League: Thompson should have been called for foul at end

Monday night’s badly needed victory by the Golden State Warriors might not have happened had a critical play at the buzzer resulted in a foul.

For the third time this season, the NBA has told the Sacramento Kings that a call was blown in the final moments of what became a close loss. The latest entry on that list: that Kevin Huerter was fouled by Warriors guard Klay Thompson on a 3-point try as time was expiring in the Kings’ 116-113 loss at Chase Center.

The victory snapped a fivegame losing streak for Golden State (4-7). The Kings are 3-6, 13th in the 15-team Western Conference, just percentage points behind the Warriors.

The blown call was revealed in the NBA’s Last 2 Minute Report that was released Tuesday, with the league saying that Thompson made contact with Huerter’s arm, affecting a shot that fell short of the basket. That should have put Huerter on the freethrow line with a chance to send the game to overtime.

The L2MR details all officiated events — calls and key non-calls — down the stretch of games in which the margin was three points or fewer at any time in the final two minutes. The NBA uses it for transparency.

“Kevin got fouled,” Sacramento head coach Mike Brown told reporters after the game. “I know there are missed calls throughout the course of the game, missed calls on us, missed calls on our opponent. I just want, at the end of the game, somebody to step up and make the right call.”

Last Wednesday, Tyler Herro hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left in what became a three-point win for Miami. The Kings argued that he traveled; the next day, the NBA said that indeed was the case.

On Oct. 22, Sacramento guard De’Aaron Fox was fouled by Clippers forward Paul George on a shot attempt with 1:20 left. It wasn’t called; the NBA said it should have been. The Kings wound up losing by two points. Irving meets with Silver: Suspended Brooklyn guard Kyrie Irving met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the meeting said.

The Nets on Thursday banned Irving for at least five games without pay after he refused to say he had no antisemitic beliefs.

That came hours after Silver said Irving made a “reckless decision” to post on his Twitter feed a link to a film that contains antisemitic material and said he would be meeting with him within a week. Irving eventually deleted the tweet and issued an apology on Instagram.