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Markieff Morris downs Portland with a game-winner after stepping out of bounds

Author: Unknown Published: 6:15 AM comments
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The NBA just doesn’t want the Portland Trail Blazers to win. That has to be it, right?


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The Terry Stotts-led crew seemed well on its way toward a needed win over the visiting Washington Wizards on Saturday night when Markieff Morris, of all people, decided to put the home team away with a last-second jumper in Washington’s 125-124 victory:


You hardly needed the benefit of high-definition cameras and/or instant replay to notice that Morris, who contributed 13 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks, two steals and zero turnovers in 43 minutes, stepped out of bounds on the play that eventually resulted in the deciding make:


Good thing the NBA, which began allowing instant replay to determine the outcome of contested calls a decade ago, can head to the sideline to review these sorts of things, right?


Not so much. The play is not reviewable. The shot is reviewable. The play, after a decade of review that began (weirdly, you’ll recall) with the format only being used for figuring out which players to throw out after a brawl, is not reviewable.


Washington wins. It stays just 2 1/2 games behind the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers following the champs’ Saturday evening conquest in Orlando, virtually tied with Boston in the Eastern bracket. Portland? They’ll stick a full two games back of the Denver Nuggets, who currently own the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference postseason bracket.


A loss on March 28 could leave the Blazers with a 1-3 record on the year against the rapidly improving Nuggets, further diminishing Portland’s chances in a season that started with talk of the team as a hoped-for Western Conference finals contender. The team is on pace to win 36 games a year after winning 44, set to miss the playoffs even while working with the league’s second-highest payroll.


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The team’s best and highest-paid player, Damian Lillard, could not comprehend how a lack of specificity in the league’s review rule book would allow a botched out of bounds-call to rule the night:





Center Meyers Leonard tweeted (then deleted) that Morris “stepped out of bounds, and [the contest] should have been over – Trail Blazers 124 Washington 123”. New addition Jusuf Nurkic added this:





Terry Stotts had the appropriate reaction as well:








At one point, though, the team’s coach was less concerned by what came after the make than before it:





Un-tellingly, the best answer would have shooed away talk of replay semantics or blown looks by the refs in real action, prior to pointing at the Blazers’ four missed free throws, or Washington’s nine offensive rebounds, or the mini-defensive breakdown that led to Morris’ good look in the first place. That’s how coaches typically talk about it, at least.


Terry Stotts (and, while we’re at it, Damian Lillard) are right to focus on the final seconds of regulation, though. If referees and the league office can combine to dull the edge of game after NBA game with needless mid-game reviews concerning the role of two clear-path free throws on a 42-27 contest, then it can check to see if a player’s foot was out of bounds on the move that technically (as the NBA will explain) came before the game-winning shot. In a game between two of the NBA’s hottest teams, with playoff ramifications on the line.




The game-winning shot is reviewable, the moves that came before it (unless whistled for something) are not. Nothing else in the play (no goaltending or clock woes, or restricted area intrigue) that led to Morris’ jumper raised any official, reviewable, flags.


The NBA is correct to not want to open the floodwaters to retroactive justice, or to welcome the heaps of obviously faked make-up calls that would inevitably be created in order to tick back and see if, say, a missed traveling call from four seconds before might be worth revisiting. As it stands now referees have to pray a player doesn’t release a shot at or around a buzzer after a dubious missed call, forcing the crew to then go and rewind and play through their mistake over and over again, without the ability to overrule the obvious.


The NBA is incorrect, however, to not at least consider allowing for some sway in these matters. Call it the “last play rule,” and allow for referees to not only check to see if a player got a game-winning shot off in time, but if he pushed off just prior to the make, or if his teammate double-dribbled just before the entry pass. Let the refs check it all out, on the biggest plays, sticking to non-judgment calls as often as possible. Let the fallible humans, well, human.


There are myriad complications that will arise. Seemingly every nearly last-second shot would then be immediately reviewed to check for marks on the otherwise pristine-make, eliminating the other team from potentially taking the ball out of the net and hitting a buzzer-beating reaction shot of its own. The size of the review’s net will be constantly called into question. There will be wiggle room to work in.


There will also be wins, headed to the right team. That alone will be worth the lifetime spent batting down the small fires that would arise after referees are given the loaded job of determining who did and did not win a basketball game.


If we can trust them with handing out clear path fouls after a five-minute review, we can trust them with this.


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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!



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