Did you miss the end of the Thunder/Clippers playoff game last night? If so, SHAME ON YOU. The last four minutes of the game featured some extremely sloppy basketball by both teams. But it was a game for the ages, with the Thunder rebounding from a 13-point deficit with a little more than four minutes left on the clock to eventually win the game 105-104. Oklahoma City was also down 7 with under a minute remaining in the contest but somehow managed to secure a W to take a 3-2 lead in the Thunder/Clippers best-of-7 series.
So how did they do it? Well, first, they got some timely scoring from Kevin Durant, who shot just 6-for-22 from the field on the night but scored 10 of his 27 points in the game's final four minutes. Then, they forced Chris Paul to commit not one, but two costly turnovers in the final 13 seconds of the game. And finally, they got very lucky when Russell Westbrook was fouled on the arm by Paul on a three-point attempt at the end of the game. The shot that Westbrook decided to take was not a good one, but because Paul tapped him on the elbow and because Westbrook knocked down all three free throws to give the Thunder a one-point lead with less than 10 seconds to go in the game, Westbrook is a hero today:
Cover of The Oklahoman this morning (H/T @kfsooners) pic.twitter.com/1c0OlfCCsF
The play that everyone was talking about after the game, though, wasn't Westbrook's three. Instead, it was the play that happened right before it. With the Thunder trailing the Clippers by two points, Los Angeles inbounded the ball to Paul with about 17 seconds left on the clock. The Thunder were going to foul him but, before they did, Westbrook made a desperate attempt to steal the ball from him. It worked and Thunder guard Reggie Jackson ended up with the ball near the top of the key. He then made an attempt to drive the ball on Matt Barnes in order to draw a foul. But no foul was called and this happened:
Clippers ball, right? It appeared as though the ball went off Jackson on the play, which would have given possession back to the Clippers and, in all likelihood, given CP3 & Co. the chance to ice the game with free throws. However, the game's referees reviewed the call and, eventually, awarded the ball to the Thunder, which allowed them to set up their final play and win the game.
It was a really wild series of events that left Clippers coach Doc Rivers angry. He yelled at the refs and yelled at the refs some more and, after the game, he continued his tirade and insisted that the refs should have awarded the Clippers the ball after the Reggie Jackson/Matt Barnes play:
He wasn't the only one who was upset with the refs, either. After the final buzzer sounded, tons of NBA fans took to Twitter to sound off on the game's referees. The refs tried to explain themselves:
Referee explanation pic.twitter.com/BOgBCA4pJQ
But it was too late. The damage was done and it's pretty clear that last night's referees—Tony Brothers, Bennett Salvatore, and Tom Washington—are going to hear about last night's game for a long time. Here are some of the craziest tweets that we came across after Game 5's final buzzer. After what happened last night, we don't expect the NBA referee slander to end anytime soon…
Refs won OKC that game smh. NBA so desperately want Durant in the finals.
Can we just see one game in the nba where the refs don't decide who wins? let the players decide that this is y so many people hate the nba
Just saw highlights of Clippers-Thunder. If I was a Clippers fan I would have stabbed someone last night. Refs as bad as I've ever seen
The refs were thunder fans last night
what's the point of replay review in sports if the refs are still going to get the call wrong 50% of the time?
Refs blew that game last night and so did cp3
in kd's famous mvp acceptance speech he forgot to thank the refs that keep making sure he doesn't get knocked out of the playoffs.
Durant to those refs pic.twitter.com/yI3Al3MEmQ
Instead of apologizing for old people's mistakes the @ESPNNBA need to start fining refs.. since they fine players for their mistakes
Refs should get an "Ask Twitter" lifeline
Doc Rivers is going off on the refs like he was Tupac going off on Bad Boy as a staff, record label and as a motherf&*@ crew.
Here’s the NBA’s problem: Refs blew the replay on out-of-bounds. But does anyone believe refs weren’t making up what they felt was a foul?
Congratulations to the refs for beating the Clippers tonight!
The good news is that refs aren’t allowed to be in consecutive games in a series.
Doc Rivers outside the refs locker room like... pic.twitter.com/ZifozcRkgI
Real Talk: Those refs were trash.
The refs just stole that game from the #LAClippers
Cannot believe the NBA refs just gave Golden Tate another touchdown
The Kickstarter for robot refs starts here.
Weirdest thing to me abt all of this: NBA will probably acknowledge that refs made wrong call, but Doc will still be fined for all of this.
