The end of the game between the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers Sunday night involved some controversy when Dwight Howard was fouled by Joel Freeland while trying to secure an offensive rebound, but Howard was assessed the foul. The erroneous call against Howard took away the Rockets from going to the free throw line and gave the Blazers two free throws with a one-point lead. Freeland made 1-of-2 at the line and the Blazers ended up winning 122-120.
The league office acknowledged the blown call in the game and NBA President of Basketball Operations Rod Thorn issued a statement regarding the play:
Rod Thorn, NBA President, Basketball Operations, issued the following statement today regarding a play late in the fourth quarter of the Portland Trail Blazers’ 122-120 win over the Houston Rockets on April 20, at Toyota Center:
“After video review by the league office, we have determined that the officials were incorrect in assessing a foul to the Rockets’ Dwight Howard with 10.8 seconds remaining in overtime. The foul should have been called on the Blazers’ Joel Freeland and Howard should have been awarded two free throws.
It doesn't do much good for the Rockets now and who knows if the outcome of the game would have been any different? Howard would have had two free throw chances to at least tie the game. He was 9-of-17 from the line in the game.
This missed foul call was the second admitted mistake by the NBA this weekend. They issued a statement regarding a turnover at the end of the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors, in which Chris Paul lost control of the ball and it went out of bounds, but was fouled by Draymond Green in the process. Perhaps the Warriors and Rockets can now count these games as moral victories with the knowledge they had bad calls against them.
