For the second time in 24 hours, a game was decided by controversial calls during the night on Saturday – although this time it was clearly a wrong decision. While the OKC Thunders look into the tube, the referees can only be blamed to a limited extent.
A few hours before the tip-off in OKC, the NBA released a last two minutes report confirming two controversial calls from the previous day: The two offensive fouls James Harden collected in the game against Boston Celtics at the last minute were legitimate, generally for all 10 plays Harden was involved in in the last two minutes.
However, according to the report, both Jayson Tatum and Al Horford had committed step errors that had not been punished before their decisive points in the 99-98 win. What Houston couldn’t buy in retrospect, of course.”I don’t care. It’s over,”said Rockets coach Mike D’ Antoni when he was confronted with the report.
A few hours later, Carmelo Anthony demonstrated a similar attitude:”I suppose we’ll see in the news ticker that the refs missed a call. But there’s nothing more we can do about it. So we can forget about that and get ready for the next game – who do we play against on Sunday? Dallas? We’re getting ready for Dallas.”
Anthony – like the other players of the Thunders – made a professional statement after the game, but the frustration was obvious to all involved. In this case quite rightly so: While in Boston the offensive fouls could at least be discussed, the deciding play in OKC did not provide any room for discussion: Giannis Antetokounmpo had definitely stepped out of his drive to become the game winner.
In real time this was difficult to detect, though not impossible. In slow motion, however, the not so tiny foot of the Greek was clearly visible far above the line. Clearly recognisable to every spectator – except for the referees. They were not allowed to use slow motion.
“There must have been a whistle to check an action again,”Referee Derrick Stafford explained the dilemma after the game.”There was no call, so there was no review.”
As stupid as that may sound, it’s true: due to this rule, the referee couldn’t have this decisive action examined again.
The curious thing about it: It would have been better for OKC if the defensive action of Russell Westbrook had not been judged as a clean contest, but as a foul – because in late reviews of fouls or field goals, the referees “may” pay attention to whether someone has stepped on the line before. This fact alone shows the error in the system.
The referees have recently been the focus of criticism and criticism. An ESPN report from 22. According to December, there has already been a recent meeting between Players Union and referee representatives to discuss the tensions between players and refs.
Several superstars, including LeBron James and Kevin Durant (even three times) have been thrown out of games recently, and Courtney Kirkland and Golden States Shaun Livingston have even physically collided with each other and were subsequently banned.
On the 25th. In December of this year, there was once again a lot of trouble with the Officials when they missed two fouls from Durant to James in the final stage of the final match between Golden State and Cleveland.
The controversy in OKC somehow fits into this series – but not really: You could blame the Refs for not making the right decision immediately, but you couldn’t blame them for not doing a review afterwards. Because they weren’t allowed to. And this is where the NBA should intervene to better support and protect its officials.
That’s what Thunder coach Billy Donovan suggested after the game,”He was obviously on the brink of failure, as we all know. Personally, I couldn’t see slow motion; I asked for a review during the game. They couldn’t make a review, but that’s something the league has to deal with. They control that, not us.”
At some point on Saturday a report will appear confirming that the game winner missed the call. No mention will be made of a dark of Antetokounmpo, which was preceded by four steps – it happened in the first half, not in the last two minutes.
OKC will obviously not be able to buy any of this. And somewhere there is, of course, also the old belief in balancing justice – of course, steps have sometimes been overlooked by Westbrook or Anthony in their careers. This is the course of the league – certain mistakes are simply unavoidable.
This makes it all the more incomprehensible, however, if such things that can be avoided can only be avoided on the basis of a funny rule.