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NBA Reveals Three Crucial Calls Refs Missed Against Hawks on Sunday

Kyrie Irving Jump Ball vs. Atlanta Hawks

During the Cleveland Cavaliers’ shocking loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday afternoon, postgame comments by both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving about the game’s officiating were perceived by critics as sour grapes. However, the NBA ruled on Monday that three key mistakes were committed by those officials.

Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com noted the specific mistakes:

  1.  Kent Bazemore should have been called for a foul on Irving with 31.8 seconds left in regulation for hitting Irving’s arm on a missed jump shot. Cleveland was ahead 109-104 at that time.
  2. Bazemore and Paul Millsap were standing out of bounds with 5.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter when they tied up Irving for a jump ball. Everyone saw that one but the officials. The Cavs were ahead 111-109.
  3. Millsap should have been called for a block, and Irving a charge, with 12.3 seconds left in overtime. Cleveland trailed 123-120 at that point.

While those mistakes favored the Cavaliers, other criticisms were determined to be correct:

  1. James was called for a five-second violation trying to inbound the ball with 18.7 seconds left in regulation by official Leroy Richardson.
  2. James committed what was his sixth foul on Millsap with 1:52 to go in overtime.

In addition to those determinations, the league found that Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue should have been whistled for a technical foul with 25 seconds left in overtime. Lue had crossed halfcourt to signal for a timeout.

Despite the corrections, the rulings won’t change the outcome of the game and those same critics will point out that the Cavaliers had a 26-point lead to start the final quarter. Cleveland closes out its regular season with a road game on Monday night at Miami and a home game on Wednesday night versus Toronto.

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