Mavs owner Cuban plans protest over free bucket for Warriors

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban mentioned he plans to protest a two-point loss to Golden State after a complicated sequence led to an uncontested basket for the Warriors on Wednesday night time.

Kevon Looney had a straightforward dunk on an inbounds play with the Mavericks lined up on their offensive finish after a timeout late within the third quarter of Golden State’s 127-125 victory.

The Mavericks thought they’d the ball after official Andy Nagy pointed in Golden State’s route for possession however then shortly pointed to the Dallas bench to point a timeout.

Looney protested when Nagy pointed towards the Dallas bench, however Nagy appeared to elucidate that he was signaling the timeout. The public deal with announcer additionally indicated Dallas was awarded possession.

After the break, the Mavericks lined up on their offensive finish, giving Looney the simple dunk with no defenders round because the Warriors took a 90-87 lead with 1:56 left within the third.

Cuban mentioned he deliberate to protest after posting on Twitter that he thought the sequence was the “Worst officiating non name mistake presumably within the historical past of the NBA.”

According to NBA guidelines, a written protest have to be filed inside 48 hours of the tip of the sport, and the Warriors would then have 5 days to reply and submit their very own proof. Commissioner Adam Silver then has one other 5 days to situation a ruling.

Protests are not often upheld within the NBA — or most main skilled sports activities.

Dallas coach Jason Kidd’s competition was that official Michael Smith will need to have thought the Mavericks had possession as a result of he was on the identical finish of the ground because the Mavs.

“There was fairly a number of folks out of place,” Kidd mentioned. “It’s correctable, however you first must admit there was a mistake.”

Crew chief Sean Wright mentioned officers by no means indicated Dallas had the ball, and Nagy may be seen telling the Mavericks the second sign was for the timeout.

“Initially on the ground the unique sign was the truth is Golden State ball as this may be seen on video,” Wright advised a pool reporter. “There is a second sign however that sign is for a compulsory timeout that was as a result of Mavs.”

Dallas star Luka Dončić subbed out of the sport throughout that timeout, whereas Looney had are available in for Stephen Curry about two minutes earlier. Jordan Poole threw the inbounds move.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” mentioned Looney, who had 12 factors and 12 rebounds. “I’m simply glad JP handed to me as a result of all of us have been open and I wanted that to get to my double-double.”

Dončić mentioned he thought officers ought to have huddled to straighten issues out once they noticed the groups on reverse ends of the court docket, together with Smith among the many Mavs.

“I used to be shocked,” Dončić mentioned about Looney’s free dunk. “I used to be like, ‘What is that?’ I’ve by no means seen that occur in my life.”

Warriors coach Steve Kerr mentioned his first response was to query whether or not his staff was capturing on the tip the place they lined up. But that response did not final lengthy.

“When they have been down on the different finish, I needed to cease and suppose, ‘Is this right?’” Kerr mentioned. “I assumed it was fairly clear that it was our ball, and that’s why I used to be drawing up a play out of bounds on the baseline.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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