FTW: Al Horford
It would be better with a quote from Horford, but here we go: Al Horford may eliminate any controversy surrounding the end of Wednesday's 127-120 overtime victory over Toronto.
Horford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday that he touched the inbound pass that Toronto's T.J. Ford tipped in at the end of regulation. Ford's basket, which would have won the game, was disallowed when replays showed he was still in contact with the ball at the buzzer. The game went into overtime tied 107-107.
Toronto officials, including head coach Sam Mitchell, contend that the game clock started early with 0.5 seconds left on the play. They indicated following the game that they may file a protest with the NBA. As of Thursday afternoon, the league had not issued a statement that a protest had been filed.
Horford said the inbound pass tipped his fingers, meaning the clock should have started at that point. If that was the case, there would not have been enough time for the ball to reach Ford and be tipped in with just 0.5 seconds left.
1 comment:
I was checking out the highlight video on NBA.com. I watched it at least a dozen times and couldn't see any evidence of Horford tipping. What's really important is whether the the official saw it tipped and started the clock on the tip instead of simply anticipating Ford catching it. The problem is that Horford was guarding the inbounds pass, and the pass was a high lob-if the official had really meant to start it early to indicate a tip, the clock would have expired before the ball ever reach TJ Ford. So, in short, the officials didn't believe the ball was tipped. We may still have to deal with a protest.
Kharma is definately not on our side on this one.
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