Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan was left scratching his head after a controversial call in their loss against the Houston Rockets. The Bulls, the third-seeded team in the East, fell short on their road game against the 2-16 Rockets on Wednesday night and it was a crucial call halfway through the fourth quarter that ended up changing the course of the game which, to be quite frank, Donovan didn't really understand.
The Bulls were down by five with over five minutes to go in the game when Ball knocked down a three in transition that would've cut the lead to a single possession. Thing is, the Bulls guard fell on the floor and subsequently hit Kevin Porter Jr. which forced the officials to call an offensive foul on Ball and waved his three-pointer.
Donovan could not understand the call. The 56-year old coach explained that the call ‘did not make sense' to him and mentioned that, based on what he saw, it was clearly wrong.
“The call made zero sense to me,” Donovan said after the 118-113 loss (via NBC Sports). “Now, I'm not saying it made zero sense to me because I don't agree with what they said. The way they explained it to me, and what I was able to see (on the in-arena cameras), did not make sense. So if I can get a different camera view, I can maybe understand what they're talking about,”
After the unsuccessful coach's challenge, Houston ended up knocking down a huge three on the other end care of Danuel House Jr. which gave the home team a 102-94 lead and ultimately ran away with their second win this season.
“It was such a big play in the game, that's why I challenged it,” added Donovan “I lost the timeout, but I figured it was three points, potentially four if they would've reviewed it and he (Ball) would have been fouled. If it was a four-point play, it would have cut the lead to one,”
Despite the return of big man Nikola Vucevic, the Bulls couldn't take care of business on the road and ended the evening with their second back-to-back loss this season while the Rockets were able to snap their 15-game losing streak. Chicago has a chance to get back on track with another road game coming on Friday against the Orlando Magic.