The Warriors and Mavs met in Dallas on Wednesday night in a pivotal game in the crowded Western Conference playoff race, as the winner would exit the game with a tenuous hold on the 6-seed, which is the final guaranteed playoff position.
As such, every basket was important in a back-and-forth game where neither team was able to take more than a 9-point advantage. So, coming out of a Mavs timeout in a one-point game late in the third quarter, there was mass confusion when the Warriors just got a free dunk for Kevon Looney after Dallas failed to have anyone on the defensive end of the floor because they thought it was their ball, being advanced into the frontcourt.
The Mavs forgot to play defense
pic.twitter.com/S6q9ByrTb7
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 23, 2023
Jason Kidd was very mad on the sidelines, running out to midcourt to try and get an explanation from the officials, but despite his protest, the bucket counted. The official play-by-play lists the play prior to the Mavs timeout as a missed three from Anthony Lamb rebounded by Looney. How the Mavs called a timeout on defense without the ball, I’m not sure, but in a game of this magnitude it is rather wild to see this kind of lapse and no one to recognize what happened until the Warriors were given the ball and allowed to inbound it.
The dunk made it a three-point game and we’ll see if this play is just a weird moment or a pivotal one in a game that could very well be decided by one possession.