The Oklahoma City Thunder holding a late lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the closing seconds of a playoff game at AT&T Center. Dion Waiters inbounding. Manu Ginobili defending. What could possibly go wrong?

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Well, as it turned out, not quite as much as went wrong in Game 2 ... but from the perspective of the Spurs and their fans watching Tuesday's Game 5 with bated breath, still too much.

After Tony Parker missed a jumper that would've put San Antonio back on top, the Thunder had the ball with a 92-91 lead and 9.3 seconds remaining. This time, the inbounds itself wasn't the issue, as Waiters was able to cleanly pass the ball to cutting teammate Russell Westbrook. After Westbrook caught the ball, though ... that's where it got interesting.

Spurs star Kawhi Leonard lunged to foul Westbrook, hoping to stop the clock, extend the game, send the All-Star point guard to the foul line, and get San Antonio the ball back with a chance to either tie or, depending on how Russell shot at the stripe, maybe even win it. But despite Leonard appearing to pretty clearly wrap Westbrook up around the waist after the catch, no whistles blew.

The Spurs seemed to relax, expecting the play to be stopped and wondering why it hadn't been. Westbrook, ever the hard-charging opportunist, simply continued his curl to the cup, where he twirled in a layup around a half-hearted contest by San Antonio big man LaMarcus Aldridge. He was called for a foul on the shot, sending Russ to the line with a chance for a 3-point play; he converted the and-one, giving OKC a 95-91 lead that would hold up for the final 6.3 seconds, sending the Thunder back home with a chance to eliminate the Spurs at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Thursday.

No foul called. Guess Kawhi needs to work on his tackling pic.twitter.com/M9IjVfPEd6 — J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2016

Next time tackle him. — Jesse Blanchard (@blanchardJRB) May 11, 2016

As you might expect — especially considering all the attention given the insane finish to, and officiating post-mortem of, Game 2 — the Hoped-For Foul That Wasn't was a popular topic of conversation after the game.

Westbrook: "I just keep going until the whistle blows. My job is to stay in attack mode, and then, when they didn't blow the whistle, my job is to keep going to the basket."

Leonard: "I definitely fouled him. But the referee, I guess, he didn't see it, and you know, you've just got to keep playing through it."

Danny Green: "At the end of the game, we were obviously looking to get a steal, and if not, I think we tried to put it in the referee's mind — I don't know if they spoke to him or not, but we tell them either [we want a] timeout if they get a score, or [we're going to] foul, so that they're looking for it. I don't know if they spoke to the referees or not, but we were looking to get a steal or a foul, and I think when Manu and Kawhi had him in the corner, it looked like from my angle that they wrapped him up. But I'm not sure. I don't know what he'd seen on the baseline. That's his job, not mine, to decide whether or not it was a foul. Obviously, he didn't see one."

It is safe to say that Green's a bit more of a talker than either Kawhi or Gregg Popovich, who was characteristically terse in his post-Game 5 comments.

"He fouled him," Pop said. "It was pretty obvious he fouled him. But, you know, every call doesn't get called. That's the way the game is. I was more concerned about the play before that, with Durant's shot."

Oh, right: that.

With just under a minute remaining in the fourth and the score tied at 90, Green — who has done yeoman's work on the defensive end all season long, and has had his hands full trying to slow down whichever of OKC's monster scoring wings he's drawn throughout this series — tried to stay attached to Kevin Durant on the baseline. Durant stepped into the paint, and then jetted back to his left to cut toward the ball, which Westbrook was dribbling up top.

Green reacted, leaned to his right, and found himself colliding with bruising Thunder screen-setter Steven Adams. As he turned around Adams, though, Green lost his footing and tumbled into Durant's legs in the act of shooting, causing a whistle that sent KD to the line for two free throws; he'd make them both, putting OKC up by two with 54.7 seconds left.

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