Will the NBA Give the Rockets a Mulligan?

Published on 4-Dec-2019 by Biff BoJock

Basketball - NBA    NBA Daily Update

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Will the NBA Give the Rockets a Mulligan?

Real-life replay doesn't happen very often in the sporting world, but the Houston Rockets are gonna give it a try.

Dudes blew a late lead over San Antonio's Spurs and wound up losing, 135-133, after a double overtime that probably never shoulda happened.

A James Harden dunk not being credited as a basket is the bitch in question, which is apparently enough to knock the world off its axis.

 

'Way back in 1912, an actual basket was replaced by a hoop with a net attached in order to speed up the game and, by inference of movement, confirm that a goal was actually scored.

This is usually all that's needed. However, at the speed of today's game, it's good to have replay available to quickly settle those rare occasions where doubt might creep in.

Now, wouldn't anyone expect that to be a simple process?

 

Well, that's not the world in which we live.

Consider the matter at hand, where the Rockets were holding a 112-89 lead with 7:50 left in the game. Harden picked off a lazy Spurs backcourt pass and, checking his surroundings, realized he was waltzing in for an easy 2.

Instead of a windmill jam or any other sorta French pastry where who knows what might go wrong, dude did the sane thing and simply went vanilla. But ...

 

What in the the name of Dr James Naismith was going on out there?

Some sports have surrendered to the machines and taken the replay process to crazy lengths. No matter what, though, human input's gotta be in there somewhere, which means any decision's gonna come down to someone's parameters and interpretations.

In other words, self-inflicted tecnicalities.

 

In this case, replay told it like it was, but the pursuit of reality wasn't the issue. It never got that far.

Here's how the post-game official's report put it:

It is a reviewable matter, but you have a window of 30 seconds to challenge the play during that timeout that he had and while they were protesting the call, trying to get clarification of it, that window passed so therefore it elapsed and they were not able to do it.

Setting aside the grammar-nazi aspects of that run-on sentence, how could Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni make a challenge if he never got the clarification in time?

 

The only remaining remedy available to Houston was to protest the game to the league office.

If they win it, the Rockets and Spurs would be forced to find a mutually convenient date, return to San Antonio, and pick up the action after Harden's dunk made it 114-89.

Odds are against them, though. While coaches' challenges have had modest success in overturning calls, there have only been three protests upheld in NBA history.

 

Clearly, what shoulda happened is the Rockets not blowing a double-digit lead.

Harden was in the midst of an inefficient 50-point night -- 11-38 FG; 4-20 from three -- that indicated this one would probably be a grinder, no matter what.

 

There's still three-quarters of a season to go. Houston'scurrently ensconced in the West's fifth-place position, but there's lotsa time for stuff to go wrong, as they've proven more than once.

Pending a decision on their protest, come springtime, this lost victory may wind up playing a role in such a scenario.

Regular-season that.