Fansided

NBA referees didn’t notice David Blatt’s extra timeout call

By Luke Dahlgren

Mar 10, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt during a timeout from the game against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. The Cavs beat the Mavs 127-94. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt during a timeout from the game against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. The Cavs beat the Mavs 127-94. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt tried to call an extra timeout at the end of the dramatic Game 4 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

David Blatt very nearly blew the game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, so did a good portion of the Cavaliers themselves. Until the very end of the game, the Bulls vs. Cavaliers Game 4 became a competition for who could sabotage their season more quickly, with both teams playing sloppy with the ball, failing to score for long stretches and making key mistakes down the stretch.

However, the biggest was nearly made (and very well should have been made) by the Cavaliers head coach. Blatt called for a timeout following Derrick Rose’s game tying layup with under ten seconds to play.

This of course had followed a sequence that saw the Cavaliers waste their final three timeouts trying to inbound the ball. They lost the first getting the ball past half-court, lost the second when J.R. Smith was trapped and fell, lost the third when the ball couldn’t be inbounded in five seconds and lost the possession when LeBron James fouled Mike Dunleavy while he was cornered.

A possession lasting about 10 seconds of game time saw the Cavs lose all of their timeouts and the ball, enabling the Bulls to tie. This did not stop David Blatt from trying to call an extra timeout.

Fortunately for the Cavs, the referees never noticed noticed.

It makes sense that the timeout went unnoticed. The referees were concentrating on the clock and on the court to manage fouls near the end of the game, they weren’t thinking that Blatt could be so absent-minded.

But just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it should have gone unnoticed. Blatt walked inside the three point line onto the court to call that phantom timeout, and the referees need to be at least monitoring how others interfere by entering too far onto the court during games.

If this was the only slip up of the game for the referees, then this would be forgivable. But the refs also missed an obvious foul call on Joakim Noah that would have sent LeBron to the line with a second on the clock, then gave the Cavs a de facto timeout to draw up an inbounds play when reviewing the time left on the clock.

You never want a playoff game to be decided by a referee, but you also don’t want a game to be ignored by one either.

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