The Los Angeles Clippers lost an overtime thriller to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, but they were a mere shove away from winning the game in miraculous fashion. After OJ Mayo tied the score with 0.6 seconds remaining, Blake Griffin nearly pulled off the highlight of the season. However, he was called for an offensive foul and the shot didn’t count.
As you can see, Griffin caught a full-court pass and somehow flipped it off the glass and in with 0.4 seconds remaining on the game clock. The official who had been watching him fight for position with Dirk Nowitzki ruled that he pushed off, resulting in the basket not counting. The Mavericks went on to win 109-102 in overtime.
Where was this referee when the Packers needed him during one of the most infamous plays in NFL history? As a certain group of replacement officials could tell you, it takes guts to call something like that. In all fairness, it sounded like the official blew his whistle before the shot went in, so you can’t argue that he was reacting to the result. Still, it’s unfortunate that the call resulted in such an amazing play being washed away.
