The Golden State Warriors fell one point short in Sunday’s 117-116 loss to the Houston Rockets. Two late missed calls contributed to the close loss.
The NBA’s Last Two Minute Report reviews all the “officiated events” in every game that was within three points at any time in the final two minutes, and if applicable, overtime. There were two big non-calls that might have swung the results of Steph Curry’s first game back from his knee injury.
The first happened with 1:28 to go, when Amen Thompson crashed
into Curry as he was cutting to the hoop, shaking Kevin Durant and receiving a sweet pass from Draymond Green. Curry still made the shot but was knocked to the ground, with no whistle. Thompson fouling Curry with the referees swallowing their whistles? Well I never!
At least they didn’t call Curry for an offensive foul. He was denied the and-one and the Rockets retained a one-point advantage.
That became a four-point lead when Alperen Sengun did get a foul call on far less contact from Draymond Green — though the L2M Report said Green hit his arm — and completed his own three-point play. However, the report says that Sengun “failed to fully clear the lane and is in the paint for longer than three seconds,” which should have resulted in a turnover before the shot attempt.
After Curry hit a ridiculous 32-footer, Green got away with a defensive three seconds violation, which happened eight seconds before Durant missed a jump shot (with a legal contest from De’Anthony Melton).
By our count, that’s four missed points for the Warriors and one missed point for the Rockets. Clearly, the NBA will reverse the game result and award Golden State the “W,” right?
Well, no. The Last Two Minute Report mainly exists so that fans can argue about it in the aftermath of a game. There aren’t really any consequences for the officials, Curry isn’t going to start getting foul calls, and the NBA referees don’t apologize — unless it’s to LeBron James.
It doesn’t matter in the standings either, since the Warriors are locked into the 10 seed in the upcoming play-in tournament. A correct call would have put Curry one point closer to passing Tim Duncan on the all-time scoring list, but with 20 points to go, he’ll pass the Big Fundamental before season’s end anyway.
He’ll pass Dominique Wilkins some time next season before passing one of his biggest haters, Oscar Robertson, who believes real basketball involves backing your opponent down to the basket, not new-fangled three-pointers. You know Robertson would hate the Last Two Minute Report, too.
What can we conclude? Referees don’t respect Steph Curry, but they respect the sanctity of “three in the key” even less. This author will consider the Warriors a true 37-win team going forward.
