I can’t believe counting has become my favorite pastime watching the Lakers-Celtics NBA finals. Counting the number of free throws each team and each player has been given has become an obsession since Game 1 tipped off.

The only real measure of whether the officiating in the game is biased or not is the number of free throws each team is given. Have a huge discrepancy and it is hard to explain why that would happen.

As fans, we do get carried away sometimes. I mean a 35-28 (Game 1 in Boston, the Boston Celtics had the more attempts) or a 34-22 (Game 3 in Los Angeles, the LA Lakers had the more attempts) discrepancy should be acceptable.

But check these numbers out: Boston get a 38–10 advantage in Game 2 in free throw attempts which resulted in a 73-38 edge in the two games at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden. You got it . . . 73-38!

If a high school team were to play an NBA team they would get more love from the referees than the Lakers did in Boston. Why that 38-10 discrepancy in Game 3 is so unbelievable is the fact that the Celtics are supposed to be the tough Eastern Conference team that plays a bullish type of defense and a slowed down offense.

And everyone who saw these games knows that they did just that. The Celtics were physical, they were tough, and they were tugging jerseys, pulling arms, doing everything to stop the Lakers from scoring.

The one-sided officiating got so ugly at the end of Game 2, when the Lakers were making an heroic comeback (which by the way, was simply a result of a few three-pointers finally falling for them) that in one of the key plays Kobe Bryant went to the rim, got hacked by Paul Pierce while he picked up the ball, continued his motion and sank an off-balance floater with two other Celtic players trying to get a piece of the shot.

The referees saw no reason to blow a whistle. Next play, Boston’s Rajon Rondo takes the ball upcourt. He looks rather clueless as he tries to penetrate the lane, he bobbles the ball after the lightest of contact from a Laker defender and instantly, he gets a foul called. There were quite a few such incidents in Game 2.

Don’t think for one second, that I am an enraged Lakers fan trying to explain two road losses. I am the neutral fan that is just as outraged about what happened to Boston in Game 3. How can a team that has garnered a 73-38 free throw advantage through two games suddenly shoot 12 fewer free throws than those same opponents they faced previously. Is that possible?

Well, according to the experts covering the finals: Yes it is! You see, they state that the Lakers were not aggressive in the two games played in Boston. They settled for too many jumpers, while the Celtics took the ball to the rack. I might buy that argument had I not seen all three games.

In each of the three the visiting team attacked the basket relentlessly early on in the game, but got no fouls called during these drives. Thus they were forced by those referees (who would never alter the outcome of a game) to take jumpers instead of layups (the general thinking still is that a contested jumper is still easier to make than a fouled lay-up). This has happened to the Lakers both in Games 1 and 2, and to the Celtics in Game 3.

Whoever says Game 1 was not that badly called, consider that the Lakers had just two free throw attempts in the first half of that game. Of those, the first was a shot because of a technical foul. They did not get a single shooting foul called until 4:22 left in the half, when Pau Gasol was whacked during a put-back attempt.

Same thing if you believe Game 3’s officiating was rather OK. Boston’s first free throw came with 2:29 left in the opening quarter. By that time the Lakers attempted as many free throws as in all of Game 2 (10). How can anyone explain this type of change in mentality?

Sure, it is believable that the Lakers simply got more aggressive, so they had more free throw attempts. It is also possible that the Celtics got a little soft and that is why they have fewer free throw attempts. Yet it is tough to believe that these two things happen at the same time. Add the “coincidence” that this happens exactly when the teams change venues and it becomes even less likely.

Home court advantage should be the extra energy that the fans give their own team, and not how the referees decide to aid the hosts.

Yet right now I would believe that the Lakers should get another favored game from the refs, so everything can resume even and on level terms at 2-2, with Boston having two home games left, and Los Angeles one. Let's make it a best of three mini series from Sunday. That's the fairest and best we can hope for right now.