def _get_json(endpoint, params, referer='scores'):
    """
    Internal method to streamline our requests / json getting

    Args:
        endpoint (str): endpoint to be called from the API
        params (dict): parameters to be passed to the API

    Raises:
        HTTPError: if requests hits a status code != 200

    Returns:
        json (json): json object for selected API call
    """
    h = dict(HEADERS)
    h['referer'] = 'http://stats.nba.com/{ref}/'.format(ref=referer)
    _get = get(BASE_URL.format(endpoint=endpoint), params=params,
               headers=h)
    # print _get.url
    _get.raise_for_status()
    return _get.json()