Tag: Officiating

The Wizards feel like the opposite …

The Wizards feel like the opposite isn’t happening. Beal gets hit, but it’s not ruled a foul. Then, the same play happens on the other end and Beal ends up getting whistled for hacking an opposing player. “For me, off-ball is something I wrestle with refs all the time about because you’re supposed to have freedom of movement and half the time, I don’t even have freedom to go touch my teammate on the shoulder if I want to,” Beal said. “So, it’s just those things that are frustrating. Things that are blatant, obvious, should be called and (they’re) not called. But us as a team, I gotta be better at being physical, getting more open, stop complaining and we just gotta be better at screening for each other, me setting screens, and just figure out ways. I just can’t keep accepting it.”

Rockets to protest loss to Spurs?

The Rockets are weighing protesting the game, a person with knowledge of the team’s thinking said, but will wait to hear from the NBA if it rules without a protest. If a made basket was not credited, the Rockets could be given a two-point win in regulation or more likely have the remainder of the game replayed from that point on. In either case, winning a protest is extremely rare. “They said the ball hit James and went back through, so it was goaltending on James,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “So, I said, ‘I challenge that.’ Then, I didn’t get a response. Then, another guy said it wasn’t a goaltending. It went out of bounds on us, so I said, ‘I’ll challenge that.’ I didn’t get an explanation. I got nothing.

The Houston Rockets are optimistic the …

The Houston Rockets are optimistic the NBA office will take action after referees mistakenly did not count a James Harden dunk in Tuesday night’s 135-133 double-overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs, sources told ESPN. The Rockets are hopeful the league office will either award the victory to Houston due to the Rockets outscoring the Spurs in regulation or order that the final 7 minutes, 50 seconds be replayed at a later date, sources said.

Harden’s breakaway dunk with 7:50 …

Harden’s breakaway dunk with 7:50 remaining would have given the Rockets a 104-89 lead. The ball whipped through the net and back over the rim before bouncing off, and the officiating crew mistakenly ruled that Harden missed the dunk and denied Houston coach Mike D’Antoni’s attempt to challenge the call. “When the play happened, Harden goes in for a dunk, and then the ball appears to us to pop back through the net,” crew chief James Capers told a pool reporter. “When that happens, that is basket interference. To have a successful field goal, it must clear the net. We have since come in here and looked at the play. He dunked it so hard that the net carried it back over the rim a second time, so in fact it did clear the net and should have been a successful field goal.

According to ESPN Stats & Information …

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the most recent example of teams replaying part of a game happened on March 8, 2008, between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. Four months earlier, the Hawks defeated the Heat 117-111 at home in overtime, but the official scorer incorrectly ruled that Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal fouled out with 51.9 seconds left in the game. The league decided to have Miami and Atlanta replay the final 51.9 seconds before the teams’ next scheduled game, and the Hawks ultimately won 114-111.

WATCH: James Harden makes dunk vs. Spurs, and it doesn’t count

Houston Rockets star James Harden made an uncontested dunk in the fourth quarter at San Antonio, but the officials somehow didn’t count it.

With the Houston Rockets up 13 points in Tuesday’s fourth quarter at San Antonio, James Harden picked off a pass at midcourt and had an uncontested breakaway dunk.

He made it. Or so nearly everyone thought.

Unfortunately for the Rockets, after going through the rim and all of the net, the ball bounced off Harden’s body and went back up through the rim — nearly going in a second time — before rolling off the rim and being secured by San Antonio.

Somehow, none of the three on-court officials ruled it a made basket, and the call was not within the league’s permitted replay review system for head coach Mike D’Antoni to challenge.

The call ended up being quite impactful, since the Spurs rallied to ultimately tie the game and sent it to overtime. Harden had 39 points in regulation, which expanded his NBA-leading scoring average, but he clearly should have had 41.

The sequence could certainly be cited in the future as an example of why to expand the scope of the league’s replay system.

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Russell Westbrook gets retroactive flagrant foul for Luka Doncic shove

The NBA retroactively gave Rockets star Russell Westbrook a flagrant foul for his shove of Mavs guard Luka Doncic during Sunday’s game.

Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook was retroactively given a “flagrant 1” foul by the NBA league office on Tuesday for his shove of Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic during Sunday’s game in Houston.

The action was ruled a common foul on the floor. The upgrade does not carry any direct game consequences, of course, since the game is long over. However, it does count as one flagrant foul “point” for Westbrook.

NBA players earn an automatic suspension when they reach six flagrant foul points over each regular season. Naturally, a flagrant 2 foul — which also means an ejection during that game — would count as two points.

It represents the first flagrant of the 2019-20 season for Westbrook, who led the NBA in flagrant fouls last year with four.

The contact didn’t appear to be malicious. In a transition sequence early in the third quarter, Westbrook sprinted to try and pick up Dallas guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who was open in the right corner. Hardaway had 19 first-half points, so reducing his open shots was a priority for Houston.

Doncic passed the ball to Hardaway, and Westbrook then pushed Doncic in the back in a desperate attempt to get him out of the way. The goal was to contest Hardaway’s shot, or at least chase off the three-point line.

The push caused Doncic to stumble, however, and his momentum carried him out of bounds. A foul was immediately called.

Doncic led the Mavs (11-5) in Sunday’s victory with 41 points and 10 asssists, while Westbrook had 27 points and six assists for the Rockets (11-6) in the 137-123 loss (box score).

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Sean Payton: Nobody had a good game, including the New York NFL office

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton took aim at his team’s sloppy penalties, the Carolina Panthers’ poor execution, and NFL officiating.

The New Orleans Saints won their Week 12 game with the Carolina Panthers, but it was ugly. Saints coach Sean Payton watched his team commit 12 penalties for 123 yards, while his opponent executed poorly in several areas of the game — including two missed extra-point attempts and a botched field goal try that gave the Saints a chance to win.

However, the two teams on the field weren’t the only ones having an off day. Payton said after the game during his postgame press conference, “It wasn’t our best game, it wasn’t (Carolina’s) best game, and quite honestly it wasn’t New York’s best game.” Payton clearly took issue with mistakes from the on-hand officiating crew, which initially failed to give the Saints possession of a muffed punt until Payton forced their hand with a challenge.

He infamously received a private phone call from NFL officiating czar Al Riveron after last year’s botched NFC championship game. Riveron’s responsibility on Sundays from the NFL offices in New York City is to watch a wall of monitors streaming each ongoing NFL game and assist on-site officials with making the correct calls; apparently, Payton wasn’t happy with the officials’ performance on Sunday.

Payton challenged a foul for offensive pass interference on tight end Jared Cook early in the first quarter, which wiped out a 42-yard gain, but after reviewing the play with instant replay the officials let the penalty stand as called.

Late in the fourth quarter, the officials hit New Orleans defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson with a foul for defensive pass interference after Panthers coach Ron Rivera challenged the non-call. It was just the fourth overturned pass interference play of the year, per ESPN Stats and Info.

Ridiculous as that seems, the Saints were able to overcome it. And Payton declined to dwell on the officiating’s impact in the game, adding, “I’m not going to go down a list of all these calls. Any more questions about the game? Or are we just looking for hits?”

New Orleans did enough to win on Sunday. But they can’t keep playing sloppy and making opportunities for lesser teams to hang with them deep down the stretch. Here’s hoping this was just another aberration against a division rival. With a game against the Atlanta Falcons on Thanksgiving night just around the corner, they can’t afford to make many more of the same mistakes.

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DeMar DeRozan unhappy with officiating

DeRozan, who has been on the tough end of a slew of whistles lately, afterward called the sequence “beyond frustrating.” “I still don’t understand it,” DeRozan said. “I guess I’ve got to get dramatic and flail or something. If we say one thing, we get a technical, but if the refs cost us the game what? We get an apology later on? “It’s bull(expletive) to me.”