The NBA Western Conference finals start Tuesday when game one of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves series begins at 8:30 p.m. ET at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
The Eastern Conference finals kick off on Wednesday when the Indiana Pacers play the New York Knicks in game one at Madison Square Garden in New York City at 8 p.m. ET.
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The league announced a list of 20 officials who will oversee both series after officiating the first and second rounds of the postseason.
Here’s a look at the officials selected to officiate the conference finals:
Curtis Blair
Tony Brothers
James Capers
Marc Davis
Mitchell Ervin
Tyler Ford
Scott Foster
Pat Fraher
John Goble
David Guthrie
Bill Kennedy
Courtney Kirkland
Mark Lindsay
Ed Malloy
Kevin Scott
Ben Taylor
Josh Tiven
James Williams
Sean Wright
Zach Zabra
Alternatives, if necessary, include Nick Buchert, JB DeRosa, Brian Forte and Gediminas Petraitis. In April, the NBA announced 36 officials that would oversee the first round, but now 20 remain.
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Nine of the officials have officiated 100 or more playoff games heading into this postseason, namely: Foster (255), Davis (204), Brothers (201), Capers (189), Zarba (159), Kennedy (151), Malloy (143), Goble (139) and Guthrie (110).
NBA referee Scott Foster (48) runs on the courtDavid Richard-Imagn Images
The NBA referees operations management team selects playoff officials based on three specific criteria assessed throughout the regular season, including NBA Referee Operations grades and ratings, play-calling accuracy and team rankings.
Individual game assignments for officials are announced at 9 a.m. ET on the day of each game and posted on NBA.com/official.
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