NBA issues ruling on Mavericks’ protest of loss to Warriors

The Dallas Mavericks filed a formal protest with the NBA after their loss to the Golden State Warriors last month, and the league has reached a decision.

In a statement on Thursday, the NBA announced that the Mavericks’ protest has been denied.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban filed the protest over a controversial play that occurred late in Dallas’ March 23 home loss to the Warriors. With 1:54 left in the third quarter, there was a dispute about whether a ball was off a Mavericks or Warriors player before going out of bounds. Initially, the referee signaled Golden State ball and then did a gesture and signaled in the other direction. You can see the video here.

Dallas players thought they had possession, which led to a situation where there were no Mavericks players defending the basket. They had all gone down to the other end of the court thinking it was their ball, which allowed the Warriors to score an uncontested basket.

Cuban wrote on Twitter that the referee announced it was Dallas ball, and the arena announcer announced that it was the Mavericks’ ball. Then there was a timeout. Cuban says the official changed the call during the timeout and didn’t tell the Mavs.

Crew Chief Sean Wright said after the game that the signal in the other direction was “for a mandatory timeout that was due to the Mavs.”

While the NBA conceded on Thursday that officials “could have taken steps to better manage this particular situation,” it was determined that the incident did not affect the outcome of the game. There were 14 minutes remaining at the time, and the Mavericks took the lead twice in the final four minutes. You can read the NBA’s full announcement below: