The league’s Last Two Minute report confirmed the missed call, but Dallas isn’t expected to file a formal protest about the game’s outcome
The Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans were in the midst of an entertaining matchup Wednesday night, but instead of the story being about the standout performances of Trey Murphy III, Dejounte Murray, Daniel Gafford and Jaden Hardy, the game is gaining attention because of a blatant missed call by officials which significantly impacted the outcome of the game.
I’m typically not of the belief that one play dictates the outcome of a whole game, especially when the Mavericks fumbled multiple opportunities to win this game against a team that had nine wins coming into this contest. But this was one of those eyebrow-raising moments that gives even more credence to the belief that referees should be fined for missed calls or poor judgment.
New Orleans had the ball with around 15 seconds on the clock and a one-point lead. In every scenario like this, the team defending will try and go for a steal first, and if that doesn’t work, they’ll foul, giving the team with the lead even more chance to win the game. All New Orleans had to do was take care of the ball and hold for a foul. But the Mavericks pulled off the rare steal, allowing them to take the lead and potentially win. Here’s what happened next:
Did you catch it? No? Here’s a slower replay of it:
Yep, that’s a blatant goaltend by Murphy on Spencer Dinwiddie’s layup that the referees completely missed. What’s worse is crew chief Gediminas Petraitis was standing at the baseline underneath the basket with a clear view of the goaltend and didn’t call it. Dinwiddie immediately signaled that it was a goaltend, but to no avail, and because it was a no-call, it was not reviewable. Jason Kidd was seen walking the sideline mouthing, “I don’t have a timeout to challenge it,” but even if he did, per the NBA rulebook, that’s not something a coach’s challenge can be used on as there was no call on the floor.
After the game, when asked if he got any explanation from the officials about the blatant missed call, Kidd, in his typical stonewalled demeanor, said, “Yeah, they didn’t see it. That’s the explanation.”
Kidd then went further to criticize the officials for not seeing the goaltending on that last play.
“It’s tough, I get it, that’s their job, they didn’t do their job tonight,” Kidd said. “…The referees have a tough job, they clearly did not get that one right. It cost us maybe the game. We can learn from that, and hopefully, the referees can be better in close games.”
While the play happened in the last two minutes of the game, and because there was no call on the floor, it wasn’t reviewable by the officials. But had a goaltend been called, the officials would’ve been able to review it to confirm, something Kidd thinks they should’ve done.
“I think the review is to protect the officials, the review is to try to get it right,” Kidd said. “That’s what the review or challenge is for. In the last two minutes, if they thought something [happened], they should’ve blown the whistle to get it right. I think they all three were scared to death to do anything, so they did nothing and they let it go.”
Dinwiddie, whose shot was at the center of the controversial no-call, gave a detailed explanation of how he set it up for a goaltend to be called.
“Naji [Marshall]’s already throwing me the ball, there’s no room for me to go up and dunk it,” Dinwiddie said. “I see them coming, and it’s just like a scoop layup, I tell you all the time. If you watch throughout my career, if I beat the big or whatever, and I hold it out right here, I put it directly on the glass for two reasons: 1. I’m tall and long and extended so they would have to jump over me to block it. If you do happen to block it, it’s already hit the glass. I’m scoring because either it’s a layup or you’re goaltending. I’ve made a bunch of money doing the same type of move…You saw me do it to [Yves] Missi three, four times in the game.”
PJ Washington echoed the same sentiment after the game: “It was definitely a goaltend.” Even the official NBA account on X (formerly known as Twitter) first tweeted out the highlight of Murphy’s game-winning block, only to delete it after a community note was added to correct the post to say it was a goaltend per the league’s rulebook.
Surely the Last Two Minute report will also show that the Mavericks were right in saying that Murphy’s block was a goaltend, but it won’t change matters. Dallas could always protest the game’s outcome, but they’ll likely be unsuccessful going that route, as it rarely works out for any team. The Mavericks will have to eat this loss and, perhaps next time, not put themselves in a position for the last play of the game to matter that much. There were several instances where Dallas could’ve pulled away with a win, especially after building up a seven-point lead with six minutes left, and at every turn, they squandered it.
Despite being without Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II, there was no reason for the game to be that close against a New Orleans team that sits last in the Western Conference. The officiating was bad on that last play, but it never should’ve come to that.
