The Kings almost paid the price -- again -- for a referee's missed call. Luckily for them, the ball don't lie.
With just 6 seconds left in Wednesday night's 124-123 Kings win over the Raptors, Toronto guard Fred VanVleet wasn't whistled for an offensive foul, despite shoving Sacramento's De'Aaron Fox to the floor on the inbounds play. With Fox flat on the ground, VanVleet had a wide-open look at a potential game-tying 3-pointer, but it missed.
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SIGN UP HERE In the NBA Last Two Minute Report released Thursday, the league acknowledged that VanVleet's push-off on Fox should have been called an offensive foul.
"VanVleet delivers contact to Fox that dislodges Fox from his legally obtained defensive position during the inbound," the NBA noted in its report.
Pascal Siakam secured the rebound off VanVleet's 3-point miss and converted a layup with 0.9 seconds left, cutting Toronto's deficit to one, before Sacramento ran out the clock and secured the win at Scotiabank Arena.
Fox was at the center of another controversial call earlier in the game, as the Kings star was hit in the face on a tough layup with 1:40 left. Again, no foul was called, even though Fox suffered a cut that required two stitches after the game.
The NBA stated in its Last Two Minute Report that the refs' initial no-call on the play was correct.
"[Pascal] Siakam's arm comes down and makes incidental contact with Fox's (SAC) head/face," the league wrote. "Contact to an opponent's head/face can be deemed marginal when the result of a natural basketball move, provided the contact is not disproportionate or uncontrolled."
Kings coach Mike Brown had issues with the officiating earlier in the game, and was ejected in the third quarter after he forcefully came onto the court to argue with the refs. At one point, Sacramento's coaching staff had to step in between him and two officials.
The Kings used Brown's ejection as fuel for their comeback win over the Raptors.
"Do it for him," guard Malik Monk told Morgan Ragan and Matt Barnes on "Kings Postgame Live" after the win. "Fox got fouled, obviously, and it wasn't called. And we were getting hacked the whole game and not getting any calls. So Mike just had to take one for the team and bring the energy up. And we just fed off that."
The Kings have been at the center of various missed calls that were confirmed as incorrect in the ensuing Last Two Minute Reports this season. There was a missed traveling call on Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro's game-winning 3-pointer on Nov. 2. Then there was a missed foul call on Klay Thompson when Kevin Huerter attempted to tie the Nov. 7 game against the Warriors.
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Those previous calls led to Kings losses, but at least against the Raptors, they pulled out the win.