On Sunday night, the Sacramento Kings hosted the Toronto Raptors and they were looking for a season sweep over one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. The Kings don’t have many victories on average over the last decade so this one was a potentially big deal for Sacramento. As the game came down to the wire, the final possession was in the hands of Terrence Ross and it appeared like he delivered.
Unfortunately, it didn’t count. Yea, that fantastic shot didn’t count. Ross got the pass, the clock began, he took two dribbles, and then hit the big 3-pointer. But after a review, the officials waved off the basket after digitally timing the amount of time between Cousins’ tip and Ross’ shot both in the arena and in the NBA’s replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey.
And here’s the immediate postgame aftermath of the controversial decision.
With quite possibly the entire country of Canada mad, the NBA had to step in and do something. They once again determined in their L2M report that the call from the referees was correct. But people still weren’t happy so the NBA went out in full detail and released a statement on the decision.
Here’s the full release from the NBA:
The National Basketball Association released the following statement today from Byron Spruell, President, League Operations, regarding the clock malfunction at the end of the Sacramento Kings’ 102-99 victory over the Toronto Raptors last night at Golden 1 Center:
“After review at the league office, we have concluded that the end of the game was officiated correctly by NBA rules. We reviewed all aspects of the final 27.4 seconds and below is a summary of our evaluation.
“Toronto inbounded the ball with 2.4 seconds remaining in the game, and the clock did not start when the pass was deflected by Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins. Per the NBA’s precision timing system, the clock can be started by either the referees or the clock operator. The referees noticed the clock malfunction immediately which triggered a replay review under rule 13.1.a.5, which states that a review must occur if ‘a play concludes (i) with no time remaining on the clock (0:00) at the end of any period or (ii) at a point when the game officials believe that actual time may have expired in any period; and the officials are reasonably certain that the game clock malfunctioned during the play.’
“Per rule 13.2.e.1, the Replay Center was then tasked with determining ‘the proper time (if any) on the game clock following the clock malfunction by determining how much time on the game clock actually expired.’ To determine how much time actually expired, Replay Center referee Zach Zarba used a digital timer on the Replay Center screen. The determination was that 2.5 seconds expired, thus negating the basket.
“We also reviewed the question surrounding the time left on the clock for Sacramento’s final possession. That possession started with 26.4 seconds remaining on the game clock since that is when Cousins secured possession of the rebound after a missed free throw. The subsequent shot clock violation on the Kings’ possession, therefore, left 2.4 seconds remaining in the game.”
(it’s the right call. sorry)
