Protesting a game is an essentially futile gesture in the NBA — but the Portland Trail Blazers feel a futile gesture is all they’ve got.
Portland led Oklahoma City109-108 with :20 seconds left in the game when this play happened, leading to Billups earning two technicals and an ejection.
Blazers HC Chauncey Billups was given two technical fouls at the end of the 4th, ejecting him from the game. 😬 pic.twitter.com/AMHn5LXTWS
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) January 24, 2024
Billups was clearly trying to call a timeout, but was behind the referee in a loud building and did not get the call. (As noted by Tom Haberstroh, these were relatively inexperienced officials at the NBA level.) If they got the timeout they could have set up a final shot, instead the ball went to the Thunder on the double-dribble call and turnover. The Blazers were pissed.
“Chaunce, the whole staff, was calling timeout. I turned literally to the ref on the sideline, clearly the ref didn’t want us to have a timeout, so we couldn’t get one. I get scratched in the face, I’m bleeding at the end. This one’s not on us.” — Malcolm Brogdon
— Casey Holdahl (@CHold) January 24, 2024
Crew chief Bill Kennedy spoke with a pool reporter after the game to explain the calls.
“The referee in the slot position was refereeing the double team that was right in front of him, which makes it difficult for number one to hear and number two to see a coach request a timeout behind him. He is taught to referee the play until completion, which a double dribble happens, and he correctly calls the double dribble and then pursuant (to that) the technical fouls come forward.”
The double-dribble call stood, and that gave the Thunder a chance to win it. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tied the game by making one of the technicals, then Jalen Williams hit the game-winner for the Thunder.
JALEN WILLIAMS. DAGGER. @okcthunder | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/jyZ2bWStWp
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) January 24, 2024
Multiple reports have the Trail Blazers officially protesting the end of the game. That will not get anywhere. The last time the NBA upheld the protest of a game was in 2007, when Shaquille O’Neal was forced to sit at the end of a game with what the referees said was six fouls when he only had five. The two sides replayed the end of the game the next time they met.
While Portland fans are convinced this is as equally wrong a call, the league will not see it that way and will back the referees.
But the futile gesture of protesting will make Portland feel a little better.
