The Dallas Mavericks got Luka Doncic back on Wednesday night in a pivotal game against the Golden State Warriors.
Unfortunately, Dallas did have his sidekick, Kyrie Irving(foot), and Tim Hardaway Jr.(illness).
Doncic, who missed five games with a thigh injury, did his part as he had 30 points, seven rebounds, and a season-best 17 assists, but it wasn’t enough as Golden State defeated the Mavericks 127-125 at American Airlines Center.
Steph Curry had 20 points and 13 assists, including the assist that set up Draymond Green’s three-point play that gave Golden State the lead for good at 123-120 with 1:32 left in the game.
With the loss, the ninth-seeded Mavs(36-37), who have lost two straight, are 1.5 games behind the sixth-seeded Warriors(38-36). In addition, the Warriors hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series 2-1.
After the game, most of the talk was about a play in the third quarter. The Warriors’ Kevan Looney got a rebound and was stripped by Dallas’ Jaden Hardy. The referee signaled Warriors’ ball and pointed to the Mavs sideline, indicating a timeout.
Following the timeout, confusion ensued as the Mavs thought it was their ball, so they went down to the other end of the court, but it was really Warriors’ ball, and Jordan Poole inbounded the ball to Looney, and he had an uncontested dunk.
Crew chief Sean Wright explained what happened.
“Initially on the floor, the original signal was, in fact, Golden State ball, as this can be seen on video,” he said. “There is a second signal, but that signal is for a mandatory timeout that was due to the Mavs.”
Official Mike Smith was at the end of the court with the Mavs players, which, according to Kidd, makes him believe that Smith also thought it was Dallas’ possession.
“We thought it was our ball,” Kidd said. “The referee pointed towards our bench, but that was a signal of the timeout. There was confusion on the play before it even started with whose ball it was. He pointed, I thought, to us first, and then he changed it. Then it went to a timeout and pointed to us. As I asked Mike, I said, ‘Mike, why are you there on the floor if it’s not our ball?’ There were quite a few people out of position on that play. It’s easy, it’s correctible, but you first have to admit there was a mistake. But there wasn’t; we have to continue to keep playing.”
“It was kind of weird,” Doncic added. “I was surprised. Honestly, I didn’t even know what was going on. I have never seen that ever in my life.”
Dallas is expected to protest this loss. However, it will probably be denied because most of them get rejected.
Common sense should have prevailed.
The officials should have stopped play, explained the situation, and gone forward. Instead, you get confusion, controversy, and a Mavs loss.
Notes:
-Jaden Hardy scored 27 points, helped by 6-9 shooting from 3-point range, to go with 5 rebounds tonight. Hardy hit a new career-best with 6 made 3-pointers and he has logged 20+ points in five of his last six games.
-Jonathan Kuminga finished the game shooting 9-11 from the field for 22 points.
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