Mavericks vs. Blazers Game 2: A Quick Look at the "Crawford" Case

I have to admit that this piece came out of nowhere. As soon as I figured today that Dan Crawford would be part of the officiating crew in tonight's game and followed the reactions throughout the Mavericks community, I knew I had to write something about it. Unfortunately in this short time frame I was only able to prepare the data of this regular season properly. I would have loved to look into this case over multiple seasons and especially previous playoff games as the Mavericks are 2-16 in playoff games officiated by Dan Crawford. But this years data also offers interesting observations and surely I'll be able to come back with extended data at a certain point.

Another hot topic about tonight's game is the free throw disparity in Game 1 in favor of the Mavericks. So we'll combine these two topic, because called fouls and free throws, as we unfortunately know from Tim Donaghy, are the areas where officials can influence the game the most. So let's start with the overall numbers from around the league:

All values are shown on a per 100 possession basis. This was somewhat expected. The home teams are called for 0.85 fewer fouls while attempting 1.05 more free throws. This is therefore the average home court advantage in terms of fouls and free throws every team gets.

These are the Mavericks values. By the way: You are able to sort the tables by clicking on the headers. Have fun with it. Surprisingly "home cooking" doesn't apply for the American Airlines Center. Dallas actually attempts fewer free throws than the opposing teams. They are a very good team in foul differential at home and on the road, but the majority of the attempted free throw differential comes on the road. Let's move on to the referees:

If you sort the table by the Free Throw Differential you'll notice that most of the referees grant the home team the advantage in free throws attempted. Dan Crawford is one of them. But he ranks below the average with 0.63 fouls and 0.21 attempted free throws in favor of the home team. Did his numbers change significantly while officiating the Mavericks this season?

The good news is: With Dan Crawford officiating, Dallas actually attempts 1.26 more free throws as the opposing team compared to only 0.47 overall. At home this number increases to 1.83. The bad news is: Dallas is normally a team that commits fewer fouls than the opponent. With Dan Crawford officiating they aren't able to keep this edge. Not at home and especially not on the road. While the average home team commits 0.85 fewer fouls than the opponent, Dallas commits 1.10 more under the whistles of Dan Crawford. That's a difference of 1.95 fouls per 100 possessions. On the road this number increases to 4.97, which is a difference of 4.12 fouls per 100 possessions. Furthermore, in games officiated by Dan Crawford, the Mavs are committing more fouls than usual while at the same time the opponent commits fewer than usual. Coincidence?
So which players of the Mavericks are affected the most by these increased calls?

I was surprised again. It seems that the additional calls are exclusively shared within the SG and SF spot. Matrix, Peja, Terry and Stevenson take the load here. It should be noted that these positions are guarding the opponents best wing players most of the time so it seems like the "superstar calls" are increasing for the opponent. Does 2006 and Dwayne Wade ring a bell?

This is far away from a complete survey about Dan Crawford and the Mavericks because I lack more data of previous seasons and especially postseasons, but the observations of this season offer enough controversy to extend the conversations I guess. Especially with Nate McMillan adding fuel to the fire.