Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd thought there should have been a whistle blown on Derrick White’s game-sealing block at the end of Game 2 in the NBA Finals.
Kidd certainly had a case, but the call he looked for never came.
Instead, White’s block allowed the Boston Celtics to close out the game and walk off the court at TD Garden on Sunday night with a 105-98 win and a 2-0 series lead.
The Mavericks were incredibly close to making it a one possession game with just under a minute left in the fourth quarter when P.J. Washington streaked in for a dunk. But White met Washington at the rim and turned the shot away while Celtics star Jaylen Brown contested the attempt as well. It appeared Brown got away with a subtle push in the back on Washington before he tried to slam it home.
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“My interpretation? It looked like a foul,” Kidd told reporters, per league-provided video. “But it wasn’t called. So it wasn’t a foul.”
Kidd, who certainly will look to get his hands on the last two-minute report Monday, couldn’t use a challenge on the play, either, after he wasted it 4:49 into the game on a shooting foul by Washington. The challenge was unsuccessful, meaning Kidd didn’t have another one to use for the rest of the game.
The Mavericks had all the momentum before White’s crucial play. Dallas was in the middle of a 9-0 run after the Celtics took their largest lead, 103-89, with 3:34 remaining.
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Even if a foul was called, there was no guarantee Washington would knock down two freebies. The Mavericks struggled from the free-throw line in the game, making 16-of-24 (66.7%) attempts, but Washington was a perfect 4-for-4.
“Big,” Kidd said of the impact of the missed free throws. “The small things, you know, we have to do the small things, and that’s part of the game. Those are points that we left on the board, and we didn’t shoot free throws well tonight, and we have to be better.”
Featured image via Peter Casey/USA TODAY Sports Images
