Mark Cuban justified if he rips NBA refs after Dallas Mavericks robbed in playoff loss
Mark Cuban, reach deep into your wallet, and go old school Mark Cuban.
Not in recent memory has there been a more appropriate time for the Dallas Mavericks owner to blast his best friends, the NBA officials.
Any chance the Mavericks had of upsetting the L.A. Clippers in Game 1 of their first round NBA playoff series on Monday night died in the third quarter when the refs made themselves the star of the game when it should have been Luka Doncic.
Doncic scored 42 points, a record for a player making his NBA playoff debut, but the Mavericks lost 118-110.
It was the Mavs’ first playoff game since 2016; had the refs behaved differently the outcome would have been, too.
The Mavs are not the better team, but they could have won this game.
Dallas Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis was ejected from the game with 9:10 remaining in the third quarter, after he lightly shoved L.A. Clippers guard Patrick Beverley.
Doncic had taken exception to Beverley’s physical foul behavior; the two faced off, and Porzingis pushed Beverley back in defense.
“He did it for me,” Doncic said.
Porzingis used almost as much effort to push Beverley as you would need to open an unlocked, slightly stuck, door.
In 1980s, or ‘90s, NBA basketball, this incident does not register as anything more than empty woofing. No fouls. Certainly no technical fouls.
NBA guys today don’t want to fight.
Since we are in an era of no-touch NBA basketball, the refs called Porzingis for a technical foul, his second of the night. By rule, two technicals means ejection.
“I saw him getting him into Luka’s face and I didn’t like it. I just gotta be smarter and control my emotions,” Porzingis said.
He earned his first technical in the first half after an attempted block resulted in a foul after which he punched the air. Replays showed it was a clean block.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after the game “that’s a technical.”
The closest Doncic, KP or Carlisle would broach knocking the refs came from Luka. He simply said he didn’t think Porzingis should have been ejected, in part because it was a playoff game.
He’s right.
It was KP’s NBA playoff debut, and the first time he was ejected from an NBA game. KP said he had never been ejected from a game during his time in Europe., but he thought he had been during his time with the New York Knicks.
On the ESPN telecast, retired NBA official Steve Javie defended the decision because KP acted more like an “escalator” rather than peacemaker.
ESPN would have been just as well served to ask the mothers of the referees what they thought of the ejection.
“That ejection is super soft,” Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki tweeted after the game.
Hell, even LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers said that he hated Porzingis was ejected.
The NBA refs violated the unwritten code that you don’t needlessly change the trajectory of the game over a nothing call. And you sure don’t do it during the playoffs.
Porzingis did not earn a technical. He was given a technical by over zealous, self-important NBA officials who will never understand people don’t want to watch them work.
At the time of Porzingis’ ejection, the Mavs were leading 71-66.
They lost the lead a few minutes later, and although Doncic kept the Mavs around the Clippers with brilliant offensive play, not having his second-best scorer and top defender was too much.
“I have not gotten a full analysis,” Carlisle said when I asked him if Porzingis’ absence on defense is why the team ultimately lost.
“I guarantee you we are a better team with him on the floor. We need him out there. We know it. He knows it.”
Porzingis left the game with 14 points, six rebounds and one block. He was not on his way to a 70-point night.
But taking him out subtracted the Mavs’ best interior defender, and only legitimate rim protector.
KP and Doncic were the highest-scoring duo since the NBA went to the Disney World bubble, over 60 points per game combined.
Their only chance to defeat the second-seeded Clippers is if Doncic and Porzingis are on the floor.
The refs took away one, and as a result the Mavs lost Game 1.
Mark Cuban, time to go to work.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 11:41 PM.
