Carlisle Critical of NBA Officiating Late in Games

Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle and team owner Mark Cuban have criticized how calls are made or not made late in games in the NBA. Earlier this week, the Mavericks lost to Portland Trailblazer on a call that later the front office of the NBA admitted was a blown call.

Cuban fired off a jab on Thursday night against officiating, while coach Carlisle criticized how the late game officiating has deteriorated. Cuban tweeted that he could not wait to see what the front office of the NBA says about the no call in their game against Golden State.

Cuban was referring to a block by Andrew Bogut the Warriors’ center of a potential go-ahead bucket by Brandan Wright with only six ticks of the clock left in regulation. Replays of the block showed Bogut got the ball, while Wright flailed both arms.

Carlisle also criticized the same play, saying the game was decided on just one late call that officials did not make. Wright he said was hit on this arm and it was very obvious. Carlisle said that same thing has happened in two consecutive games.

On Tuesday, the Mavericks allowed host Portland to come back from 21 points down to win when a call with just 1.5 seconds left in regulation went against the Mavericks. The next day, the NBA offices, after reviewing the video admitted that O.J. Mayo, the Mavs guard was called for a charge when it was not an offensive foul.

The NBA office said Mayo should have received two foul shots because Ronnie Price for Portland did not have his body directly in the path of Mayo before he started his upward movement to shot.

Carlisle said he was very concerned and disappointed. Concerned, he said, over what was taking place late in games with officials. Later Carlisle added that he has not been critical of officials in the past, but two consecutive nights the miscalls hurt the team and that is disappointing.

On Wednesday, Cuban would not comment about the Portland missed call as he already has been fined over $1.5 million during the 13 years as the owner of the team, of which most of the fines were for criticizing the officials. That includes earlier in January when he was fined $50,000 after he tweeted that he tried for 13 years to fix the NBA officiating by had failed miserably.

Dallas has struggled all season and is currently in tenth place in the western conference standings with a record of 19-27. Just recently, Dirk Nowitzki the Mavericks’ high scoring forward returned to the lineup after missing most of the first half of the season while recovering from knee surgery.

There is been much criticism of officials this season about calls not being made late in games. Many fans of the game believe the officials allow too much to take place late in the game, as they do not want their call to be a game decider, however that has created situations such as the two this week with Dallas where their “no call” or “incorrect call” decided the outcome of two games.