The NBA says the end of Denver’s 109-107 loss on Friday night was officiated perfectly. Nuggets coach David Adelman is taking notes.
According to a Last Two Minutes Report released by the league this weekend evaluating its referees, every call and no-call was determined in hindsight to be correct — including a jump-ball ruling that Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets thought should’ve been a foul with six seconds remaining in their NBA Cup loss to the Trail Blazers.
Denver was trying to break a tie with a baseline out-of-bounds play when Portland’s Toumani Camara reached around Jokic from behind, grabbing the ball — and seemingly grabbing a lot of Jokic, as well — to earn a tie-up call. The jump ball resulted in a shot clock violation against Denver and gave Portland possession with an opportunity to win at the buzzer.
“I’ve never seen that one,” Nuggets forward Cam Johnson said. “I’ve been playing basketball a long time. I’ve never seen that one.”
The Blazers went on to win at the foul line when Aaron Gordon was whistled for reaching in on Jerami Grant before the buzzer. They scored their last five points on free throws, all in the final minute.
Adelman, who preferred to scrutinize Denver’s controllable failures in late-game execution after the loss, said Sunday that he hasn’t had any contact with the league office about the series of calls.
But the Last Two Minutes Report was a gesture of self-affirmation from the NBA. Adelman intends to remember that.
Perhaps the Nuggets will deploy Camara’s bear hug defensive tactic this season.
“I do think you have to learn from what they say is legal,” Adelman said. “… If you’re allowed to wrap someone from behind with two arms (and) as long as you touch the ball, it’s a jump ball, that’s a fundamental I have to teach in practice. So we will definitely do that.”
This isn’t the first time Adelman has used that tone to make a point about officiating. During his interim tenure last season, he was frustrated by the lack of fouls called against the Clippers after they defended Jokic aggressively in Game 6 of a first-round playoff series. Adelman cleverly directed that discontent toward Game 7 in his postgame comments.
“They put smalls on him. Those smalls were allowed to do whatever they want,” he said after the playoff loss. “So I’m really excited for (Game 7), that we’re gonna be able to do the same thing with their best players. Because if that’s the physicality we’re allowed to play with, we’ll react to it, and we will go there.”
The Portland game on Friday left the Nuggets feeling bitter about several calls and no-calls, all of which the league defended in the Last Two Minutes Report. Adelman used his challenge unsuccessfully with 27 seconds remaining to try to overturn a foul called against Christian Braun. It resulted in game-tying free throws for Grant, and on Denver’s ensuing possession, Johnson felt that Blazers guard Jrue Holiday committed the exact same foul that had been upheld against Denver at the other end.
But Adelman no longer had a challenge in his pocket. Not for Johnson’s rejected scoring attempt, not for the jump-ball ruling, and not for the Gordon foul.
“You always wonder how (the) end of game is going to be officiated. You always assume that it’s going to be allowed to be a little bit more physical,” Johnson said. “So (we’re) just seeing how it’s been officiated at the end and making the adjustments accordingly where we can find an advantage on it. But yeah, that was a weird end-of-game flow. It was. It was weird for a lot of reasons, but it felt, like, really choppy. And they made plays, so you’ve gotta give them credit. But yeah, there’s a lot to learn from that.”
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