The NBA’s referees from Monday night’s Game 2 matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals have a message to deliver: Oops.
In the closing seconds of Oklahoma City’s 98-97 win over San Antonio, Dion Waiters was inbounding the ball and elbowed Manu Ginobili from the sidelines. Nothing was called, even though it was clear he committed an offensive foul.
Here’s a clip of the play:
https://twitter.com/danfavale/status/727349716187549696
Afterward, the lead referee from Game 2, Ken Mauer, admitted that he and his staff made a mistake, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com:
Ken Mauer, lead referee from tonight’s game: “On the floor we did not see a foul on the play. However, upon review we realize and we agree we should have had an offensive foul on the play. It’s a play we’ve never seen before, ever. We should have had an offensive foul on the play.”
That doesn’t help the Spurs now. The NBA cannot go back in time to redo that sequence. San Antonio lost its second game of the year at home and now travels to Oklahoma City having been bilked of home-court advantage.
You could tell the Spurs were disgruntled after the final buzzer, but they all moved on pretty quickly, including Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili. The call was out of their hands, and they had a pretty good opportunity to win the game anyway.
Waiters threw the ball away on that same inbounds play. The Spurs just couldn’t get off a high quality shot, perhaps because they were ill-adjusted to the non-call.
Does that mean the Thunder were lucky to escape San Antonio with a win in Game 2? Maybe. But they led for most of the night anyway, and while this call stings, it’s not one the Spurs can point to as their demise if they lose this series. They had plenty of chances to win otherwise and must now do their darnedest to regain the home-court edge they unexpectedly squandered.
