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NBA Confesses Spurs vs OKC Game 2 Errors: Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge vs Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook To Be More Exciting
The Oklahoma City Thunder may have forced a nerve-racking 98-97 win over the San Antonio Spurs last Monday which sparked a now-halted debate as the NBA recently confessed to numerous incorrect non-calls during Game 2 of the Western semi-finals, according to The Guardian. A quite apparent officiating error was the lapse on not handing out Thunder's Dion Waiters an offensive foul after an elbow to Spurs' Manu Ginobili who challenged him on an inbound pass. Falling in with this miscalculation is the earlier non-whistled delay of game violation of Ginobili as he stepped on the sideline to shield Waiters on the aforementioned inbound play.
Both errors were agreed upon by the league and the referees which only further cemented the earlier post-game statement issued by referees Ken Mauer, Marc Davis and Sean Corbin on their confession that they failed to give the infraction to Waiters for the contact on Ginobili. The association of NBA referees made it public on Twitter as mentioned on the website that "they had never seen the play before and would incorporate it into its training moving forward."
Owing to the momentary failure in officiating the last 13.5 seconds positioned the Spurs for a steal for a quick two however they failed to deliver which let the Thunder even out their series 1-1. The five5-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson also wrote on Twitter as he loathed at the missed call, "Waiters foul on Ginobili was the worst missed call in playoff history."
The officiating delinquency, however, wasn't brought to an end there as the "Last Two Minute" report had 6 more non-call issues from the referees, according to NBA Hang Time which were:
- Illegal screen on Russel Westbrook by LaMarcus Aldridge
- Tim Duncan holding the arm of Steven Adams during a rebound
- Another violation by Duncan via a 3-second in the lane
- An inbound foul on Adams as he was clamped down by Patty Mills
- Kawhi Leonard inbound foul on Russell Westbrook as the latter took hold of the latter's jersey.
- Act of shooting foul on Serge Ibaka as he grabbed Aldridge's jersey while the latter tried to shoot a basket under the rim.
The Spurs will be at the Thunder Arena this Friday, May 6, for Game 3.
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