The NBA admitted after Monday night’s game between the Thunder and Spurs that everyone who watched the game was not hallucinating — Dion Waiters should have been called for an offensive foul.
With 13.5 seconds left and Oklahoma City leading by a point, Manu Ginobili was trying to prevent Waiters from inbounding the ball. In order to clear enough space to get the ball to Kevin Durant, Waiters threw a blatant elbow at Ginobili. After the game, head referee Ken Mauer told a pool reporter that his crew missed the foul.
“On the floor, we did not see a foul on the play,” Mauer said for the NBA’s mandatory last-two-minutes report. “However, upon review we realize and we agree we should have had an offensive foul on the play. It’s a play we’ve never seen before, ever. We should have had an offensive foul on the play.”
Durant was stripped and the Spurs got the ball anyway, but an offensive foul would have given them possession and allowed them to set up a play. You can see a great angle of the shove here.
San Antonio ended up missing a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession and the Thunder held on to win. Gregg Popovich complained to the officials as he walked off the court, but he said it “won’t mean anything” if the league admits the mistake because the result remains the same.
The whacky ending resulted in a Western Conference semifinal series that is now tied at 1-1. But don’t ask Thunder coach Billy Donovan if his guy was guilty of committing a foul. He didn’t see a thing.
