The Golden State Warriors exited their play-in tournament game against the Memphis Grizzlies with a 121-116 win Tuesday, but it’s difficult to imagine either team was happy with the officiating, especially in the game’s final minutes.
Various decisions by the refs were the topic of conversation throughout the night, and the NBA confirmed that there were issues with its Last 2 Minute Report on Wednesday. The league flagged four plays as incorrect calls, two benefiting the Warriors and two helping the Grizzlies.
The most high-profile call was the Brandin Podziemski block. With 37 seconds left, the Warriors wing made an incredible, chase-down block on Scotty Pippen Jr. that would’ve kept Golden State up four points with the ball.
The refs called a foul on Podziemski, and TV replay didn’t back them up. The result was two free throws for Pippen, who split them, and an incorrect-call ruling from the league after the fact.
Also flagged by the league were a missed shooting foul by Draymond Green on Pippen with 1:29 left, a missed offensive goaltending by Grizzlies center Zach Edey on a putback dunk from inside the cylinder immediately after the Green play and an out-of-bounds call that gave the Warriors the ball with 7.3 seconds left when it should’ve gone to Memphis.
One call that was not scrutinized, however, was the one on which Kevon Looney was called for a foul on a play when Edey shoved Moses Moody to the floor. That was one of the most criticized calls of the night, but the league said, “Looney initiates contact across Edey’s arm, affecting his ability to control the rebound.”
We’ll let you be the judge.
It’s important to emphasize that these are just calls in the last two minutes. There were plenty of other calls that were criticized in the other 46 minutes of the game, such as these:
The end result of all that officiating was a game in which the two teams combined for 57 free-throw attempts, with Green and Pippen both fouling out and Edey, Jimmy Butler, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Quinten Post all getting called for at least four fouls.
The officiating for Grizzlies-Warriors was … interesting. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
(Eakin Howard via Getty Images)
The Warriors ended up victorious, thanks to 75 combined points from Butler and Stephen Curry, who displayed vintage form in the fourth quarter to prevent a Golden State collapse after they led by as many as 20 points. Their reward will be a first-round series against the No. 2 seed Houston Rockets, while the Grizzlies will face the winner of Wednesday’s Dallas Mavericks-Sacramento Kings game on Friday in Memphis.
The officiating was a subplot in Tuesday’s other play-in game as well, as Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young was ejected in the fourth quarter on two technical fouls. Referee James Williams said after the game that the second tech was for “making a mockery of the game.”
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