In a nail-biting overtime victory, the Washington Wizards capped the exciting game in Portland off with a corner 2 made by Markieff Morris to take the lead with only 0.4 remaining in the overtime period. The shot was a great look, that Morris created with his pump fake with 3 seconds on the game clock. The only thing to speculate about the game winning play though, was that Morris might’ve stepped out of bounds after his pump fake to create the shot.
See the play here:
The Trail Blazers attempted to get the officials to review the play, but the referees stated that they can’t review it due to the “NBA Rulebook: Replay Triggers”
Portland’s 2x All-Star Damian Lillard had a few words to say about the questionable decision by the officials to not give the play a review.
“Why [do] we have all these cameras and all this technology and all this stuff in the arena if we[‘re] not…able to review a play that determines a win or a loss?” Lillard said, keeping in mind how late in the season it is, Lillard voiced his concern on how serious every game and play is, “It’s a time in the season where you need these games…every little thing counts and that’s BS.”
See full interview here:
Lillard wasn’t the only one to express how unappreciative he was in regards to the officials’ decision late in overtime. Blazers Head Coach, Terry Stotts discredited the officials for not seeing the call right away, “When two referees are looking at the play and neither one of them see him (Markieff Morris) step out of bounds,” Stotts proclaimed, “in a game like this, you can’t miss that call.”
With the Portland Trail Blazers sitting two games behind the Denver Nuggets for the eighth seed in the West, every game truly does matter for Portland. There’s only 18 games left in their season, they can’t afford to blow 20 point leads or be put in a position where the officials miss a call this late in the game.
This loss ended the Blazers’ 4 game winning streak, 8 out of their 11 remaining games in March are against teams with a record under .500. So with a schedule very much in their favor, Portland should be able to get themselves in a position to grab the eighth seed and not have to look back at this game as the reason they missed the playoffs.
