NBA: Richard Jefferson fouled Kevin Durant on final play of Cavs' win over Warriors
Well, this ought to go over really well in both Northeast Ohio and the Bay Area.
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On Monday afternoon, nearly 24 hours after the thrilling conclusion of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 109-108 win over the Golden State Warriors in an instant Christmas Day classic, the NBA announced in its Last Two Minutes report breakdown of Sunday’s NBA Finals rematch that the vanquished visitors wound up on the short end of a potentially pivotal call in the closing seconds.
According to the NBA’s post-mortem review, Cavaliers defender Richard Jefferson should have been whistled for a personal foul against Warriors forward Kevin Durant for making “foot to foot contact” that affected Durant’s “speed, quickness, balance and rhythm” with 3.1 seconds left and Golden State trailing by one:
As the play unfolded live, it was clear that Durant stumbled on the catch as he turned to dribble, leaving him heading to the deck and heaving a prayer toward the rim that went unanswered. It wasn’t clear in the moment whether Durant stumbled on his own or had some help; after the game, Durant claimed the latter.
“I was trying to make a move, and I fell,” he told reporters. “And I didn’t fall on my own.”
Jefferson, you’ll be shocked to learn, took an opposing view after helping his team seal a hardfought and emotional win.
“We all think we’re fouled on every play in every single game,” said the 36-year-old swingman, who scored six of his eight points in the fourth quarter and threw down a pair of monster dunks on Durant and Klay Thompson, after the game. “That’s why I say I know the referees have a very hard job. I switched to his body. It looked like he lost his balance.”
You will be even more shocked to learn that Jefferson did not particularly appreciate the NBA’s Monday afternoon mea culpa, and does not much care for the reports in general, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal:
“There’s a lot of things I could say. I’m on the positive end of it this time, so there’s no need to make a comment about it,” Jefferson told the Beacon Journal. “I think if you ask guys across the board if the replay and the Last 2 Minutes is effective, I don’t think it is. In the sense I think it puts the referees in a really bad spot. You’re critiquing them, you’re criticizing them for what they see in real time vs. a slow-motion action. It’s kind of like the generals who oversee the war, but aren’t in the war. I don’t think it’s good for basketball.” […]
Jefferson believes the reports will only add scrutiny and bitterness to the rivalry and carry over into the next time the Cavs and Warriors meet next month at Oracle Arena.
“All it actually does is cause more dissension,” Jefferson said. “So the next day guys are [angry] and it trickles down to the next set of games. It’s not good for basketball.”
Jefferson joins a long list of those opposed to the continued publication of the reports, including superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and the union that represents NBA officials. Despite the displeasure with the day-late debriefs, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver continues to believe the reports serve a valuable role in increasing transparency and fans’ trust in the overall quality of NBA officiating.
Durant spent most of his Sunday torching the Cleveland defense in his introduction to the Cavs-Dubs rivalry, finishing with a game-high 36 points on 11-for-23 shooting. He struggled, however, in the deciding fourth quarter, missing seven of his nine field-goal attempts as Golden State squandered a 14-point lead in 9 1/2 minutes to fall to the defending NBA champs for the fourth straight tie.
Despite those late-game struggles, though, Durant remained confident after the game that he’d have answered Kyrie Irving’s dagger with one of his own had he gotten the opportunity to square up unimpeded by Jefferson’s feet. From Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated:
“I would’ve made that shot if he didn’t trip me up,” Durant told The Undefeated. “But they ain’t calling it on him at their crib. It’s not his fault. It’s not the refs’ fault, either.”
On that last point, evidently, the NBA doesn’t agree.
The day-after report identifies only one other instance of an incorrect call in the final two minutes of Cavs-Warriors, claiming that LeBron James should have been called for a technical foul for deliberately hanging on the rim after this monster dunk to give Cleveland a 105-103 lead with 1:43 remaining:
… which, y’know, yeah, based on the letter of the law and everything, but also, no, based on the That Which Is Wild Dope Should Be Allowed Without Punishment And, In Fact, Smiled Upon And Encouraged Corollary.
Golden State not getting the benefit of foul shots or second looks on two separate instances in the final two minutes of a one-point game will absolutely infuriate Warriors fans, and might even incense the players and coaches themselves. One would suspect, though, that competitors taking an honest inventory of how it all fell apart would wind up hewing closer to the view forwarded after the game by Thompson.
“The way we lost that game, we gave them a gift,” he told reporters. “I mean, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, you know? We’re up [14] in the fourth quarter, and we just have to be solid and not turn the ball over, help each other on defense to win the game, and instead we’re throwing the ball over the court, leaving open shooters and just not playing our brand of ball, so you better be mad. I don’t care if it’s Christmas Day or any game you lose, any time you blow a [14]-point lead, it’ll piss you off.”
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There’s no question that the Warriors contributed to their own demise down the stretch. As noted earlier Monday by my colleague Ben Rohrbach, over the final 9:30 of Sunday’s game, the Cavs outscored the Warriors 29-14, scoring 10 points off six turnovers and shooting 12-of-20 from the field, capped by Irving’s game-winner with 3.4 seconds remaining.
On the flip side, the Warriors went 5-for-13 from the floor in the deciding stretch, with Durant missing all five of his shots, Golden State as a team going 1-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc, and the Dubs short-circuiting with several crucial late miscues — an ill-advised attempt by Draymond Green to thread a pass through a congested lane, leading to a steal and layup by Irving that tied the game at 103 with 2:18 to play; an off-target feed by Andre Iguodala following a loose-ball scramble that could have resulted in a runout dunk for Durant for a five-point lead but instead led to another Irving steal and layup that got Cleveland within one; a 24-second shot-clock violation with 13 ticks remaining that wiped a Thompson 3-pointer off the board and set the table for Irving’s game-winner.
“Too many untimely turnovers,” Warriors reserve David West said after the game, according to ESPN.com’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss. “Just thought we were in a bit of retreat mode, particularly when they started making their run.”
We shouldn’t lose sight of the other side of the story, though. Green and Iguodala didn’t find their marks because Irving refused to let Golden State’s passes go unchecked. The Warriors retreated because the Cavaliers advanced. Thompson and company gave up their “gift” because the Cavs put themselves in position to receive, then took the game and didn’t look back. Monday afternoon’s report will give Warriors fans, and maybe the Warriors themselves, someplace to direct their frustrations, but if they’re looking to divvy up blame 24 hours after the dust has settled, they’d do well to serve up significantly larger slices to the guys who took the court wearing blue and red jerseys than the ones who wore grey.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
