That’s when referee Jason Phillips intervened.
Phillips could have easily been a stickler for rules and told Murray – who never made it to the table – that he had to wait until the next stoppage of play. But Phillips knew Murray was on his way to checking in long before the play was dead and allowed him to enter the game.
”Thank you,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, and Phillips nodded.
There were moments of civility like this between referees, players and coaches this season. They just were overshadowed way too often. Now everyone is watching to see how things unfold in the playoffs.
The league wants to avoid more headline-grabbing confrontation with the playoffs starting Saturday and stakes and emotion becoming even higher, so officials met with all 30 teams , the last of those on Monday.
”We all make mistakes,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. ”It’s a game. We’re all a part of it. We’re all in the NBA. The officials are part of the NBA. So we have to understand that we’re all under the same corporation.”
There have been instances where they have looked more like combatants.
Referee Courtney Kirkland was taken off the floor for a week for getting too aggressive with Golden State’s Shaun Livingston. Warriors star Kevin Durant – who’d been ejected once in his first nine seasons – got kicked out of five games. Even LeBron James got tossed for the first time in his 15-year career.
It all led the NBA to announce in late January its plan to improve how players and referees get along. Former referee Monty McCutchen, now an NBA vice president overseeing referee development and training, and NBA senior vice president Michelle Johnson met with clubs to listen to their perspective.
McCutchen’s biggest hope is finding a way to make communication better Authentic Lamar Jackson Jersey , on all sides. He stressed to teams that he wasn’t meeting with them solely to defend and protect officials.
”Our league needs strong officials,” McCutchen said. ”What we’re trying to shoot for is this idea that you can have strength without arrogance and you can show humility without having to give into weakness. And that sort of Goldilocks moment, where the porridge is just right, is the balance in which we can start to disagree about the play without being demeaning or condescending or arrogant to one another.”
That hasn’t been the case at times this season.
It’s rare that a call will truly decide a game, and the NBA is sticking to its pledge of transparency by continuing to release reports about calls made in the final two minutes of close games. The Last 2 Minute Reports have been widely panned by players and coaches, especially when those reports show that a big call didn’t go their way in a close loss.
For the 400-plus games that have met the criteria for such a report being publicly issued this season, the NBA has said 97.4 percent of the calls made – in other words, 39 out of every 40 – are correct. When factoring in no-calls, what the NBA defines as ”event accuracy” drops to 93.9 percent.
But there have also been some difficult moments.
Livingston and Kirkland butted heads in a game at Miami, earning the Warriors guard a one-game suspension and Kirkland’s discipline after the league determined they were both in the wrong in their argument over a non-call. Through Sunday Christian Kirk Color Rush Jersey , there were 79 ejections this season – up considerably from the 61 last season. The NBA said 902 technicals were called last season; that figure has also been topped this season, albeit only by about 30.
Draymond Green, who isn’t shy about getting technicals, has complained. So has Chris Paul, the president of the National Basketball Players Association.
”To be honest, we need to kind of just go out there and play, and not worry about anything but that,” Toronto guard Kyle Lowry said. ”We can’t worry about what happened, even legitimately. We have to just go play and not say anything and just do our jobs. I think that’ll be a focus for the rest of the season for our team.”
But Lowry knows, starting Saturday Authentic Riley Sutter Jersey , everything gets magnified.
”You can’t get distracted or obsess on the officials or things that happen during the game that you can’t necessarily control,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. ”You can’t cross the line consistently and expect to develop the right mental toughness that you need to win.”
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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants will be out to avenge a series defeat on the road last week when they get a rematch with the Miami Marlins in a three-game set that begins Monday night.
The Marlins’ Caleb Smith (5-6, 3.75 ERA) and the Giants’ Andrew Suarez (2-4, 4.92), two young left-handers who dueled Wednesday in Miami, will square off again in the series opener.
Neither pitcher was part of the decision in the Marlins’ 5-4 win on Wednesday, a game in which the Giants blew 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 leads en route to a walk-off defeat.
Brian Anderson’s sacrifice fly off Giants closer Hunter Strickland ended the game, which was the Marlins’ third straight narrow victory to open the series.
The Giants salvaged a game in the finale Thursday, prevailing 6-3 in a 16-inning affair started by San Francisco’s Dereck Rodriguez and Miami’s Dan Straily Cheap Josh Allen Jersey , who are scheduled to hook up again Tuesday.
Smith allowed three runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings in his outing against the Giants last week. It was the first time he faced San Francisco in his career, leaving him with a 0-0 record and 4.26 ERA against them.
The 26-year-old left the team for personal reasons and was placed on the bereavement list later in the week, but he is expected to be reinstated to the active roster in time for Monday’s start.
The second-year major-leaguer has struggled on the road in his career, going 3-5 with a 5.68 ERA. He has never pitched in San Francisco.
Among the eight hits he allowed Wednesday was a two-run homer by Andrew McCutchen, who had quite a series against the Marlins, going 7-for-20 with two doubles, two home runs, five runs scored and five RBIs in the three games.
Nick Hundley and Brandon Belt homered for the Giants in their 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, which allowed San Francisco to complete a 4-6 trip.
The Giants have won seven of their last eight home games.
San Francisco played Sunday without third baseman Evan Longoria, who suffered a broken hand Thursday. The Giants also are expecting to be without shortstop Brandon Crawford for the series against the Marlins.
Crawford is scheduled to go on paternity leave Monday Saquon Barkley Giants Jersey , with the birth of his fourth child considered to be imminent.
It’s possible Giants fans will get to see Pablo Sandoval at shortstop in the series. It’s a move San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy indicated could be in the cards after Sandoval was pressed into emergency duty at second base when Joe Panik was injured last month.
“That decision hasn’t been made, until we take a look at Pablo taking a few ground balls at short.” Bochy said recently with a laugh,
Suarez was in line for his third win of the season when he was pulled from last week’s game after five innings with a 3-2 lead. He allowed two runs and five hits in his five innings.
It was the rookie’s first outing against the Marlins. He’s 0-0 with a 3.60 ERA against them.
Smith had two of the Marlins’ five hits off Suarez. He’s now 3-for-20, one of just 30 pitchers to have three or more hits this season.
The Marlins opened a nine-game trip by winning two of three at Baltimore, giving them five wins in their last six games They’ll play three at Colorado later in the week.
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