One of the biggest plays of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals came on an errant pass by Anthony Edwards. With less than one minute remaining, the Minnesota Timberwolves star was doubled and tried to pass the ball to Jaden McDaniels on the baseline. McDaniels couldn't corral it, and it went out of bounds. Initially, possession was awarded to the Timberwolves. On replay, however, it was determined that McDaniels had touched the ball last, and that Dallas should therefore get the ball.
Sounds simple enough, right? Well, watch this closeup of McDaniels trying to secure the ball. Kyrie Irving pretty clearly fouls him, which is what knocks the ball out of bounds in the first place.
I hope this is an impetus for the league to reconsider how it handles replays. If we all saw the foul, I’m not sure why the officials can’t acknowledge it in their decision pic.twitter.com/SVTAntZpO4
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) May 25, 2024
After the game, crew chief Zach Zarba confirmed to pool reporter Chris Hine that Irving did indeed foul McDaniels. "During the game we felt it was a normal out of bounds play and that's what was ruled," Zarba explained. "Obviously, it gets challenged and the replay center overturns it because it last touched McDaniels. Postgame review we did see illegal contact from (Kyrie) Irving to the forearm of McDaniels that should have been called a foul."
So the next question becomes why a foul wasn't called upon review? The answer is simple: officials aren't allowed to change the decision of an uncalled foul. They can reverse a foul call, but not add a foul where one was not initially called. Therefore, even though Dallas was responsible for the ball going out of bounds, all that the officials were able to review was who touched the ball last. It was McDaniels. So even though he was fouled, the Mavericks walked away with possession. They ultimately won the game on a step-back 3-pointer from Luka Doncic.
Given the stakes of the call, it's hard to imagine the NBA not at least reconsidering this position down the line. Considering teams have a fixed number of challenges, it's not as though making uncalled fouls reviewable, only on stoppages at least, would increase the amount of time spent on reviews significantly. Perhaps some day the rules will change in a way that would have acknowledged the foul Irving committed, but on Friday, McDaniels had no recourse, and the Mavericks now have a 2-0 lead in the series.
