Showing refereeing is a tough job and you can't always get it right.

From Twitter:

A Rockets source is optimistic that the NBA office will take action regarding James Harden's dunk that didn't count, either awarding the win to Houston or ordering that the final 7:50 be replayed because the Rockets outscored the Spurs in regulation.

Can't believe the Spurs won. Gave up watching the game when they were thoroughly getting pumped.

Surely replaying a quarter and/or awarding the win to Houston sets a dangerous precedent.

If results can be overturned based on evidence of incorrect/non-calls at any point where there is time remaining on the clock, at what point does the NBA draw a line?

This is possibly even more ridiculous than that time the Wildcats lost when they might have won instead had things gone differently at an earlier stage.
Once they let that get to the end of the game there's really no acceptable way they can make up for it. A dunk shot so nice it almost went in twice. The only positive is that it happened to Harden.

Was that the worst 50 point game of all time? 4-20 from 3, 11-38 overall, and 24 FTM. Jeezus, gross.

Technically 12-38* if that makes a difference ;)

A similar instance happened last year where Manu Ginobili attempted a pass, but made the shot. Play continued as if it had missed. The refs eventually incorrectly counted it as a two-pointer, then corrected it as a three later in the game.

https://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_/id/21946914/manu-ginobili-san-antonio-spurs-hits-3-pointer-attempting-pass

When a player people don't like gets screwed and more people find it funny than fume, we shall forever call this the James Harden Rule.

What's the point of having every feed routed through Secaucus if something like this doesn't get picked up?

"This is possibly even more ridiculous than that time the Wildcats lost when they might have won instead had things gone differently at an earlier stage."

The one that springs to mind is the time some boobjob official told the refs Fisher had fouled out, and he had to sit on the bench for a bit, whilst the game continued, before it was corrected.
Perth managed to stuff-up 4 open chances to win the game, before losing to Brissy in quadruple overtime.
Ironically with Fisher setting the (never to be beaten) record for minutes played.

But that said, I'm not sure exactly what the rules say about this.
Is it an error of judgement, or simply a recording error.
At what point does the score become official? I would assume that even in the NBA, the officials sign the scoresheet and that's that.

IMHO this is an error of judgement, and therefore not over-turnable.
Otherwise, as many have pointed out, where does it end?

"Perthworld, it's not reviewable you moron"

That's kind of the point. Harden clearly scored, the NBA had ample resources to confirm this beyond doubt in real-time, and yet neglected to correct the situation due to a technicality?

Now the NBA may award the win anyway, after-the-fact. What a farce.

Yay for understanding!

They decked out a state of the art instant replay centre in Secaucus and it's going to waste. In other sports the TMO and even the much maligned VAR can intervene when something way less egregious than this is missed.

Also this wasn't a subjective call like a block/charge interpretation - the ball actually physically went in the hoop. The officials aren't being undermined. A positive from all of this is you would think they will alter their review policies to be less rigid.

In one of Shaq's last games for Miami he was incorrectly fouled out with 2mins or so left in the game ... league made the teams come back a week later and replay the last two mins.
In that week shaq was traded to Phoenix, so didn't play the replay game anyway !!!

Yeah its crazy that they can just change the call on a 2/3 point shot from the replay centre and just move on, or change whether someone beat the buzzer etc, but can't just go back and add the two points on what was a clear made shot. Its a lack of common sense.

Having said that, giving Houston the win or replaying the last 7:50 would be dumb. It was a bad call, but thats part of basketball.

It's not a situation the rules allow the replay center to review, though. Probably because nobody considered that it's the sort of thing that would ever need to be reviewed.

Mistake made, game won/lost, result is in the books, move on...

Or, give the Boomers a rematch against Spain LOL!!

I get that, but that shows how common sense hasn't/can't be used because of technicalities.

And the whole "you can't ask for an official review because you didn't do it within 30 seconds while we were trying to figure out what happened" thing is laughable.

Can't understand the NBA not insisting on a replay, in fact, a best-of-3 decider, all on prime time.

After the NBA/China debacle putting $4Billion in jeopardy, the NBA could probably do with the financial bonanza of replaying that game several times.

May even outdo the Lamelo viewership!

Perthworld and D2.0.
Oh my how the forum standards have diminished.

To make it worse, Cram: D'Antoni insists that he tried to challenge the ruling on two separate occasions.

The first ruling of the play didn't get a response from the refs, then the refs changed their explanation and A'Antoni wasn't allowed to - apparently because of the 30 second rule...

I don't recall D'Antoni having a history of making things up to prove a point. If true, more evidence of a lack of common sense.

A no call is still a call; you can't just weight the value of bad calls on the final score to dictate who wins. If the score had counted, we can't say what would have happened in the last 7-8 minutes of the game (or the overtimes should they have occurred).

Bad calls happen, fix it so that something like that can be reviewed for sake of sanity, and move on.

The points should have counted and Houston should be given the victory.

I watched the last 10 minutes of the game.
Without doubt IMO Harden and Westbrook straight out gave up. So many possessions that they weren't even trying.
I know NBA games are really glorified pick up games, but thats no excuse for a lack of effort especially when you're being paid what you are.

Glad they lost in the end because they simply didn't deserve to win.

It doesn't need to reflect that because it wasn't called a score.

Bad calls happen. Bad calls affect the score. We don't go back and retrospectively deal with every bad call ever made.

Here is another howler missed call

NBA 2019: LeBron James travel video vs Utah Jazz, Lakers | scores
https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/lebron-james-gets-away-with-audacious-travel-in-lakers-win/news-story/2d101c2822c790653b41c43c511ee1a3

How can it be a scorebench error?

Scorebench don't determine if a score counts, the refs do.

When there is a score, the opposition player needs to pass the ball in from behind the baseline, you can't just rebound it and run with it. They don't wait for the score bench before they pass it in.

The refs got it wrong, and they should be criticised for that.
Whether it was technically reviewable or not, they should have had the sense to look at a replay, rather than guessing.
But they didn't. Refs made a mistake, it happens. It might be "unfair" but its also part of the game.