The NBA admitted on Thursday that the referees missed a key goaltending call in the final seconds of Game 5 between the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
The game was tied at 95 and Victor Oladipo drove to the basket for a layup attempt. His shot was rejected by LeBron James on a chase-down block, but there were questions about whether or not the ball hit the backboard first, which would have made it goaltending.
(Goaltend ?) pic.twitter.com/tEpPj7t49D
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) April 26, 2018
In its Last Two Minute Report about the game, the league said the call was missed and that James did goaltend. Because the goaltend was not called initially, the play could not be reviewed.
The NBA's last-two-minutes report is out, and it says, indeed, that last night the Cavs should have retained the ball with 27.6 seconds to go (refs mistook who last touched it before it went out). And, indeed, LeBron's block on Oladipo with 5 seconds to go was actually a goaltend pic.twitter.com/cAoGFqNIAJ
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 26, 2018
Not that it will matter much to Pacers fans, but the league also said that Indiana benefited from a missed call in the final minute. A ball that was ruled to be out of bounds on Cleveland was actually out on the Pacers and should have given the Cavs possession.
The game ended with James making a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win 98-95 and put the Cavs up 3-2 in the series. Oladipo was not happy with the call after the game. He needs to put that behind him in order to help his team come back to win the series.
