Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks came up a little short against the Los Angeles Lakers but I’d have to say, there were definitely some extenuating circumstances in this loss. And by extenuating circumstances, I mean mistakes by the referees, but we’ll get to that a little later.
First I have to say that with so many dynamic duos in the league this season, Luka Doncic and Kristapz Porzingis is officially my favorite. I mean, come on! 7-foot tall Porzingis crossed up Anthony Davis in this game! How can you not love that?!
Aw yeah, with the crossover.
— NBA Top Shot (@NBATopShot) November 2, 2019
This one is for @auxiliarythings. #TopShot? https://t.co/uFpDAC4wRh
And I could watch highlights of Luka Doncic dropping dimes all day long. His 31 point, 13 rebound, and 15 assist performance was beyond impressive. The only thing that marred the performance was the way the referees dropped the ball in the closing seconds of regulation.
The obvious missed call came as Seth Curry was clearly held by Dwight Howard as he scrambled to challenge Danny Green‘s 3-point shot from the corner. A shot that ultimately forced the game to go to overtime where the Lakers put it away.
I wasn’t surprised to see this missed call in the League’s last two-minute report. I was, however, surprised to see that there were two critical missed calls late in this game. I have some very strong views on NBA officiating as it works right now and this is another situation that supports my view that the league needs to make sweeping changed to the officiating system.
The NBA's Last 2 Minute report states two missed calls from last night's game between the Lakers and Mavs. Anthony Davis fouled Luka after Bradley's miss with 14 seconds left and then, the obvious, Dwight Howard fouled Seth Curry late, preventing him from getting to Danny Green. pic.twitter.com/OjFpBPEN8s
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 2, 2019
I’ve also been skeptical as to whether the Coaches Challenge rule which is being tested this season would be effective in addressing the critical mistakes that are made by the referees. This missed call in Dallas confirmed my criticism that the way the challenge is set up isn’t going to have the impact that a rule like this needs to have.
Because the rules of the Challenge are such that a coach can only call for review to foul calls that the refs actually made, this critical incorrect no-call could not be challenged by Maverick’s coach Rick Carlisle. If the league isn’t going to make the effort to address the calls that are being missed outright the Coaches Challenge rules need to be expanded so that the refs can be required to take a look when they’ve missed making calls they should have made.