DALLAS — The NBA on Thursday denied the Mavericks’ protest of a controversial call and confusion in their March 22 loss to the Golden State Warriors, denying Dallas the opportunity to replay the last 14 minutes of a playoff-race-crippling defeat.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had expressed his thoughts that Dallas would win the protest in a conversation with reporters on Wednesday, but also admitted the game likely wouldn’t have been replayed regardless.
“It is what it is. They screwed up, but they’re not going to replay it,” Cuban said.
According to the NBA’s best-available records, the league has upheld just six protests of the 45 filed since the first recorded protest in 1952 and none since 2007.
Before their Warriors discrepancy, the Mavericks were the last team to file a protest, contending the Hawks were incorrectly awarded a basket with 8.4 seconds remaining in a February 2020 loss in Atlanta.
Cuban will not receive a refund on his $10,000 fee that he paid to protest what he and the Mavericks focused on as the reason for their two-point loss to Golden State.
Cuban also said Wednesday the reason the game would not have been replayed was due to the play in question only impacting 4.2% of Dallas’ chances of winning.
With 1:59 left in the third quarter and the Warriors up 88-87, the Mavericks called timeout after a missed Golden State 3-pointer went out of bounds.
Though replays showed the closest official signaled Warriors ball and then pointed in Dallas’ direction for the timeout, the Mavericks believed that officials ruled their possession and planned to run an in-bound play during the timeout.
But when the break ended, the Mavericks’ players lined up on their offensive end and the Warriors’ players on their offensive end. The referee gave the ball to Warriors guard Jordan poole, who started the play with a simple pass to center Kevon Looney for an uncontested dunk.
Call it the easiest basket in NBA history.
The Mavericks were livid and believed the officiating crew should’ve paused the game and to settle confusion when both teams lined up in opposite sets.
Cuban tweeted immediately after the game: “The ref called Mavs ball. The announcer announced it. Then there was a timeout . During the time out the official changed the call and never told us. Then when they saw us line up as if it were our ball, he just gave the ball to the Warriors. Never said a word to us.”
Coach Jason Kidd added: “There was quite a few people out of position on that play. It’s correctable, but first you have to admit there was a mistake.”
Luka Doncic emphasized the confusion: “Honestly, I didn’t even know what was going on. I have never seen that ever in my life.”
The loss to Golden State cost them the head-to-head playoff tiebreaker against the Warriors in the uber-close Western Conference seedings and contributed to their drop down the play-in tournament standings.
