NBA Rules DeMar DeRozan Fouled Ian Mahinmi at End of Pacers vs. Raptors

The NBA announced Monday that Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan fouled Indiana Pacers center Ian Mahinmi during the late stages of Toronto's 89-84 Game 7 win over Indiana on Sunday.

With 16.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Pacers down 87-84, Paul George attempted an alley-oop to Mahinmi. DeRozan pushed Mahinmi, leaving him unable to catch George's pass, but the referees didn't call a foul on the Raptors star:

Unlike the blown call on James Harden's game-winner in the Houston Rockets' Game 3 victory over the Golden State Warriors on April 21, DeRozan's foul may not have had a direct impact on the outcome.

Even if the referees had blown the whistle, Mahinmi shot 58.7 percent from the free-throw line during the regular season and made 15 of his 25 attempts from the line in the playoffs. Had the Frenchman gone against the percentages and knocked down both free throws, the Pacers still would've been down by one point and needed to send the Raptors to the foul line.

And the same would've been true if DeRozan had not intervened and Mahinmi completed the dunk.

Of course, that won't take the sting away from the defeat, and The Cauldron's Nate Duncan noted at the time that Indiana fans will have felt aggrieved by a number of officiating decisions:

The Pacers have only themselves to blame for losing the series, though. The Raptors outscored them 25-9 in the fourth quarter of Game 5 to pull out a 102-99 victory, and in Game 7, Indiana shot itself in the foot by allowing 18 offensive rebounds and turning the ball over 15 times.

The referees didn't help the Pacers late in Sunday's game, but the players were the engineers of their first-round exit.