NBA acknowledges three blown calls in last two minutes of Clippers’ loss to Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook, center, gets a loose ball against the Clippers’ J.J. Redick, right, during the second half Monday.
The NBA issued the written equivalent of a “my bad” Tuesday for three missed calls in the final two minutes of the Clippers’ one-point loss the previous day against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Not that it does any good now.
“It won’t matter,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said late Monday after angrily confronting the referees following his team’s 100-99 defeat at Staples Center. “It’s frustrating, though. And it’s not like they’re doing it on purpose, but these are games that in the West you need every game, so it gets very frustrating from a coaching standpoint.”
The league acknowledged in its Last Two Minute Report that it should have called a foul on Oklahoma City’s Dion Waiters for grabbing and pulling Clippers guard J.J. Redick’s jersey before Redick caught a pass and attempted a three-pointer with about a minute left in the game.
The referees also missed a foul on Thunder guard Russell Westbrook for undercutting Clippers counterpart Chris Paul and making contact with Paul’s left leg, impeding his movement toward the basket on a layup Paul made with 10.9 seconds left after Paul stole an inbounds pass.
Finally, the league said it failed to call an illegal screen on Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka with 10.9 seconds left for extending his arms as he set the screen on the Clippers’ Luc Mbah a Moute without giving Mbah a Moute room to avoid the contact.
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