The NBA confirmed that, upon further review, its officials made the right call in not awarding a foul to DeMar DeRozan late in Sunday’s game between the Toronto Raptors and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The league puts out a “last two-minute report” the day after the game — only for ones that are decided by three points or less — in which all foul calls and “notable” non-calls are reviewed.
The report from Sunday’s game might not go over well with Raptor fans, but offers a reasonable explanation.
The NBA determined that the play in question was called correctly and DeRozan was not fouled on his way to the hoop because his hand was on the ball while Brewer slapped for it. Here’s the full description:
“[The replay] shows Brewer (OKC) make contact with the ball and the part of DeRozan’s (TOR) hand that is on the ball. The hand is considered “part of the ball” when it is in contact with the ball and therefore, contact on that part of the hand by a defender while it is in contact with the ball is not illegal.”
The controversial call came with the Raptors down two points with 39 seconds left in the game.
DeRozan caught the ball off the inbound and was picked up full-court by Corey Brewer. The two collided and DeRozan brought the ball behind his back to lose his defender. DeRozan headed to the hoop for a layup but Brewer recovered and slapped for the ball on the way up, hitting DeRozan’s hand in the process. No call. A demonstrative DeRozan and a Raptors team already rattled by the referees fell apart and the game crumbled away from there.
After the game a DeRozan didn’t pull punches over whether or not there was contact on the play:
The Thunder snapped the Raptors’ franchise-record 12-game winning streak in the process.
When it was all over, it resembled a scripted reality show about NBA referees more than it did a basketball game and three Raptors — DeRozan, Serge Ibaka and head coach Dwane Casey — were ejected. After the final buzzer, arena security had to escort the referees off the court.
While the refereeing and the Raptors frustration over a lack of calls played a factor on Sunday, the team didn’t help themselves — they allowed 40 first-quarter points, coughed up 19 turnovers, were outrebounded by the Thunder and allowed them to get to the free throw line 34 times.
In the game’s deciding defensive possessions the Raps flat-out could not stop Russell Westbrook, who got to the basket and made a series of layups to close out the game and finished with 37 points, 13 assists, and 14 rebounds.
The Raptors are in Orlando to face the Magic on Tuesday before heading off to Cleveland for a Wednesday matchup versus LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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