League: Refs muff LeBron block
The Indiana Pacers felt cheated — by LeBron James and the officials.
Moments before James beat them with a gamewinning, step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer Wednesday night, the Pacers were poised to take the lead in Game 5 on Victor Oladipo’s driving layup. However, James came from behind and blocked Oladipo’s shot, which appeared to hit the backboard before Cleveland’s star touched it — a goaltending violation.
Instead, there was no call. James then dropped his 28-footer over Thaddeus Young to give Cleveland a 98-95 win and a 3-2 lead in the tight Eastern Conference first-round series.
The Pacers didn’t complain on the floor. But later in their locker room they were angry about the gameswinging play. Several of the Pacers shook their heads while watching replays.
“Of course, I thought it was goaltending,” Lance Stephenson said. “We should’ve got the ref’s attention. When you look at it on the replay, it’s clearly goaltending.”
Yesterday, the league came out in agreement with the Pacers.
The NBA said James’ block should have been called goaltending. In its Last Two Minute Report, the league said the three officials missed the call with 5.1 seconds left. The league said the video shows James blocked Oladipo’s shot “after it makes contact with the backboard.”
Under league rules, the play could not be reviewed because it wasn’t called on the floor.
The NBA’s report also said the Pacers were incorrectly awarded the ball on a play with 27.6 seconds left. The ball went off Young and went out of bounds, but the referees gave the ball to Indiana.
In any case, Oladipo thought he was fouled by James before the non-call.
“I got a step on him,” Oladipo said. “I felt like I even got grabbed on the way to the rim, tried to shoot a layup, it hit the backboard, then he blocked it. It was a goaltend. It’s hard to even speak on it. It just sucks, honestly. It really sucks. Even though we fought our way back, we tied the game up, that layup was huge.
“Give him credit where credit is due. The 3 was bigtime. Definitely huge. But who’s to say they even run that play? We don’t know what happens. It’s unfortunate. It really sucks that they missed that.”
James smiled when asked to describe his block, which was reminiscent of the one he made on Andre Iguodala in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
“I definitely thought it was a goaltend,” James said with a laugh. “Of course I didn’t think it was a goaltend. I try to make plays like that all the time and I mean he made a heck of a move, got me leaning right and he went left and I just tried to use my recovery speed and get back up there and make a play on the ball. And I was able to make a play.”
Even if goaltending was called, the Cavaliers would have gotten the ball in frontcourt, giving James a makeable shot in the final seconds.
Said Pacers center Myles Turner: “It’s clearly a goaltend, but that doesn’t change the fact that they made the game-winning shot.”
Elsewhere in the NBA — Stephen Curry has resumed full practice with contact and could play for the defending champion Golden State Warriors as soon as Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals tomorrow night against New Orleans.
Curry practiced yesterday wearing a protective black brace over his sprained left knee, which has sidelined him since the injury March 23, the same day he returned from a sixgame absence because of a hurt right ankle.
Coach Steve Kerr is calling Curry questionable for tomorrow, but that could change if the two-time NBA MVP responds well today and is fine after one more day of full practice before the Pelicans visit Oracle Arena to begin the best-of-seven series.
Curry went through his usual shooting work with Kevin Durant after practice, cutting and exhibiting his fancy footwork and dribbling skills as if back to full strength on the knee . . . .
Denver Nuggets center Mason Plumlee underwent surgery to fix a core-muscle injury.
The team said Plumlee had the procedure performed yesterday morning by Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia.