ATLANTA -- NBA official Bennett Salvatore admitted he made a mistake in ruling an inadvertent whistle rather than a foul on a three-point shot attempt by the Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose late in Sunday night's Game 4 against Atlanta Hawks.

"An inadvertent whistle is when a referee blows his whistle and didn't mean to. That's exactly what happened," Salvatore told a pool reporter. "I blew my whistle and didn't mean to, I didn't think it was a foul. Having watched the replay after the game, it was a foul and I should have called it. I made a mistake."

The Bulls bench erupted after the non-call and was still a little perturbed by it after the game.

"I got to look at the play again. I thought it was a foul," Bulls forward Luol Deng said. "It is what it is."

Rose said he talked to Salvatore after the game, and the referee admitted his mistake.

"He told me that he messed up and that's the only thing he could tell me, but it was over with," Rose said. "You can't go back in time and shoot the free throws. But hopefully next time, whoever is in that position, I hope they make the right call."