OKC Thunder: NBA Offers Clarification On Sunday's Challenge Confusion

The Oklahoma City Thunder saw clarification from the NBA on the controversial challenge ruling on Sunday.

Sometimes the rules of the game change on you. The goal post move and you just hope it is not while you are attempting a field goal.

However, that was the case on Sunday. In the whining moments of a tightly contested game against the Pelicans, Mark Daigneault twirled his finger to trigger a controversial challenge.

The ruling on the floor was a jump ball after neither official could tell who deflected the ball out of bounds Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren and Pelicans big man Larry Nance Jr. would jump it up to allow the game to continue.

Instead, Daigneault lit up the green button and sent the officials over to the scorers' table. The thought process was more methodical than anyone could have given it credit for in the moment.

In the blur of his first playoff game, the Thunder bench boss was thinking crystal clearly back to a regular season contest in Utah which many would typically cast aside as a meaningless date in Jan. was a key piece of a playoff decision.

Against the Jazz, Daigneault challenged the same bang-bang out-of-bounds play. Like Sunday, it backfired and gave the advantage to the opposing team. However, despite being on the disadvantaged end, the call still was changed from its initial ruling. Thus, the Thunder retained their challenge and timeout.

"That is an important decision for me. Had I known that I would lose the timeout in that situation, I probably wouldn't have challenged it, we had Chet [Holmgren] jumping," Daigneault said on Monday, "The probability in my head was alright this is 60/40, I think it is ours but if not it is a hedge that I will get my timeout and the challenge back, I am not going to lose that."

Adding to the layer of confusion - the officials in charge of maintaining the game explained to the scorers' table the challenge was successful and Oklahoma City retained those two valuable properties before reversing course after being alerted of a rule change.

Daigneault, who has asked for clarity since the final buzzer, got that from the NBA today as the league released a rule advisory on Tuesday afternoon.

The league doubled down on Sunday's outcome being correct, which subsequently meant the Jan. 18 outcome in Utah was handled in the wrong way without a correction in real-time.

This led Daigneault and the Bricktown boys to believe their thought process was right for the rest of the season.

“I think it’s my job to know the rules… When you’re interacting with officials, they know the rules. You don’t wanna not have credibility because you’re arguing like a caveman. You want them to respect your competence," Daigneault said following Tuesday's practice before the NBA made the announcement.

This situation could have proven costly as it limited Oklahoma City to just one timeout remaining in a playoff game they narrowly won. Changing the rule on a whim or not nipping a blunder in the bud back in Jan. is a massive mistake on the league's part.

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