Jason Kidd Speaks on Officials’ Inbounds Blunder vs. Warriors: 'There Was Confusion'

In a game with postseason seeding implications, confusion from the officials in a third quarter inbounds play put the Mavericks at a disadvantage.
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The Dallas Mavericks fell short in yet another clutch situation on Wednesday night, losing to the Golden State Warriors, 127-125 … and then, more drama immediately followed.

With just nine regular season games remaining and the Mavs right in the thick of the Western Conference cluster of a playoff picture, every single win and loss matters more than ever.

Wednesday’s loss saw the Mavericks fall from the No. 7 seed to the No. 9 seed in the play-in tournament, but what made the loss sting even more was an unfortunate officiating error in the third quarter.

The issue came from the official’s signaling, as both teams initially thought the Mavs had possession with 1:54 left in the third. Following a timeout, the officials apparently changed the call, yet they never notified the Mavericks, according to owner Mark Cuban and coach Jason Kidd.

"The court was split -- we're on one side and the Warriors are on the another," Kidd said of the inbounds mishap. "You have a referee on the baseline -- Mike was on the baseline -- so I would assume Mike thought it was our ball, too."

With the Warriors lining up as if they had possession on one end of the court and the Mavs doing the same on opposite end, the mishap led to Golden State getting a wide-open layup and confusion spewing from the Dallas bench.

"If there's confusion, it's easy to just come in and blow the whistle and get us restarted because there was confusion," Kidd said.

As it easy as that may seem, Dallas didn't get that luxury, which led to Cuban confirming that he will file an official protest with the NBA on the officiating mishap.

Cuban even took his frustration to Twitter and voiced his discontent with what he calls the 'Worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA.'

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Luka Doncic told the media that he thinks the referees should have 'grouped up' as they typically do to discuss a foul or make a decision on a play, yet this situation fell through the gaps. 

"It's correctable, but you first have to admit there was a mistake," Kidd said. 

Protests typically aren’t successful in the NBA, but we’ll see if the Mavs can get an overturn in the coming days and perhaps weeks.


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Michael Mulford
MICHAEL MULFORD

Michael Mulford is a writer/editor for Dallas Basketball, where he extensively covers the Dallas Mavericks. He also covers the Chicago Bulls as the Managing Editor for Bulls Wire of USA Today Sports Media Group. Mulford grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and graduated from the University of North Texas in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Event, and Sports Management. He began his pursuit of sports writing in 2017 with Dallas Sports Fanatic, where he covered the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, Texas Legends. He then became the Managing Editor of Dallas Sports Fanatic just one year later and has covered the Mavericks as a credentialed media member since 2018, including covering numerous playoff games between 2021-22 and covering the team at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in 2019. In his time covering the Mavericks, Mulford has conducted numerous interviews for exclusive stories including with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, former Maverick and current VP of Basketball Ops Michael Finley, former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson, and more. You can follow and interact with Mulford on Twitter at @TheMulf.