Cavs Guard Matthew Dellavedova was called for a controversial foul with 14 seconds remaining in Monday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies were leading 101-100 before the foul.
Here’s the play:
Delly was called for fouling Vince Carter before the inbound, which meant that Memphis would get one free throw and the ball back.
Mario Chalmers hit the free throw and then the Cavs were forced to foul Carter, who hit two free throws, making it 104-100.
It’s far from a guarantee that if the Cavs were down 103-100 they would have came back and sent the game to overtime or won, but the difference between a three-point game and a two possession game is critical with little time remaining.
After the game, I asked Head Coach Tyronn Lue if he would like the ability to challenge officials’ rulings in games because of situations like that.
Here’s what he had to say:
https://soundcloud.com/matthew-medley-299166887/tyronn-lue-on-foul-called-on-matthew-dellavedvoa-3716
Do you agree with the call on the play? Should the NBA have a challenge flag?
davemanddd
March 8, 2016 at 9:46 pm
controversial??? meh. that wasn’t the call i was so upset about as it was 2 others that came before it – the first being the 3-second call on lebron’s made shot in the lane that would have put the cavs up by 3 with a little over a minute to go but was inexplicably wiped out by such a bogus call and then the non-call on the jump ball with 17 seconds to go when lance stephenson was blatantly climbing all over delly’s back before he tapped the ball over to a grizzly teammate which enabled memphis to gain possession of the ball and call time out just prior to the call you were concerned about. see why i was more concerned??? your play never would have happened if they had called either of my 2 plays in the cavs favor.
Matt Medley
March 8, 2016 at 10:24 pm
There were a number of questionable calls in that final 20 seconds or so. They never should have been in the position against a team missing four starters, including their three best players, but any one of the calls that you and I take issue with I would like to see the NBA implement one or two coaches’ challenges per game. I’d like to see one per half and if you lose the challenge you lose a timeout.