Houston Rockets: Scott Foster will officiate tonight’s game

In the midst of an extremely controversial series through one game, the league has assigned Scott Foster to officiate tonight’s Houston Rockets game. Will they be able to overcome that and finally win with him?

We all knew it was coming, we just didn’t want to accept it. The Houston Rockets have played six postseason games so far this year and have avoided Scott Foster, who they have a serious history against, in all of them.

It was bound to happen eventually, and it just so happens to be at the worst moment possible. In a series that has officiating controversy heading back to last year, the NBA has decided that it is perfectly fine to assign a ref that has shown obvious bias against the Rockets in the past.

It’s unbelievable, really.

A brief history

For those that don’t remember (or are trying to forget), let’s look at some of Foster’s games officiating the Rockets since the playoffs last year.

In a series last season where the Rockets dominated the Jazz, they still dropped one game to them in Houston. I wonder who was officiating? Both James Harden and Chris Paul had foul trouble and finished with five each.

He appeared once again in the Game 1 loss to the Warriors last season at home. Rockets starters combined for 16 fouls on their way to a 10+ point loss, the second of those in the postseason under the officiating of Foster.

Game 7 was filled with controversy. The Rockets lost and missed 27 straight 3-pointers, but there are a few in the middle that Foster specifically waived off that should have counted. That was part of the recent report that Houston made about the bias against them in this series.

Lastly, let’s look at the regular season this year, shall we? In a game against the Lakers on February 21, both James Harden and Chris Paul fouled out and many technicals were given out for the way Foster officiated the games. The Rockets famously were pretty vocal about how Foster specifically shouldn’t be allowed to officiate their games if he’s going to be this biased. They have gotten what they wished for until tonight.

Obviously, you can’t blame the officiating completely on a loss. If the Rockets come out and play hard and well, they can beat the Warriors no matter who is reffing them. Let’s hope that’s exactly what they do tonight because I don’t think I can bear to watch too much of Scott Foster trying to make the game about himself.