The end of tonight’s Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers game ended with a bang. Or a whistle. Or not. The Sixers were down 89-88 when Lou Williams hit a terrific bucket with 5 seconds left to take the lead. Devin Brown took the Cavs last shot with milliseconds ticking off the clock and missed, with the buzzer going and the red going on to signify game over. As the Sixers started to walk back to the locker room to celebrate their victory, the referees conferred, due to Lebron James and the Cavs’ pleading, and decided that one of them had blown a last second whistle to signify a foul was committed against Brown. Brown went to the line with .2 seconds left and sunk 2 free throws to cement the 91-90 win for Cleveland.
Now, apparently the referees didn’t realize that one of them had called a foul before the Cavs pointed it out for them. None of them realized that they saw a foul and blew their whistle (which no one heard except for Lebron). They just decided it after checking a replay, using this rule:
A foul for which the resulting free throws could affect the outcome of the game is called with no time remaining on the clock (0:00) at the end of the fourth quarter or any overtime period.
Of course, where was the foul called to merit such a viewing? Who knows? In any event, the Sixers are now locked into the 7 seed and will face the Detroit Pistons in the 1st round of the playoffs. Not the best of matchups.
What a past two days Philly sports teams have had with the refs and umps.
Watch that play again and you’ll notice that the Dalembert foul was caused by Ilgauskas pushing him in the back into Brown – yet no call on that.
Ridiculous.
good point on ilgauskas
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