The NBA acknowledged on Wednesday a number of officiating errors late in the Golden State Warriors’ 121-116 win over the Memphis Grizzles in a Western Conference play-in game on Tuesday night in San Francisco.
Notably, with the seventh-place Warriors leading 117-116, the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report said the eighth-place Grizzlies should have been awarded the ball when Memphis’ Ja Morant reached in and knocked the ball away from Stephen Curry with 7.3 seconds left. The report said Curry made last contact with the ball before it went out of bounds.
With 5.4 seconds to play, Curry sank two free throws to extend the lead to 119-116.
The report backed the officials on what happened next. After taking a timeout, the Grizzlies were called for a five-second turnover for failure to inbound the ball. Curry then iced the win by hitting two more free throws with 3.4 seconds left.
Two calls that weren’t made — but should have been — were also noted in the report. With 1:29 to play, Golden State’s Draymond Green should have been whistled for a foul, his sixth, on Memphis’ Scotty Pippen Jr. It came with the Warriors leading 114-109. Green did get his sixth with 58.6 seconds left.
A non-call then helped the Grizzlies get within 114-111 with 1:27 to play. The report indicated that Memphis big man Zach Edey should have been called for offensive goaltending on a putback dunk.
With the victory, the Warriors earned the No. 7 spot in the West playoffs and a matchup with the No. 2 Houston Rockets. The Grizzlies were relegated to playing the survivor of the Wednesday night game between the ninth-place Sacramento Kings and the 10th-place Dallas Mavericks.
–Field Level Media
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