The Oklahoma City Thunder survived the LA Clippers on Sunday, but not without some help from a missed call.
With less than two minutes to go in the fourth quarter Sunday, the Thunder were clinging to a 100-99 lead over the Clippers. Ivica Zubac caught a pass very deep in the paint for the Clippers and look certain to score an easy basket. But Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was behind Zubac at the time, grabbed the inside of his wrist to prevent the score, knocking the ball away.
Inexplicably, the referees did not blow the whistle for a foul and instead just awarded the Clippers possession from where the ball went out of bounds. The Clippers, with a short shot clock to work with, then failed to score on the ensuing inbounds, and the Thunder ultimately went on to win 103-101.
See for yourself the video of the Zubac play below.
On Monday, the NBA released its last two-minute report for the game. In the report, the league admitted that Gilgeous-Alexander should have been whistled for a foul on the play.
The last two-minute report stated that Gilgeous-Alexander “reaches in and makes contact to Zubac’s wrist, causing him to lose control of the ball during his shooting motion.” That was the only incorrect call listed in the report for the Clippers-Thunder game.
The seven-footer Zubac is only a 64 percent free throw shooter this year, so there is no guarantee that the Clippers would have gotten two points on that possession. But the no-call ultimately led to them getting zero points out of the possession during a game where every single point mattered. The MVP frontrunner Gilgeous-Alexander is also known for getting one of the NBA’s friendliest whistles on offense, causing even more outrage about the no-call on his grab of Zubac.
