The NBA admits that referees missed four calls in overtime of Game 2, which happens.
When hardcore NBA fans saw the referee crew that the league rolled out in Game 2 of the Finals on Sunday, there was a bit of a collective gulp. Lead ref Scott Foster was joined by Zach Zarba and Tony Brothers, and both Foster and Zarba are two of the more, um, prominent referees working today. If you’ve ever been frustrated at what you thought should have been a non-call, something the refs should have let go, chances are either Foster or Zarba blew the needless whistle on that one.
As it turns out, neither blew the whistle enough in Game 2.
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The NBA admitted that four calls were muffed badly in the overtime portion of Cleveland’s gutty win, with LeBron James ending up on the wrong end of two of them while acting as the beneficiary in another miss. That pitch/pull with LBJ even happened on the same play, as he traveled just prior to being badly hacked on a lay-in attempt.
The NBA’s website concluded what we all saw with the benefit of our high-definition cable receivers and ability to both rewind and complain endlessly on social media in the seconds that followed. Draymond Green cheated twice on both the opening tip in overtime, and a jump ball with 45 seconds to go – one that saw him basically pulling a Dennis Rodman and holding LeBron James down as the ball went up:
James was unable to legally hold his pivot foot down with just under two minutes to go in that overtime, the NBA correctly concluded, just before Andre Iguodala whapped him on one of the more egregious foul misses in NBA history:
Even the weatherman didn’t need an official review to know which way the refs blow:
How dare they?
Foster, Zarba and Brothers ruining it all for us, all over again. As if we, as fans, weren’t hurt enough by the losses of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Stephen Curry’s jump shot, now we have to deal with such incompetence! Such brazen ineptitude! The insolence and bold affrontary!
Eh, whatever.
Those were some pretty bad non-calls. LeBron obviously traveled, Draymond Green held a guy and Andre Iguodala hit a guy. Go back and look at the NBA’s transcript, however, and scope out just how many that crew got right, just in overtime alone – 36 out of 40. The sight of the game’s best player being whapped across the arm just after he clearly traveled in an isolation set with the whole of the sporting world focused on his two feet was a bit much, but NBA referees tend to have quite a bit on their plate, as they try to accurately call a game that moves way too fast for any of us.
They’re going to miss some calls. We’re more than lucky, as fans, that they don’t miss more often. We need to remember this before ignoring tact, poise and reason and heading directly to the comment section.
Andre Iguodala’s hack and Green’s two jump ball machinations, luckily, were not the tipping point in a close game that could have either been decided by a Marreese Speights dunk or a made free throw on a four-point play for Klay Thompson. LeBron’s travel, luckily, did not lead to an easy make that put Cleveland comfortably ahead. The game, the league, us fans and especially this refereeing crew were spared the indignity of a tainted win – for either side – in Game 2.
Where we go now from here is clear. The league remains transparent, as it shares its referee reports, and the refs try to get it right next time. Game 3, hopefully, isn’t marred but such misses, and just as hopefully us fans will try to remember that the Cleveland Cavaliers missed over 67 percent of its shots in Game 2, and still came out a winner. And that LeBron James may have played the game of his life while missing 24 of 35 shots.
And that humans make mistakes.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
