Tag: Mike D’Antoni

NBA denies Rockets’ protest, but disciplines officials for miscues

The NBA said it agreed with Houston that rules were misapplied on multiple occasions, with the league discipling all three game officials.

The NBA on Monday formally denied a protest by the Houston Rockets over a Dec. 3 game at San Antonio.

Houston’s goal was for the game to be replayed from the moment of James Harden‘s uncounted dunk with 7:50 left in regulation, with the Rockets up by the 15-point margin that the dunk would have given them.

The game was tied after regulation, with the Rockets ultimately losing by two points in double overtime. Houston’s argument was that the bizarre mistake was relevant to the final result, and thus worthy of a replay.

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The league said it agreed with the Rockets that the rules were misapplied, adding that it had disciplined all three officials who were involved. However, league commissioner Adam Silver suggested there was too much time left in the game when the errors occurred to justify a replay.

“While agreeing that the referees misapplied the rules, Commissioner Silver determined that the Rockets had sufficient time to overcome the error during the remainder of the fourth quarter and two subsequent overtime periods and thus the extraordinary remedy of granting a game protest was not warranted,” the league said in its statement.

The nature of the discipline given to the officials — led by crew chief James Capers — was not disclosed.

The league’s statement also clarified that head coach Mike D’Antoni was incorrectly denied the right to challenge the play.

“The [challenge] request was denied by the officials because more than 30 seconds had elapsed from the start of the timeout,” the NBA wrote. “But the 30-second time limit for coach’s challenges only applies when the challenge arises during a mandatory timeout or a timeout called by the opposing team. Because Houston called the timeout in this case, it was entitled to challenge the basket interference call upon being inforced of it by the game officials.”

“If the coach’s challenge requested by Houston had been properly granted, instant replay would have shown that Harden’s dunk was a successful field goal,” the league added in its news release.

As a follow-up to the investigation, the NBA said it would work with its competition committee to develop additional procedures to help prevent the situation with Harden’s made basket from occurring again.

With the ruling finalized, the Spurs and Rockets’ known records of 9-14 and 15-7, respectively, entering Monday’s games will stand.

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