Many margins matter. And the Warriors Got Screwed.
You will often see professional NBA teams that lose games say that they lost it because of factor X. X could be one of many things: poor shooting, poor switching off on defense, careless turnovers, or silly touch fouls, to name four. In last Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Golden State Warriors did some of all those four, causing them to give up a comfortable halftime lead.
There’s nothing wrong with that reasoning. But it leaves out other factors. One other such factor is poor referee calls. Referees miss even egregious fouls but hopefully they miss roughly the same number each way. But one poor referee call that’s beyond the pale is calling a play dead after one of the players about to pass the ball into play fumbles it and a player on the other side picks it up.
That’s what happened in last Wednesday’s game. After the Warriors scored, LeBron James took the ball out of bounds to pass it in. But he fumbled and Warriors player (and fellow Canadian) Andrew Wiggins grabs it and is about to go up for an easy 2-pointer. Instead, the referee whistles the call dead and gives LeBron a do-over.
You might argue that the official didn’t think LeBron had possession and that’s why he blew it dead. That could make sense except for one glaring fact: the official did think LeBron had possession, which is why he had started his 5-second count for LeBron to pass it in. Watch the 8-second video.
If the official had called it right, the odds are about 0.99 that Wiggins would have scored. The Warriors lost by 3 points and needed a heroic 3-point play in the last 2 seconds, which they didn’t get. But if it had been called right, they would have been down by one one point, not three, and so would have had many options for a 2-point play.
Many margins matter.
Postscript: In some ways the picture accompanying this article is more apt.
READER COMMENTS
Jon Murphy
May 23 2021 at 6:41pm
Some margins hurt more than others. And man, do margins like that call hurt
David Seltzer
May 24 2021 at 3:48pm
Like the “last straw.”
Michael Rulle
May 24 2021 at 4:41pm
David addresses my favorite NBA topic—— the intersection of Lebron and Refs and Bad calls.
The NBA is often called the LBA——under the theory that the league wants Lebron to last into the playoffs as long as possible—-as well as throughout the season. I assume he draws more eyeballs. Since most foul calls and non-foul calls are mysteries to not only fans but to even our expert commentators it is easy for refs to favor a player or un-favor a player—-since we cannot tell anyway. But even the most conspiratorial minded fanatic tends to believe most favoritism is unconscious bias—-not cheating per se——that is learned by refs who know what the bosses want.
I have no idea if that is true or not——but that call was totally absurd.
PS. I have been a UConn Women’s BB fan since the Bird/Tarausi days—-But have gradually become a bigger fan each year——their 6 out of 8 year championship run with Maya Moore preceding Brianna Stewart——including the mind boggling 111 wins in a row ——was unreal. But it was not till this year (when Paige Bueckers arrived—yes I got sucked in deeper) that I crossed over into full blown Women’s NCAA fan—-my favorite sports “league”—-(not a league of course).
I am now free of the LBA. I know no other person—-literally—-who is a women’s NCAA fan. But even my son says (he is die hard Net fan—-even as he may not like their players) the “NBA court looks too small—-the ball looks too small” —and he cannot watch the women—-imagine what I see.
But I am free—-and when refs make a bad call——usually fans think it’s a bad call—-and don’t have to twist their brains into what the “bosses want” .
pros will take a while—-no one watches——college is where the energy is—-I highly recommend it. David knows Kia Nurse and first year UConn star Aaliyah Edwards. Great bb—-and no LBA!
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