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Bulls' Gibson on refereeing late in Game 2 loss: 'That was crazy'

Mike DiNovo / USA Today Sports

Late in Tuesday's Game 2 loss to the Washington Wizards, Chicago Bulls forward Taj Gibson felt he and his team weren't getting the benefit of the doubt from the referees.

Specifically, with just under 11 seconds remaining, Gibson dove on a loose ball and called timeout, only for the officials to call it a jump ball. On the ensuing jump ball, Gibson felt he was held by Nene. 

You be the judge here on the loose ball:

In any case, Gibson wasn't happy:

We looked at the film, we looked at the jump ball, that was crazy. But the loose ball I called [time out] three times. I had it. Nobody else was around me. D.J. [Augustin] called [time out] a couple times. We had a lot of guys in [Bennie Adams'] face. He just didn't give us a time out ... he was looking right at me [as I was] saying it and he just called a jump ball.

And here's the jump-ball:

On that hold, Gibson had this to say:

I felt like there was a lot of activity. He just pushed me out of the play. I didn't know you could do that. But you learn something new every day. Can you do that? He took my whole arm and just threw me. I didn't know that was [legal]. You look at the film, he hits [referee] Joey [Crawford] in the face while he does it. So I don't know what to say.

Playing through unfavorable refereeing is part of the job description, but if you side with Gibson on these calls, Joey Crawford may have swung this series. Not only did the Bulls lose on Tuesday, they find themselves down 0-2 in the series as it heads back to Washington.

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