Nassir Little, Damian Lillard vent frustration over missed call

The Trail Blazers are fuming after a missed goaltending call allowed the Jazz to walk away with a 117-114 win on Friday night.

Nassir Little, Damian Lillard and the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers were upset Friday night after NBA referee Josh Tiven admitted his officiating crew missed a key goaltending call against Rudy Gobert that allowed the Utah Jazz to win.

With less than 15 seconds left in the game, and the Trail Blazers trailing by two points, Lillard drove toward the rim for a layup attempt. As Lillard approached the basket, his shot hit the backboard and was then swatted away by Gobert — a clear goaltending violation.

Afterward, Tiven said the play was not reviewable since it was not called.

It was not reviewable since no goaltending call was made on the floor. Goaltending is only reviewable if we actually call it. The call needs to be made for goaltending to be reviewable. We’ve since looked at it via postgame video review, and unfortunately saw that we missed the play, and a goaltending violation should have been called.

Following the play, Lillard was visibly livid with the officiating crew, demanding that it be reviewed on the floor. Lillard had to be held back by team officials and unloaded on the referees during his postgame media availability in Utah.

Three referees out there and they don’t call it. I don’t want to see no report about, ‘Oh, we should have called it.’ They cost us the game. We’re in the playoff race and they cost us the game on an easy call. … There is no way to take the sting out [of the loss], we can’t have the game back. They cost us the game. It’s a loss on our record and we’re in a playoff race and we need every game that we can get.

Lillard scored a team-high 42 points in the loss as the Trail Blazers fell to 24-29 on the season, dropping two-and-a-half games back of the Memphis Grizzlies in eighth place in the Western Conference.

Though Little was not with the team due to an ankle injury, the Trail Blazers rookie, like the rest of the team, sounded off on social media following the frustrating loss.

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