Well isn’t this some shit. For those who watched this play live, the fact that this was called a simple offensive foul made no sense. A swing and connection like that has been a Flagrant 1 all season. But here’s what makes no sense that as I type this I still haven’t seen. Did the NBA ever come out and explain why this wasn’t reviewed when it happened? This is the same NBA that stops a game at any point to take 6 months to review any time Lebron gets tapped on the head, and yet this goes down at a HUGE moment in a HUGE Game 1 and they don’t take a look? Is it because it wasn’t originally called a flagrant? I have to admit I am not an expert on the NBA rules, but common sense says you have to take a look when something like this happens.

Now while we don’t know how this would have impacted the change, the rules for a F1 state you get 2 FTs and possession. That means the Raptors could have been up by 4 points with the ball with 1:11 left. Instead they didn’t get that, Lowry took a poor shot, and the rest is history. If I was a Raptors fan I would be pretty bullshit about this, because you have a legit gripe that the officiating impacted the ending of this game. Sure they still could have blown it, but it would have been their own fault. Granted they make a layup with 10 seconds left it doesn’t matter, and you could argue Love was fouled on the rebound anyway, but hearing after the fact that the league admitted it was the wrong call never sits well.

And this just continues the trend we’ve been seeing in almost every series this entire playoffs. The officiating has been beyond horrific. Maybe I didn’t really notice how bad it was during the regular season because who cares about a random regular season basketball game, but this is the playoffs. We have been seeing officials play a major role in outcomes too many times to count. I don’t know what the solution is, but Adam Silver has to do something. For a guy who cares about the product and tanking and all this shit, you cannot allow this type of poor officiating to continue. Everyone knows refs have a tough job, and that the game moves so fast you miss shit, but that is the EXACT reason why they should be heading to the monitor when big plays like last night happen. Clean it up and let teams lose due their own stupidity.