Every game matters for the Dallas Mavericks as we hit the home stretch of the regular season, and they fight for their playoff lives.
They lost by a narrow margin on Wednesday night to the Golden State Warriors, and the team and its owner feel as though they have been wronged by the NBA’s referees.
Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban Unhappy With Referees On Wednesday
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…
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 23, 2023
The Mavericks entered the game as the 7th seed in the Western Conference, just a half game behind the idol Warriors for the 6th playoff spot and avoidance of the play-in tournament. With 7 bunched up and within 2 games of each other, Wednesday’s contest in Dallas was up the utmost importance, especially for the Mavs.
The game was back and forth throughout, and eventually came down to a final possession. Golden State got a huge stop while up by 3 with under ten seconds left, securing the victory and leaving the Mavericks’ place in the standings at the mercy of the other games finishing up around the West.
But the Warriors win doesn’t come without controversy.
Late in the third quarter, there seemed to be some obvious confusion between the Mavericks and the referees. Coming out of a time out, the Mavericks were lined up on the opposite end of the court as if they believed it to be their ball. They claim that the referee signaled that Dallas had possession going into the stoppage of play.
Only two refs were on that side of the court and we had 2 guys at half court going to in bound. The other ref obviously thought it was our ball as well. https://t.co/NSTsj5CWKY pic.twitter.com/cStupauXiV
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 23, 2023
But when the teams broke their huddle, the Warriors found themselves inbounding all alone under their own basket, leading to an easy inbound pass and completely uncontested dunk from Kevon Looney.
It was two free points for Golden State, which wound up being the exact margin of victory in the game.
Mavericks Have 48 Hours To File Protest
The Mavericks did not go quietly into the night. Team owner Mark Cuban made his way over to the scorers table during the game to plead his case, and took to Twitter afterwards to let the fans know what happened.
According to Cuban, it was the “worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA.”
The Dallas Mavericks plan to file to the NBA a formal protest of their 127-125 loss to the Golden State Warriors tonight, with focus on alleged referee mistake that led to two free Warriors points late in the third quarter, source tells @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 23, 2023
Dallas will be protesting the result of the game. The case will be heard by commissioner Adam Silver, and the Warriors and Mavericks will have five days to submit their respective evidence for why they should be considered the winning team.
There hasn’t been a game protested in the NBA since 2020, when it was again the Mavericks who contested their result in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. The last successful protested game came back in 2008.
The Dallas Mavericks will be ordered to pay a $10,000 protest fee, which will be returned to the team if the challenge is successful.
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