Many in OKC likely anticipated Saturday’s Last Two Minute report as a chance to see if the Oklahoma City Thunder were wronged in their 141-139 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
If fans hoped for some sort of justification for their outcry following an offensive goaltend being overturned to a game-winning floater by Steph Curry with 0.2 seconds left, then the L2M report didn’t provide that.
In it, the league said that the officials correctly overturned their initial ruling as it noted Green’s contact with the rim didn’t impact Curry’s shot.
“After communicating with the Replay Center, the ruling on the floor of offensive basket interference is overturned. There is clear and conclusive evidence that Green (GSW) does not touch the ball and — although Green makes contact with the rim — contacting the rim, standing alone, does not violate the rule. In order for contact with the rim to constitute offensive basket interference when the ball is not in the net, it must (a) occur while the ball is sitting or rolling on the rim and using the rim as its lower base, (b) cause the ball to take an unnatural bounce, or (c) move the rim off-center. None of those conditions were satisfied on this play, so there was no basket interference.”
In a pool report following the game, head referee Mitchell Ervin provided further clarity for the controversial game-deciding call.
“It was clear and conclusive evidence that Draymond does not touch the ball,” Ervin said. “Although Draymond does touch the rim, he does not touch the ball, nor does him touching the rim cause the ball to take an unnatural bounce therefore a basketball violation does not occur on the play.”
Following the pivotal ruling, fans took to social media to express their discontent with the call and confusion about what should be a rather simple rule.
Instead, most fans learned on Friday that a seemingly black-or-white call like offensive goaltending actually includes nuance and specific exceptions that Green met on that final play.
In the entire L2M report, the only miscue actually benefited OKC. At 1:12, Josh Giddey got away with a turnover due to palming the basketball.
Despite the sour ending, the Thunder had arguably their most impressive showing of the young season. Without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC scored a highly efficient 139 points in regulation due to their young core.
The Thunder took the four-time champion Warriors to the wire and earned new levels of respect from their accomplished peers.
