The NBA named Tony Brothers crew chief for Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, with James Capers and Sean Wright on the court and JB DeRosa serving as the alternate for the Tuesday, May 26 showdown between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault is living the moment: his team and the Spurs enter Game 5 tied 2-2, with the winner taking a 3-2 lead and moving one win closer to the NBA Finals. Oklahoma City won Games 2 and 3, while San Antonio claimed Game 1 in Oklahoma City and Game 4 in San Antonio; Brothers previously officiated Game 2, which the Thunder won by nine points.
Free-throw dynamics have added fuel to the officiating conversation: across the series the Spurs have attempted 17 more free throws than the Thunder — they shot 10 more in Game 1 and 14 more in Game 4, while the Thunder attempted seven more in Game 2 and both teams were even in Game 3. Those disparities are part of the ledger fans and analysts have tracked as the series reaches its tipping point.
Daigneault offered a blunt assessment of what he thinks will decide Game 5. "We didn’t have the sharpness, force or precision necessary to crack them. They were really good defensively. Just their energy, their physicality," he said. "A lot of these playoff games come down to physicality and force. Your force has to be better than their physicality on defense, and your physicality has to be better than their force on offense. That’s kind of the trenches of a playoff game."
Context for the officiating chatter stretches beyond this series. Crew chief Scott Foster — who worked Game 4 of the Thunder-Spurs series alongside Curtis Blair and Nick Buchert — carries a fan nickname, "The Extender," because supporters have long speculated that teams facing elimination tend to stave off elimination when he is on the crew. Sporting News writers Gilbert McGregor and Daniel Mader noted that the nickname resurfaces whenever Foster is assigned to playoff elimination games and examined the record behind it.
The Sporting News analysis found that, from 2020 through 2025, the trailing team in Foster-officiated playoff games won 27 times — a 50 percent win rate — which undercuts the idea that his presence reliably extends series. Foster also officiated an April 6, 2025 Game 4 between the Orlando Magic and the Detroit Pistons when the Magic pushed to a 3-1 lead with a 94-88 victory; that series nonetheless went to seven games and the Pistons prevailed.
The contrast is the story’s tension: fan lore about individual referees pulling teams back from the brink meets a patchwork of outcomes on the court. Data collected by analysts shows a mixed record for Foster in elimination-adjacent assignments, and even recent high-profile games he worked did not produce consistent results for the teams thought to benefit.
With referees set for Game 5, the question for readers is not simply which crew is working but which team can impose its will in the trenches Daigneault described. The officials will be one factor; execution, physicality and precision — the exact elements Daigneault listed — will decide whether the Thunder or Spurs move one step closer to the NBA Finals on Tuesday, May 26.
