Following the Warriors’ 117-115 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night at Chase Center, coach Steve Kerr was adamant that Steph Curry fouled LeBron James before the Lakers star began his shooting motion with less than three seconds remaining.
Roughly 18 hours later, the NBA agreed with Kerr.
In the Last Two Minute Report released by the NBA around 2 p.m. PT on Sunday, the league deemed the shooting foul on Curry as an “Incorrect Call.”
“Curry (GSW) wraps his arms around James’ (LAL) waist prior to his upward shooting motion on the perimeter,” the NBA wrote. “A personal foul should have been assessed.”
But the NBA’s report revealed several other missed calls by the referees, including a travel on LeBron as he received the ball from Malik Monk. If LeBron had been called for the violation, Curry never would have been put in the position to foul him.
Neither incident was called correctly, resulting in LeBron getting three free throws with a chance to tie the game if he made all three.
LeBron missed the first free throw and made the second. With just 2.4 seconds remaining, he intentionally missed the third free throw, hoping the Lakers could get the offensive rebound and make a quick shot to tie it before the buzzer. But incredibly, there was a missed double-lane violation on the final free throw.
The NBA said that Curry stepped inside the 3-point line early, while Russell Westbrook and Andrew Wiggins both entered the lane before LeBron released the ball. Per NBA rules, there should have been a jump ball at midcourt.
Instead, the double-lane violation was missed, LeBron clanked the free throw off the back of the rim and there was a mad scramble for the ball as time expired, giving the Warriors their 42nd win of the season.
Kerr told reporters after the game that the Warriors’ plan was to foul before the Lakers could attempt a 3-pointer, but Gary Payton II was unable to wrap up Monk before he got the ball to LeBron. Kerr wasn’t happy with the execution by his players and sternly said his team will practice that end-of-game situation more.
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But it was the lack of a replay review that irked Kerr the most.
“I don’t know what the rule is on replay but Steph’s foul was clearly before the shot. Clearly,” Kerr said after the game. “So I was very disappointed that didn’t go to replay. Seems like we replay everything else out there and the most important play of the game, we don’t review. But I don’t know what the rule is. I’m not even sure if I had my challenge left if I could have challenged whether it was a three or not.
“We’ve got to get better with that but we survived. We got lucky.”
The NBA likely expects the referees in question — James Capers, Marat Kogut, Kevin Scott — to be better under the bright lights of a marquee national TV game.
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