Why does Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban intend to protest the team’s loss to the Golden State Warriors?
It is now clear that the Mavericks won’t accept their controversial loss to the Warriors. Indeed, they intend to let the league know where they stand.
Given the tight margin in their controversial 127-125 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, it may well be that the Dallas Mavericks are justified in the apparent anger they feel about a specific refereeing decision on a night when they had an issue with the officials in general. Indeed, there was one call in particular which saw the Warriors awarded two points and to hear the Mavs tell it, they will be raising the issue forthwith.
What are the Mavericks angry about?
Where the play itself is concerned, it was late in the third quarter when a timeout was called. Following the break, the Mavericks took to the court an proceeded to position themselves at the end of the floor in a manner that suggested that they believe it was their possession. Meanwhile, the Warriors were given the ball to inbound on the other end of the court. What resulted was an open basket for Kevon Looney. Needless to say, protests were immediate. To that end Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, immediately drew attention to the fact that even officials were unsure about the situation with two on the Warriors side of the court, while the other was situated close to the Mavericks. Cuban has since made it clear the franchise will be taking action.
Though they continued to argue with officials, the Mavericks had no choice but to get on with the game and in the end, the Warriors won the game by a two-point margin. Now, it’s worth noting that there were still some 14 minutes left in the game, however, as one can imagine given the difference between the teams was the said same two points, tempers are still running hot. Post game, Cuban himself took to social media where he gave his view on the situation.
What did Mavericks owner Mark Cuban say?
As mentioned above, Cuban gave his take on the situation, but what’s interesting to note is the response to his opinion. Let’s start with Cuban, who had this to say: “For those wondering about the play with 1:54 to go on the 3rd, let me explain what happened. The ref called Mavs ball . The announcer announced it. Then there was a timeout . During the time out the official changed the call and never told us. Then when they saw us line up as if it were our ball, he just gave the ball to the warriors. Never said a word to us. They got an easy basketball. Crazy that it would matter in a 2 point game. Worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA. All they had to do was tell us and they didn’t.”
What’s the league’s stance on the issue?
Here’s the response from crew chief Sean Wright: “Initially on the floor the original signal was in fact Golden State ball as this can be seen on video. There is a second signal but that signal is for a mandatory timeout that was due to the Mavs.” To be fair, this assessment seems to make sense in that the first signal was to indicate that it was the Warriors’ ball, while the second was to clarify that the Mavericks had called a timeout - legit in our view. Yet, the idea that it was not the fault of the referees, but rather the Mavs themselves is clearly not the way in which Cuban views it. At any rate, the team now has 48 hours to officially file a protest with the NBA’s office, which incidentally must be accompanied by a $10,000 protest fee. Assuming commissioner Adam Silver acknowledges receipt of the protest, both teams will then have five days to provide any corroborating evidence, at which point Silver will be charged with giving the final word.
What now for the Mavericks?
When looking at the Mavericks record of 36-37, it’s easy to understand why they would be fighting tooth and nail for each and every point they can get. Now ninth in the Western Conference, this latest result was not ideal to say the least and what’s worse is that they now sit further behind the sixth-place Warriors and half a game outside of qualification for the play-in tournament. With only a few weeks remaining in the regular season, it would be fair to say that things just went from bad to worse. The question now is, what can the Mavs do about it?