Lead official Rodney Mott had already admitted that Markieff Morris stepped out of bounds immediately before Saturday's game-winning shot in overtime against the Portland Trail Blazers, and in basically a formality on Sunday, the NBA's last-two-minute report confirmed it.
The infraction should have resulted in a turnover and Portland's ball (with the lead) with about three seconds left, but instead the Washington Wizards escaped with a 125-124 victory.
"Referees can only initiate a review on a called out-of-bounds play (for example, not one where an out-of-bounds might have occurred) and only those involving doubt as to which player caused the ball to go out (not those, for example, where a player stepped on the line)," the rule book states.
In other words, the Blazers would have been better served if the referees had seen Morris step out of bounds in real time and whistled it. Rip City was, understandably, not pleased, and now sits two games back of eighth in the West.
"It's a time in the season where you need these games," Damian Lillard told Mike Richman of OregonLive.com. "Every little thing counts. That's BS that you can't look at that. Now obviously, we had plenty of opportunity to win the game. We was up 20, but it's the NBA and things happen."
