The Golden State Warriors lost a heartbreaker to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, blowing a 17-point halftime lead and dropping to .500 with a 123-117 loss. It was a dramatic and exciting, if disappointing and deflating game, and it came down to the wire.
Because it was so close, the game qualified for the NBA’s Last 2 Minute Report, which combs through all the calls and non-calls in the final two minutes of close games. And after looking through the video, the NBA’s officiating department has decided that the final minutes of the game were correctly called.
In all, five calls were made in the final two minutes, and another seven non-calls were flagged as worth reviewing. But all of the whistles and non-whistles were determined to be correct calls or correct non-calls.
That means that perhaps the biggest call of the game was correct. With 51.6 seconds remaining and the Warriors trailing by six, Moses Moody rose up for a three, and made contact with Domantas Sabonis. It was initially ruled a shooting foul, which would have given Moody three free throws. But the Kings challenged the call, and the refs overturned the whistle, resulting instead in a jump ball at half-court.
A day later, the league is standing by that (eventual) non-call, describing it as:
Replay review of the foul called on Sabonis (SAC) pursuant to a coach’s challenge was deemed successful. Sabonis closes out to the side of Moody (GSW), who extends his leg out to initiate the marginal contact. Since the ball is loose at the point of interruption, play resumes with a jump ball.
It’s worth noting that even on the next-day extended replay, it was not deemed to be an offensive foul on Moody, just the absence of a foul on the defense.
Speaking of offensive fouls, rookie Quinten Post got called for one with 1:20 remaining. It was a learning lesson for the youngster, as it’s a subtle foul that’s not usually called in high school or college, but is fairly common in the NBA (just ask Draymond Green). The league agreed that it was the correct call, though they didn’t offer too much detail on it:
Post (GSW) delivers contact to Fox (SAC) during the screen.
And there you have it. Another close game and another loss that can’t be blamed on the officials, for better or for worse.
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