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Cavs left fuming after crucial block-charge call reversed

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a rough ending to what could have been one of the best nights in franchise history. The NBA can expect a long day today... and
Colton Jones|
Cavs left fuming after crucial block-charge call reversed
Cavs left fuming after crucial block-charge call reversed

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a rough ending to what could have been one of the best nights in franchise history.

The NBA can expect a long day today... and probably all weekend until Game 2 of the NBA Finals tips off Sunday night at 8.

They can thank Kenny Mauer, Tony Brothers and Ed Malloy for that.

A changed player-control call late in regulation, which went the way of the Golden State Warriors, left the Cavaliers fuming after the 124-114 overtime loss in Game 1 on Thursday night.

Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, who rarely criticizes officials, didn't hold back in his postgame media session.

"In The Finals, on the biggest stage, when our team played well, played our ass off, man, it ain't right," Lue said. "It ain't right."

The play in question occurred with 36.4 seconds to go with Cleveland leading, 104-102, when LeBron James, who set a career-high for a Finals game with 51 points and added eight rebounds and eight assists, appeared to draw a charging foul on Kevin Durant of Golden State.

After the contact, Mauer hesitated, he signaled for a charging foul. That would have given the Cavaliers the ball and put them on the precipice of one of the biggest Game 1 upsets in Finals history.

However, Mauer, Brothers and Malloy huddled and decided to go to replay.

The question is, why? The only way the officials could go to play would be to check and see if James' feet were outside the restricted area. Without that, there is no trigger to go to replay.

With that having been said, how can three NBA referees have any doubt whatsoever if James was outside the restricted zone? Consider this image:

James, who is on the right as Green is on the left, was clearly outside the restricted zone, as the image above shows. It would take the infamous Three Blind Mice of sing-song fame to miss that.

Truth is, Mauer, Brothers and Malloy didn't have the (guts) to make the call and stand by it. Instead, they opted to use the crutch available to them -- replay.

By now, everyone knows the call was reversed, Durant hit a par of free throws to tie the game.

"The reason for the trigger is that we had doubt as to whether or not James was in the restricted area," Mauer said. "It was determined he was out of the restricted area, but he was not in a legal guarding position prior to Durant's separate shooting motion. So we had to change it to a blocking foul."

Lue wasn't buying it.

"LeBron was clearly four feet outside the restricted area," Lue said. "So it doesn't make sense to go review something if -- the review is if he's on the line or if he's close to the charge circle, that's the review

"He wasn't close. So what are we reviewing? Either call a blocking foul or call an offensive foul."

The normally mild-mannered Lue wasn't finished.

"For our team to come out and play their hearts out and compete the way we did, man, I mean, it's bad," he said. "It's never been done before where you know he's outside the restricted, and then you go there and overturn the call and say it's a block. It's never been done, ever, in the history of the game."

James, who saw Durant beat Jeff Green and come on the drive and left his man, Draymond Green, wide open along the baseline. Knowing Durant rarely passes in those situations, James slid to his left and appeared to have drawn the charge. "I read that play just as well as I've read any play in my career, maybe in my life," James said. "I seen the play happening. I knew I was outside the charge line, and I knew I took the hit. I don't know what else to say." Durant, on the other hand, saw it differently, of course. "I knew he was late on the drive, and I knew I had my man beat and he came over a little late," he said. "So when they called the charge, I was surprised, but I'm glad they reviewed it," Kevin Love, who returned to the lineup all but the first five minutes of Game 6 and all of Game 7 against Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals, celebrated his return to the floor with 21 points and 13 boards. "I think the one that's really tough is I thought Bron made a great read and a great play, and in a situation like that it's very unfortunate," Love said. "Very tough to see -- especially him having the game he had and know what was on the line and knowing how hard we played, to then have that overturned, it just felt like he made a great read on K.D., and he was there. "He was outside the restricted, and it's just very unfortunate. " Former NBA referee Steve Javie, appearing with Scott Van Pelt on ESPN's SportsCenter, saw it as a charge in real time.

Asked after the game about the state of NBA officiating, Tristan Thompson of the Cavaliers, ejected for a Flagrant 2 slapped on him for contesting a final-seconds jumped by Shaun Livingston, chose his words carefully.

"Just... without getting myself in trouble, definitely didn't take a step forward tonight," he said.

The NBA landscape reacted as expected:

First, Joe Borgia, NBA Senior Vice President of Replay & Referee Operations, who of course, backed the referees (kudos to former players Isiah Thomas and Kenny Smith for their questions):

Pretty much everyone else saw it differently:

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Colton Jones
COLTON JONES

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