The NBA has denied the Dallas Mavericks' protest of their March 22 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
In a statement released Thursday, the league acknowledged that officials "could have taken steps to better manage this particular situation on the play in question."
The statement continued: "The incident occurred with nearly 14 minutes remaining in the game, and Dallas thereafter took the lead twice the final four minutes. Under these circumstances, Dallas was not able to show — as required under the standard for NBA game protests — that it was deprived of a fair opportunity to win the game, and the protest failed on that bases alone."
The Mavs submitted a formal protest to the league office after a referee awarded the Warriors possession of the basketball coming out of a timeout in the third quarter of Golden State's 127-125 win. The confusing play resulted in an uncontested dunk for Dubs center Kavon Looney while the Mavericks were on the other end of the court.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd and his players looked confused and asked for an explanation, but the refs didn’t overturn the call.
Shortly after the final whistle, Cuban issued a lengthy tweet explaining things from his end, while also calling it a massive mistake by the refereeing crew.
In a visit with the media before his team's win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, Cuban told reporters that he expected the league to rule in his team's favor but wasn't expecting the game to be re-played.
“It is what it is. They screwed up, but they’re not going to replay it,” Cuban said, according to multiple reports.
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