NBA’s L2M Says Refs Got Camara-Jokic Jump Ball Call Correct

SB Nation

After the Portland Trail Blazers’ dramatic 109-107 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, if you were anything like this writer, you waited in great anticipation for the NBA’s Last Two Minute report

on the game.

That’s because you wanted to see how the report would evaluate the call. You know the one. The pivotal play with six seconds left in a 107-107 game when Blazers forward Toumani Camara defended Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic in the post, got two hands on the ball from behind Jokic, and prompted the refs to whistle for a jump ball. The call was immediately a point of controversy on the court and off, prompting a firestorm of anger from Nuggets fans on social media, as well as a great deal of debate in the comment sections of this site.

The L2M report reviews all officiated events that occurred during the final two minutes of a close NBA game and rules whether each call or no-call was correct. So, how would the L2M report for this game handle that controversial and unusual jump ball call that led to Portland escaping with the narrow victory?

Well, the L2M report was released this afternoon, and it ruled the refs got that call correct. It ruled all the calls and no-calls in the final two minutes were correct, for that matter. According to the L2M, the Blazers stole that win from the Nuggets fair and square to improve to 4-2.

Regarding the controversial jump ball call, it provided this one-sentence ruling:

Camara (POR) cleanly ties up Jokic (DEN) and a jump ball is correctly called.

Following the call, Jokic tipped the jump ball to Denver forward Aaron Gordon on the left block. With 1.2 seconds left on the shot clock, Gordon spun into a turnaround fadeaway jumper, but Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe swooped in to block the attempt and force a 24-second violation. After a foul on the next possession, Blazers forward Jerami Grant won the game for Portland with two clutch free throws with 1.4 seconds remaining.