Crew chief Scott Foster, Curtis Blair and Nick Buchert have been announced as the referees for Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the host San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Oklahoma City is up two games to one in the best-of-seven series after defeating San Antonio 123-108 on Friday.
As Gilbert McGregor and Daniel Mader of the Sporting News wrote on May 1, Foster has gotten a nickname, the Extender, from fans.
“Foster is called ‘The Extender’ because fans have speculated that teams tend to stave off elimination when Foster is a member of the game’s officiating crew. It’s a nickname that often re-appears when Foster is assigned to an elimination game in the NBA playoffs.”
Game 4 is a massive turning point in the Thunder-Spurs series. If San Antonio wins, this series is going six games at minimum and potentially seven, with both teams guaranteed at least one more home matchup.
If Oklahoma City wins, the Thunder are going back home for Game 5 with a chance to clinch the Western Conference.
That being said, the nickname doesn’t tell the truth. The Sporting News broke down the data from the 2020-2025 NBA playoffs.
“In those games, the trailing team in the series won the Foster-officiated game 27 times, which is a 50% win percentage. In other words, from 2020-25 in the NBA playoffs, trailing teams only ‘extended’ the series half the time in Foster-officiated games — not as much as a nickname like ‘The Extender’ might indicate.”
Foster also refereed Game 4 of the first round series between the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons. The Magic were up two games to one and took a 3-1 series lead after a 94-88 victory. The Pistons ended up winning the series anyway in seven.
We’ll see how Game 4 of the OKC-San Antonio series goes soon enough. Tipoff is scheduled for Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
