Sacramento Kings' Protest of Loss to Memphis Grizzlies Denied by NBA
The NBA has officially ruled against a protest made by the Sacramento Kings following their 111-110 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on November 13, in which the Kings lost on an inbounds layup by Memphis' Courtney Lee as time expired.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated relayed the news:
In the official protest filed after the game, via Sam Amick of USA Today, the Kings felt Ryan Hollins tipped the inbounds pass, which should have started the clock, and that Lee's shot didn't come out of his hands before the buzzer:
In fact, at the time of filing, Kings general manager Pete D'Alessandro told Bill Herenda of CSN California his thoughts on the protest:
Per Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports, NBA commissioner Adam Silver found that the referees acted within their proper judgment based on how the play unfolded:
Cases like this are difficult to prove, which is why the Kings were always fighting an uphill battle. As Silver noted via Spears, it really falls on the referees to make the determination of what happened. They made their call, and the NBA had no reason to disagree with it.
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