The NBA released their Officiating Last Two Minute Report from Thursday and Toronto Raptors fans probably aren’t going to be happy about the results.
As a refresher, the Raptors had stormed back to tie the Charlotte Hornets at 90-90. On the Hornets’ final regulation possession, the Raptors double-teamed Kemba Walker and poked the ball free. DeMar DeRozan corralled the loose ball with 3.5 seconds left on the clock, Kyle Lowry immediately began calling for timeout, and with 0.7 seconds left, everything hit the fan – DeRozan fired up a half-court heave that went in, while officials finally granted the timeout.
After review, the ruling was that the official called timeout and DeRozan’s shot didn’t count, but the Raptors weren’t due any additional time. The entire scenario is broken down here, and the Raptors would go on to lose in overtime.
The league’s official report has the following to say:
After securing the loose ball, Toronto attempts to call a timeout but it is not immediately recognized by the officials. Prior to the start of DeRozan’s (TOR) upward shooting motion the trail official recognizes and awards Toronto a timeout.
This explains calling the timeout instead of allowing the shot to count, but it doesn’t explain 2.8 seconds ticking off the clock while Lowry is aggressively screaming and motioning for time. In the freeze-frame above, it looks as if Lowry’s motion would be obvious given the placement of the referees and his presence near the live ball.
Looking at the Official Instant Replay Guidelines, it does not appear that reviewing the time on the clock for when a timeout was called is an allowable review – the officials could confer to see if the timeout preceded the shot, but not if they missed an earlier timeout call. (I’m at the 905 game and am going to ask their coach for clarification, if he knows, but as I understand the guidelines and Replay Center Overview, the time is reviewable only when a clock expires, insane as that seems given the situation.)
The officials report also confirms that not calling a foul on the Lowry-Cory Joseph double-team was correct. Here are a few other notes:
*At 1:28, Bismack Biyombo should have been called for a loose ball foul against Cody Zeller.
*At 1:25, Lowry should have been called for an offensive foul against Walker.
*At 1:07, Joseph should have been called for a shooting foul against Walker.
*At 3:14 of overtime, Lowry should have been called for a reach-in foul against Jeremy Lin.
Everything else was ruled correct. So for as big as the final call in regulation was, the Raptors got lucky with the whistle a few times, too. (Obviously those smaller ones don’t make up for one call that essentially erased a win or a good chance to win, just making note.)
Shrug. Time for conspiracy theories!
