This was mostly a good game. The Rockets didn’t look great for much of it, but they fought hard. It was a competitive back and forth affair, where the lead shifted back and fourth and neither team could open up much daylight without the other coming back.
The last three minutes of the fourth quarter were something special.
At 3:11 remaining, Nikola Jokic made a 3pt shot to give the Nuggets a 108-104 lead.
At 2:45 remaining Cam Johnson made one of two free throw attempts after a leakout, and foul by Sengun off a Durant miss. 109-104 Denver.
At 2:21 remaining Jabari Smith made a three pointer to bring the score to 107-109.
At 1:54 remaining Kevin Durant blocked a Jokic 10 footer, from behind, one of his five blocks for the game, most of them on Nikola Jokic.
At 1:39 left in the fourth quarter Alperen Sengun made a 10 footer, to tie the game at 109 apiece.
At 1:20 remaining Nikola Jokic hits a moonshot 3pter to give Denver a 112-109 lead.
At 1:09 left Reed Sheppard dribbles into a three point shot and drains it. 112 all
At :55 seconds left, the Rockets collapse onto Nikola Jokic, and he passes out to emerging Rocket killer Spencer Jones, or Jones Spencer, at he drills a corner three to give Denver a 115-112 lead.
At :36 seconds remaining Kevin Durant makes a contested three pointer, to tie the game. 115 all.
At :18 seconds left Jamal Murrary cadges free throws on a foolish contest by Alperen Sengun. Normally a nearly flawless free throw shooter,( in spirit of the unethical basketball nation of Canada (SGA, Murray, Dillon, Olynyk - I rest my case)) Murray only makes one free throw. 116-115 in Denver’s favor.
At 2.3 seconds remaining, defended by seemingly the entire Nuggets team, Alperen Sengun makes a 2ft shot.
At the 2.3 second in bounds, after the timeout, Zach Zarba ruins the game.
Zarba calls dead clock foul on Amen Thompson because Tim Hardaway Jr trips over his own feet with Amen Thompson chasing him on the inbounds play. Thompson runs into the falling Hardaway, there’s no way he couldn’t have. The Rockets challenge. The error shifting, rather than error correcting, process of video review says Thompson’s shin illegally touched Hardaway.
Now, understand, this has been a physical game all night. Nugget defenders have draped themselves over Kevin Durant on basically all dead ball actions, and afterwards. Very little was called there. But a questionable stumble with literally the game on the line? By all means take away the agency of the players now. The call stood and Hardaway made the free throw.
Denver then, tied, and assured of nothing worse than overtime, rather than a loss, inbounds to Jokic, who misses a three point shot.
Denver would go on to win in overtime, with baffling enforcement from Zach Zarba and crew. Ime Udoka in his post game press conference called it [“the most poorly officiated game I’ve seen in a long time.”](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47321452/rockets-ime-udoka-lashes-officials-ot-loss) He’ll probably be fined for those remarks, because of course the true problem isn’t officiating that takes results out of the player’s hands, it’s pointing it out when it happens. I’ll note, however, that the vast majority of all coach pressers are not, in fact, centered on that topic, but praise or critique of their team.
The sad part was, the beauty of a great contest, the dramatic back and forth ending described above, was simply swept away by the officiating. A victory, earned on the court, not at the free throw line, was taken from the Rockets. It’s a lot to ask a team to win the same game twice against a very good opponent.
Worse, even if you’re a Denver fan, agency was taken away from all the players on the court to decide the game with live ball play. If Jokic had made that closing shot, fine. Painful, but fine. If he’d made it without the Zarba call, still a Nuggets win. But he didn’t make it. Denver got another bite at the apple over a very questionable call.
I very much wish I could talk about the amazing exciting ending to this game. The actual ending wasn’t amazing.
_**More thoughts on officiating.**_
Some people don’t like calling out things like this. Without going into it, believe me, I get it. But I will ask why the standard for players is perfection and the standard for referees is “Well, they exist.”?
The approach I usually hear is something like “No, never give the refs any reason to do something wrong and bad or at best incompetent. It’s the players’ fault if they do that! They should know better! And they gotta find a way to win without that happening.” That is, literally, the language of abusive relationships. That is victim blaming. That may be the state of affairs in the NBA, but that’s still what it is.
I don’t like writing this kind of thing. I’ve done it maybe six times in all my many many years here. But I’m an analyst. I always tell you, as honestly as an admitted Rockets writer can, what I’ve seen. I’m not quite sure how someone with a different set of biases is more objective. That’s what I saw. Maybe you saw something different. By all means write about it.