Jason Kidd Speaks on Officials’ Inbounds Blunder vs. Warriors: 'There Was Confusion'
The Dallas Mavericks fell short in yet another clutch situation on Wednesday night, losing to the Golden State Warriors, 127-125 … and then, more drama immediately followed.
With just nine regular season games remaining and the Mavs right in the thick of the Western Conference cluster of a playoff picture, every single win and loss matters more than ever.
Wednesday’s loss saw the Mavericks fall from the No. 7 seed to the No. 9 seed in the play-in tournament, but what made the loss sting even more was an unfortunate officiating error in the third quarter.
The issue came from the official’s signaling, as both teams initially thought the Mavs had possession with 1:54 left in the third. Following a timeout, the officials apparently changed the call, yet they never notified the Mavericks, according to owner Mark Cuban and coach Jason Kidd.
"The court was split -- we're on one side and the Warriors are on the another," Kidd said of the inbounds mishap. "You have a referee on the baseline -- Mike was on the baseline -- so I would assume Mike thought it was our ball, too."
With the Warriors lining up as if they had possession on one end of the court and the Mavs doing the same on opposite end, the mishap led to Golden State getting a wide-open layup and confusion spewing from the Dallas bench.
"If there's confusion, it's easy to just come in and blow the whistle and get us restarted because there was confusion," Kidd said.
As it easy as that may seem, Dallas didn't get that luxury, which led to Cuban confirming that he will file an official protest with the NBA on the officiating mishap.
Cuban even took his frustration to Twitter and voiced his discontent with what he calls the 'Worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA.'
Luka Doncic told the media that he thinks the referees should have 'grouped up' as they typically do to discuss a foul or make a decision on a play, yet this situation fell through the gaps.
"It's correctable, but you first have to admit there was a mistake," Kidd said.
Protests typically aren’t successful in the NBA, but we’ll see if the Mavs can get an overturn in the coming days and perhaps weeks.
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