The NBA’s Last Two Minute (L2M) report for Wednesday’s games came out on Thursday afternoon, and although the report indicates that there were some incorrect calls and non-calls made during Utah Jazz’s 131-123 defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, probably does little to pacify the feelings of Jazz All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
After the defeat, Mitchell and Gobert criticized the game’s refereeing and called the league leaders for what they considered an inconsistent refereeing for Jazz compared to other teams.
“This has been a consistent thing,” said Mitchell. “The question is, can we do this? Can we support you? Are we really No. 1? Like, yes, the hell we are, and it’s getting (expletive) ridiculous that this is what happened. … I’m tired of it. To be honest, we all are. This is something that hurts, devours me … and the league needs to do something about it ”.
Mitchell and Gobert made their comments knowing full well that the league would pay fines for their comments.
“We shouldn’t have to say that, but we have to say it,” said Gobert. “If we don’t say it now, it may be too late. We just want a little more respect. That’s it. … All our boys, they just deserve to be treated the same way as other players from other teams are treated, regardless of the team or the market. For the beauty of the game, I think it’s the least we can ask for. “
The L2M report for the Jazz-Sixers game details 50 separate incidents from the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and the overtime period.
The report lists four occurrences in the fourth quarter when employees erred and two occurrences in the overtime period. The first incorrect item was a foul committed by Gobert against Joel Embiid that was not scored.
The next two plays listed as incorrect are both from the same play that starts with 1:03 on the clock during the entry play. Conley takes the field to Bojan Bogdanovic, who the league says traveled as soon as he had the ball. That was not called. So when Bogdanovic passes the ball, the league says Ben Simmons extends his “leg to make contact with the ball on Bogdanovic’s pass, which makes him go to the backcourt”. Again, no calls.
The final, incorrectly official incident of the fourth quarter that is listed in the L2M report is a failure to call a foul committed by Embiid against Mitchell. This is likely to be the only league admission that will make Jazz feel a little justified in his anger, as, if called correctly, he would have sent Mitchell to the free throw line, where he could have extended Jazz’s lead to five with just less than 40 seconds to play.
The L2M report for the extension period will not make Jazz or Jazz fans any happier.
There are only two incidents listed as incorrect and they both come on the same turn. One is a non-called Tobias Harris travel violation, and the second is a 3-second defensive violation of Gobert that was not called.
The officials analyzed the shotgun foul against Gobert in Embiid in this clip and considered the decision correct.
All of this happened during the same play in which Mitchell received his first technical foul for complaining to the referees. His second technical foul and ejection came less than a minute later.
That’s it with regard to the league, with regard to the mistakes made on Wednesday night. However, there are many incidents in which the league said the leaders made the right decision and Jazz is sure to still disagree.
Like this move, in which Mitchell was convicted of an offensive foul. Despite the fact that Mitchell was hanging on Simmons ‘arm during the play, the L2M report said: “Mitchell wraps his arm around Simmons’ leg during movement and contact restricts his movements.”
Of course, as the name implies, the report does not list any plays outside the final two minutes that have been missed or incorrectly called.
And, as always, the report does nothing but fuel anger and resentment as it does not affect the results of the game. In the end, Jazz lost that game and the story doesn’t change that.