Nuggets-Mavs: The Right No-Call?

NBA Playoff basketball, Game 3.   Down 2-0, this is a virtual must-win for your team.  After all, no team in NBA playoff history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a seven-game series.

At home with six seconds to go in regulation.  After several clutch plays by your veteran squad, you find yourself up two points with a foul to give.  This is a "no-brainer," right?

Any coach worth their weight in salt would use their foul to give, specifically to avoid giving up a three-point basket.  You have to.  Just about anything is better than a three (or three-point play). 

Under no circumstance can you afford to lose this game, most especially on a morale-breaking trey with so little time on the clock (in this case, however, it would be a series-ending trey...remember, no team has ever come back to win a NBA playoff series after losing the first three games).  Not at home. 

This is as close to a “must win” as exists in professional basketball (Game 7 > any elimination game at home > any elimination game on the road > Game 3 of a series when you’ve already lost the first two).

In a game like this you need your star to come through big time: (check) Dirk Nowitzki 33 points to go along with 16 rebounds. 

In a game like this you need clutch plays down the stretch: (check) Jason Terry corner three with less than a minute to play.

And yet, the Dallas Mavericks find themselves in just such a predicament. 

How?  Why?

Your superstar went off for his.  Your team made clutch plays down the stretch.  Judging by the foul trouble plaguing your opponent, the whistle has been kind to you (I think Twitter is a waste of time, but I bet Mavericks owner Mark Cuban “tweeted” the following after Jason Terry’s trey: “ awesome shot by J-T!  ref’s may actually let us have this one… remember to send devil stern a thank you”).

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