Following the Houston Rockets’ Game 3 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, the NBA released what has come to be (creatively) entitled as the “Last Two Minutes Report“, which essentially outlined how pretty much every shot taken in the final two minutes of the game should not have counted and how the refs made five incorrect calls that changed the outcome of the game. Including Harden’s game-winning shot.
On the replay from Thursday night’s game, it appeared Harden pushed off Golden State’s Andre Iguodala before converting a 10-foot, step-back jumper with 2.7 seconds to play. The league said Harden initiated contact with Iguodala before hitting the basket.
Roasted, Harden. I know that one hurts. Harden’s probably been playing the “I’m the guy who helped my team beat the unbeatable Golden State Warriors” card at strip clubs all week, most of whom I’m sure cared way more than Dwight Howard seemed to.
The report goes on to say that the refs also missed a flagrant foul on Draymond Green after he tossed Marcus Beasley to the floor in the final seconds. Which I think is really a worse missed call than a player pushing off another player to create space.
Do I think that these refs will still be gainfully employed in NBA by the time this dust settles? Shit no. However, while everyone gets so butthurt about this, it should be noted that there is just no way that the Rockets are going to end up beating the Warriors in this series anyway so giving them a hand and making sure they don’t get shut out isn’t by any means a bad thing to do. It’s like when 5 year-old wants to basketball with his dad. Sure, the dad lets the kid score a couple of points, but eventually dear old dad is coming to be jamming the kid like a 13 year-old playing Guitar Hero. He doesn’t want to make you feel worthless, but he wants you to remember that you ain’t shit.
via ESPN