Last night was Game 2 of the Thunder/Spurs Western Conference Semifinal series, and anyone that watched it was witness to one of the wildest, most weird finishes in recent playoff memory.
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In an official statement, the league listed “five incorrect non-calls” during the final seconds of Game 2 in its last two minutes report.
Lead referee Ken Mauer acknowledged the missed offensive foul by Waiters after the game.
“On the floor, we did not see a foul on the play”, Mauer told a pool reporter.
NEW YORK (AP) – Stephen Curry won the Magic Johnson Award, given by the Professional Basketball Writers Association to an NBA player who combines on-court excellence with cooperation with the public and media.
Touching on just this, Thunder guard Dion Waiters had some rather intriguing comments in the lead up to Game 3 in Oklahoma City.
The highlight – or lowlight – mishap was Dion Waiters, the OKC inbounder, shoving Manu Ginobili to clear space.
The referees union tweeted Tuesday about the no-call on Waiters that they would use the play for future training. This should’ve been an offensive foul, and it would’ve given the Spurs the ball.
After a scrum for the ball, the buzzer sounded and the Thunder evened the series with the Spurs at one game apiece with a 98-97 victory, secured by that final sequence that left most of the AT&T Center fans slack-jawed. It was ruled that Waiters was permitted to jump in the air on the inbounds pass because he did not leave the designated throw-in area laterally and did not leave the playing surface (i.e. step into the stands) to gain an advantage.
For his part, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said during the postgame press conference that the team did not execute well on offense, but when questioned about the non-call, Popovich added: “Something certainly happened on the sideline, I thought”.
“I’ve never seen a play like that”, Ginobili said.
“A win is a win in the post season and we are only going to get better”, Cavaliers’ leader LeBron James, who had 25 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, said. We’re not gonna be able to change it.
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“D-Wade did a great job of reading the play and jumping toward the ball, trying to take the ball away from me”, DeRozan said. “It’s 1-1. We’ve got to go to OKC and try to win a game”.
