Pulling back the curtain and providing transparency on calls made in the final two minutes of games has been a good look for the NBA this season, showing a level of understanding of fan consternation and allaying concerns of misdoing at crucial junctures.
Officials are not perfect, which nobody should expect them to be. The officiating last two minute report admits as much, with a pair of botched calls or non-calls in the closing moments of Game 2, and again in Game 3 as evidence. In both cases, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers appear to have come out more or less even.
But officiating reports aren't perfect either, in the eyes of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.
"Yeah that was the correct call," Kerr said of one non-call in the game's final minute. "Slide tackling is perfectly legal. Totally agree."
Kerr took issue with a non-call on LeBron James with 57 seconds to play in Game 3, when James lost his footing and slid into Steph Curry, forcing a turnover. The league called the play a correct non-call, saying the strip was clean and contact following the strip was incidental. Here's the play in question:
He may have a gripe, but he also has a plan for how to embrace the non-call.
"We're going to teach it," Kerr said.
It's understandable for a coach to wring his hands over a tough call late in a game his team lost. For fans, it's probably worth just setting aside any officiating concerns. The games have been called well enough, and focusing on the referees would take focus from what's been an unbelievable series so far.
