Officiating to the score vs. officiating the game?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by FlasherZ

I've always been taught - and believed - that you should "call the game, not the score", especially when it comes to fouls. This is because it generates safety problems when a (usually losing) team figures out it can begin mangling another team's players.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I cannot speak for this game, but time and score always matters. If the teams that are playing are mismatched and the outcome is decided, it is not the time to start calling very technical things either way. And if the team is losing big, you do not want to keep calling every little thing against them when the outcome is already decided and they already feel like they are getting the short end of the stick.

Agree with JRutledge. Time and score are always important, especially in the later part of a game.

We always need to know who is ahead and who is behind. Teams behind want the clock to stop. Teams ahead want the clock to run.

Team strategy in the first four minutes of the game is never the same as team strategy in the last four minutes of a game. Even with a totally lopsided score, one may find the team behind still playing starters, while the team ahead is playing bench players, or both teams are playing bench players, in some cases "very deep" inexperienced bench players.

Such late game strategy is as old as two-hand set shots, peach baskets, laced basketballs, and chicken wire cages around the perimeter of the court, and officials have to be aware of such to insure fair play, safety, and sportsmanship up until the final buzzer.