Controversial Calls Give Oklahoma City Thunder Game 5 Win Over Los Angeles Clippers

In a perfect world, the two teams on the court would decide the outcome of a basketball game. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the 2014 NBA Playoffs, we don’t live in a perfect world. Controversial calls throughout the postseason have had major impacts on the outcome of games and series. 

This happened once again on Tuesday night when officials took the outcome of Game 5 between the Oklahoma City Thuner and Los Angeles Clippers into their own hands.

With help from the officials, Oklahoma City overcame a seven-point deficit with under one minute remaining in the game to take a 3-2 series lead. A Kevin Durant three pointer followed by another layup by the NBA MVP pulled the Thunder to within two points with 17 seconds left.

This is when all sorts of craziness took place on the court at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Russell Westbrook stole the ball on the ensuing Clippers possession, pushing the ball ahead to the frontcourt where it seemingly went off the hands of Reggie Jackson of the Thunder. 

Unfortunately for Clippers fans, crew chief Tony Brothers upheld the call on the court after taking it to replay. Looking at the video (provided below), the ball obviously went off Jackson’s hands.

Despite the visual evidence, Brothers had the following to say after the game (via ESPN).

When the ball goes out of bounds, the ball was awarded to Oklahoma City…We go to review the play. We saw two replays. The two replays we saw were from the overhead camera showing down and the one from under the basket showing the same angle but from a different view. And from those two replays, it was inconclusive as to who the ball went out of bounds off of. When it’s inconclusive, we have to go with the call that was on the floor.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers saw it another way…

Everybody knows it was our ball…The bottom line is they thought it was a foul and they made up for it. Let’s take away the replay. We were robbed. It was our ball, whether it was a foul or not.

On the following Thunder possession, Chris Paul apparently “fouled” Westbrook on a three-point attempt with the Thunder down by two points and less than eight seconds remaining in the game.

You be the jury…

Interestingly enough, the foul call on Paul was nowhere near as obvious as a non-call that went the Clippers way against the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals…a series that Los Angeles ended up winning in seven.

Again, you be the jury…

Let’s just hope that this series isn’t decided by these phantom calls. Unfortunately, it’s highly likely that it will be, as the Thunder won an all-important fifth game by one point. These two teams travel to Los Angeles for Game 6 on Thursday.

Photo: Kirby Lee, USA Today