Fair or not, the officials became the primary storyline in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The Cavaliers were awarded a whopping 22 free throws in the first quarter, seven technical fouls were called, and Draymond Green was kicked out of the game in the third quarter, only to be told he could stay on the floor. All in all, the refs had a rough night.
Despite that, Warriors play-by-play announcer Bob Fitzgerald argued on Murph and Mac Monday morning that the Warriors would’ve lost even if the game was called properly, citing the fact that the Cavs putting on one of the greatest shooting performances in NBA history.
“The thing that people have to realize is that Cleveland shot 24-of-45 on 3s,” Fitz said. “They played better than the Warriors, they deserved to win the game and they did. Now how the game felt was influenced by a few other factors, but the outcome of that game — if the three of us had officiated it — the outcome was going to be the same. Cleveland was better that night, they made it 3-1, and now we have Game 5 here.”
Fitzgerald pointed to Cleveland’s performance as proof that they are not as far away from a talent standpoint as many have stated. In fact, Fitz believes the Warriors should consider themselves lucky to be up 3-1.
“These teams are not lopsided,” Fitz said. “The Cavs went 12-1 rampaging through the East. They shot 43 percent on 3s as a team coming into the Finals. They have LeBron and Kyrie and full flight, they’re really good. The Warriors, Spurs and Cavs are the three best teams in the league. I’ll play the Devil’s advocate the other way. Had Cleveland not just stepped all over their you-know-whats in the final three minutes of Game 3, we would be 2-2. From a Warriors 3-1 standpoint, you feel really good about that because you needed an 11-0 run to snatch Game 3, and of course the Warriors are good enough to do that, but you very easily could be 2-2 in this series.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Fitz’s comments on the officiating, skip to the 5:00 minute mark.