Referees Completely Blew End of Thunder-Blazers Game in Latest NBA Officiating

Last night the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in what should have been a great regular-season game between two teams with some history. Budding star Jalen Williams hit a deep two-point jumper with two seconds to go to win the game for OKC after the lead changed 10 times in the fourth quarter. But the referees ruined what could have been. Their poor decisions down the stretch marred a highly-competitive contest. And the Blazers are rightfully upset to the point that they are protesting the outcome of the game.

Which may seem extreme but not when you understand what happened. Portland was winning 109-108 with 15 seconds left and Malcolm Brogdon was dribbling the ball up. As soon as he crossed halfcourt, the Thunder double-teamed him in an attempt to force a steal or, more likely, foul the veteran point guard to send him to the free-throw line. Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups did not like what he was seeing, though, and called timeout to regroup his team.

Or, more appropriately, tried to call timeout. Despite screaming in the ref’s ear he wasn’t granted a timeout. The official then called Brogdon for double-dribbling because he picked up the ball after getting hit in the face and dribbled again assuming there would be a whistle. So the referees managed to miss a timeout and a foul before gifting the ball back to the Thunder in the closing seconds of the game. Not great!

Remarkably, they managed to make it worse. Billups was pretty upset for not getting a foul call, but not apoleptic like most coaches would be. Nevertheless, he was given a technical foul. Not only that, but he was not T’d up by the referee he was talking to! It was a nearby ref who thought Billups crossed the line and gave him a technical. That pushed Billups over the edge and he got more animated, leading to his second technical foul and an ejection.

To sum it up, the Blazers went from having the ball up by one point to losing possession and their head coach while OKC was gifted two free throws. It was an absolute disasterclass.

How To Blow a Game in 15 Seconds, presented by NBA officiating. Man. What a total mess. I’ll acknowledge that Billups did not actually make the timeout signal with his hands so the initial error that set off this series of events was far from the most egregious. But everything that happened afterwards was entirely avoidable. Yet, and I really hate to phrase it like this but I do not know how you can explain it otherwise: the refs got into their feelings. They got offended that Billups got upset over their mistake and changed the entire game.

After all this, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit one of the two technical free throws to tie up the ballgame. The Thunder ran the clock all the way down and Williiams hit the go-ahead jumper. The Blazers threw the ball away on the next play and that was it. A win turned into a loss thanks to the failures of NBA officiating.

It was not the first time we’ve seen something of this ilk this season, and it will not be the last. That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing for the officials involved or the NBA.

At least the Last Two Minutes report will hold everyone accountable. Right?