'Mavs Killer' Danny Crawford Set To Referee Game 2 Of Mavericks Vs. Blazers

In the past 17 Dallas Mavericks playoff games NBA referee Danny Crawford has worked, the Mavs have won exactly one. The Mavericks won a tough-fought Game 1 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, and Portland coach Nate McMillan expressed frustration at what he (and Blazers fans) felt was uneven officiating.

In completely unrelated news, Danny Crawford is working Mavericks vs. Blazers Game 2.

There are two things at work here. First, the NBA does not care about specific referee complaints from teams or their fans. Bill Kennedy in Boston, Bennett Salvatore and Danny Crawford in Dallas, Joey Crawford in San Antonio, Dick Bavetta anywhere but New York and Los Angeles. It doesn't matter what history there is, the NBA will assign whoever it wants wherever it wants.

See our Mavericks vs. Blazers hub

The other thing at work is that the NBA trims its referee roster going into the postseason, and there are only so many officials to spread around. Of course the league could work it so that Crawford never worked in Dallas again, but wouldn't that, in some way, be tacit admission that there's a problem with Crawford working Mavericks games? The NBA can't go out of its way to avoid ref-team matchups lest it trigger some alarms the other direction.

Of course, the fact that Mark Cuban has in the past pointed out his team's record in Crawford's assignments give the NBA a bit of a mess either way. Ah, playoff basketball.