In his autobiography called “I'll Show You,” Derrick Rose reveals he and the rest of his Chicago Bulls teammates saw Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt call a timeout in Game 4 of their 2015 second round playoffs series when the Cavs didn't have one.
With the Bulls down 84-82, Rose scored on a driving layup to tie the game at 84 with 8.4 seconds left in regulation. Blatt then ran onto the court and tried to call a timeout. Cavs assistant Tyronn Lue ran toward Blatt to tell him to stop, but everyone in the United Center saw Blatt call for the timeout.
The Bulls should have went to the free-throw line to shoot a technical free-throw. Assuming Chicago finds a way to close that game, they would have gone up 3-1 in the series.
Instead, the refs didn't call the technical on Blatt and Cavs superstar LeBron James hit a tough corner jumper over Bulls forward Jimmy Butler at the buzzer to give the Cavs the win and even up the series at 2-2.
And then in Game 4, come on, their coach, David Blatt, called a timeout when they didn't have one. Should have been a technical and the game is over. We're up three games to one.
Hell yeah, I saw it. We knew right away. Thibs always tells you how many timeouts you have, how many they have, if they're gonna foul, the situation. You know with Thibs he always was the most prepared. Dude is all the way out on the court calling a timeout. Right in front of the ref. Everyone knows.
And then for Bron to hit the shot, it was like a double whammy. Like, “Oh! He hit the fucking shot!” You wanna have an outburst like a kid, like a Little League game you lose. Like the refs cheated you…
The Cavs won the series over the Bulls in six games. Some believe the Bulls could have gone to the NBA Finals that season, as they would have been favored to defeat the Atlanta Hawks in the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals.
Derrick Rose hit the game-winning shot in Game 3 of that series. LeBron, though, took the life out of Chicago after he hit his game-winner in Game 4.