Earlier this week, Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he stopped looking at the NBA’s last two minute reports altogether.
On Sunday, the last two minute report released following Denver’s narrow win over the Dallas Mavericks, concluded the officials made an incorrect call when they tagged Nikola Jokic with a charge late in the game. The blown call gave the Mavericks one final chance to win the game. They fell short, but it still made the game closer than it should’ve been.
“I stopped looking, man,” Malone said. “Because what good does it do you? I knew it wasn’t a charge. It was an easy call. … I applaud the NBA’s efforts to be transparent. But really at the end of the day I don’t know what those reports do because if we would’ve lost, it’s not like we can go back and play those last two minutes.”
The Nuggets have received their fair share of incorrect calls in Malone’s tenure as head coach. It’s understandable why he’d want to stop stressing over them. But if Malone had broken his policy and peeked Friday, he would’ve noticed that his team actually caught a break.
On the final possession of the Denver’s thrilling win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nikola Jokic held on to the basketball for 5.1 seconds as he tried to inbound the ball, the NBA concluded. A five-second count should’ve been called, which would’ve turned possession over to the Thunder with 1.4 seconds to play. Instead, Jokic found Gary Harris for the game-winning shot.
“I thought it was five seconds,” Harris said. “I’m not going to lie.”
The official by Jokic’s side only counted to four with his arm. The NBA determined Jokic held onto the ball for 5.1 seconds — a tick too long — using a stopwatch.
That was the only refereeing issue the NBA saw on the game’s final possession. Some Thunder fans took issue with the way Jokic moved before he threw the inbounds pass. Others wondered if Wilson Chandler’s “screen” was in fact an offensive foul. However, the NBA said both of those plays were legal.
“Jokic (DEN) shuffles his feet, but does not leave the designated throw-in spot, which is defined by the Rule Book as the space within one step of his original position in either direction,” the league’s ruling read.
As for the contact between Chandler and Jerami Grant? The NBA said each was performing “normal defensive and offensive movements when they collide before the inbound, and the contact is therefore deemed incidental.”
