Nuggets file protest over loss to Grizzlies
The Denver Nuggets on Thursday filed an official protest with the NBA over their one-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this week, in response to the league acknowledging in its Last Two Minutes post-mortem report that both the referees on-site and the replay officials at the NBA Replay Center in Secaucus, N.J., made an incorrect call that played a major role in the unfolding of the game’s final play.
The decision then went to Secaucus, where replay officials reviewed the angles and evidence available to them and confirmed the call, giving Memphis back the ball on the baseline under the basket, down by one, with 0.7 seconds remaining.
Last night, Coach Malone notified [Nuggets general manager] Tim Connolly and myself that the NBA officiating report acknowledged an incorrect call in our November 8th contest against the Memphis Grizzlies with 0.7 seconds remaining in the game and the Nuggets ahead 107-106.
In order for a Member to protest against or appeal from the result of a game, notice thereof must be given to the Commissioner within forty-eight (48) hours after the conclusion of said game, by a Writing, stating therein the grounds for such protest.
No protest may be filed in connection with any game played during the Regular Season after midnight of the day of the last game of the Regular Season.
A protest in connection with a Playoff Game must be filed not later than midnight of the day of the game protested.
The right of protest shall inure not only to the allegedly aggrieved contestants, but to any other Member who can show an interest in the grounds of protest and the results that might be attained if the protest were allowed.
Upon receipt of a protest, the Commissioner shall at once notify the Member operating the opposing Team in the game protested and require both of said Members within five (5) days to file with him such evidence as he may desire bearing upon the issue.
If the Nuggets’ protest is upheld, it’d mark the first time that the league has granted a game protest since January 2008, when the Miami Heat raised a red flag over a critical error late in a game against the Atlanta Hawks: The Heat protested the game because, with 51.9 seconds remaining in overtime, the Hawks’ scoring table personnel incorrectly disqualified the Heat’s Shaquille O’Neal asserting that a foul committed by O’Neal was his sixth foul of the game, when in fact it was only his fifth.