The Chicago Bulls lost a heartbreaking game to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, and the game’s ending has created a great deal of controversy. The Bulls converted what looked like the go-ahead basket with 1.7 seconds left in overtime, but the officials ruled that Joakim’s Noah’s tip-in occurred as the ball was above the cylinder, thus resulting in offensive interference.
As you can see from the video above, this sent Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau into a frenzy. Thibodeau and the Bulls felt as though the ball was going to come up short when Noah tipped it in.
“It’s a tough play,” Thibodeau after the game, via USA Today Sports. “From my angle, it looked like it was a good play, it looked like the ball was short.”
Chicago forward Carlos Boozer said the team felt like the game had been “stolen” from them, and many fans feel the same way. In my opinion, it certainly looked like Noah got his hand on the ball before it was directly above the cylinder. However, referee Ken Mauer said there is more to the rule than that.
“If we deem the ball in its descent has a chance to score, and therefore it’s in the cylinder, it’s either offensive basket interference or it’s goaltending, that’s it,” he explained.
In any event, the call resulted in a 119-118 overtime win for the Nuggets. As for the Denver highlights, there was this insane dunk from JaVale McGee that required no tricky ruling or explanation.
That looked a lot like the “dunks” that Blake Griffin has made famous. You know, the ones that aren’t really dunks but the player jumps so high and throws the ball in the hoop with such authority that we have to call it a dunk? Yeah, one of those.
