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The Utah Jazz came close to what would have been a truly impressive comeback win over the Golden State Warriors on Monday night. The Dubs held on to escape with a narrow 119-116 victory though, but as it turns out, a number of bad calls during the final minute of action played a significant role in Utah's defeat.
In the NBA's Last Two Minute Report, the league admitted that there were a handful of erroneous calls made by the game officials in several crucial junctures in the ballgame.
The first one was the non-call on Jordan Clarkson's three-point attempt with a little over 30 seconds remaining on the game clock. After being down by 14 points entering the fourth and final period, the Jazz were already up by two at that point and a triple would have served as the dagger for the Warriors. Stephen Curry appeared to have made contact with Clarkson as he went up for the three, but the referees did not call a foul. The NBA's official report revealed that there was an error on this particular play:
“Curry (GSW) makes contact with Clarkson’s (UTA) arm during his jump shot attempt,” read the report, via Ryan McDonald of the DeseretNews.
Clarkson was in the middle of yet another controversial moment in the dying seconds. Warriors guard Jordan Poole appeared to have fouled Clarkson on a Golden State inbound play, but again, the whistle was not blown. According to the report, this was yet another error by the game officials:
Article Continues Below“As Poole (GSW) moves off ball, he dislodges Clarkson (UTA) during the inbounds play,” the league said.
Unfortunately for the Jazz, that wasn't the end of it. The referees missed a loose ball foul on Draymond Green as he tried to secure the rebound against Rudy Gobert on a missed three-point attempt by Clarkson with less than five seconds remaining:
“Green (GSW) clamps Gobert’s (UTA) arm and restricts his ability to rebound,” the report said.
The Jazz needed just one of these calls to go in their favor and it could have led to a different outcome in the game. There's nothing that can be done about this now, however, and Utah will just need to bitterly accept the loss — despite the glaring officiating errors.
