NBA Admits DeMar DeRozan Fouled Ian Mahinmi Late in Game 7
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers lost, but the no-call on DeMar DeRozan’s shove of Ian Mahinmi was nonetheless frustrating.
In what was another frustrating Last Two Minutes report for Indiana Pacers fans, the NBA confirmed what the Indiana Pacers and everyone else already knew.
DeMar DeRozan fouled Ian Mahinmi.
The NBA said today that DeMar DeRozan committed a foul on Ian Mahinmi at the end of last night's Game 7 pic.twitter.com/vjDDPp2305
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) May 2, 2016
Oh man DeRozan got away with one on that lob to Mahinmi. That’s rough.
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) May 2, 2016
Pacers have gotten short end of the whistle down stretch of games all year. I'm a big supporter of officials but never seen anything like it
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) May 2, 2016
2-minute report cited shove by DeMar DeRozan on Ian Mahinmi as an incorrect call. pic.twitter.com/MLtyyfSFgy
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) May 2, 2016
Some criticised Paul George and the Indiana Pacers for even throwing the pass to Ian Mahinmi, but I can’t think of any more efficient play in basketball than the slam dunk. Mahinmi likely would have cut the Toronto Raptors’ lead to one point and according to Inpredictable.com‘s calculations, the Pacers would have had a 16.9% probability of coming back, the highest they had at any point in the closing minutes.
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It still was a long shot for the Pacers at that point, but not impossible.
A missed call, and maybe one that ended the Pacers season. Maybe if they didn’t spot the Raptors a 14-point lead to start the fourth quarter they wouldn’t have had that problem, but it was nonetheless a frustrating missed call against the Indiana Pacers.
There was another pair of missed call before that as well according to the Indy Star’s Nate Taylor.
Bismack Biyombo threw an elbow in Myles Turner’s face that the NBA retroactively accessed on the Toronto center. They also missed DeRozan’s travel when crossing midcourt moments after the missed call Mahinmi.
This season there have been a few notable missed calls that affected the Pacers, giving Indiana’s fans the impression the Pacers are always on the wrong side of missed calls.
But looking at the regular season, that’s not the case. In fact, Indiana had more calls in their favor than against according to Salt City Hoops’ Andy Blarsen.
The final numbers for every team's calls for and against in the NBA's L2M reports in the 2015-16 regular season: pic.twitter.com/0lFbdToHAE
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 26, 2016
The Pacers had the 4th highest margin of calls going their way in the regular season.
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While those numbers won’t give much solace to Indiana Pacers fans wondering what’s next for the team, the data says they weren’t getting screwed by the officials constantly like some fans think.