th Quarters Different from the Regular Season?

When I was in high school, a guy in a hooded sweatshirt used to run around the outside of the court holding four fingers in the air at the beginning of the fourth quarter to fire up the crowd and signify that the fourth quarter is different than the other three.

Two examples from the Bulls-Celtics game last night made me ask myself if the fourth quarter, specifically the last few minutes, should be officiated differently. 

Let’s start with the Ray Allen double foul. This is the type of call that spawns a million conspiracy theories.

For those who didn’t see it, with a few minutes to go in the fourth, a comically bad double foul was called on Allen and Brad Miller when the two got tangled up.

In the first quarter, I would have rolled my eyes at the call, but given that it was Allen’s sixth and this was the call that put him out of the game, I just sat there shaking my head.

I don’t think there was a grand conspiracy to put Boston’s best shooter and most clutch performer in this playoffs on the bench. It was just a bad call by a bad referee.

Should the call have been made at that point? No, and not because it was the fourth quarter, but because it’s a ridiculous call and shouldn’t been made.  Ever.

The second play was Rajon Rondo’s foul on Miller at the end of the game. Rondo went up to block a shot, but ended up hammering the 7' Miller in the side of the head.

The way the NBA works these days, this is unquestionably called a flagrant foul in the first three quarters of the game. But, with just two seconds to go in the fourth, none of the officials wanted to make that call in the Boston Garden.

Personally, I don’t like the flagrant foul rule. To me, Rondo made a good, hard playoff foul, with no intent to injure Miller.

However, since I don’t make the rules, it was a flagrant foul by NBA standards and no matter what the game situation was, it should have been called.

As a fan, what I want most in officiating is consistency from the beginning to end of the game. Call it the same, independent of the situation or where the game is being played.

Ultimately, as it usually does, the ridiculous calls evened out and this very intriguing series moves on.