NBA News Wire
Spurs had six on floor in Game 6
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
The NBA acknowledged that the referees missed the San Antonio Spurs having six players on the floor in the final seconds during Game 6 of the Western Conference quarterfinal series against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.
NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed the officials’ oversight in an email to ESPN on Saturday.
The Mavericks led 113-111 with 1.3 seconds left in Dallas when the Spurs, with no timeouts, inbounded the ball underneath the basket. On the floor were five Spurs players — Manu Ginobili, Patty Mills, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan — in addition to inbounder Boris Diaw.
Diaw’s length-of-the-court pass was knocked out of bounds with 0.4 of a second left. The Spurs retained possession but could not get off a final shot.
According to league rules, “If the ball is put into play and remains in play with one team having six or more players on the court, a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul will be assessed on the team with too many players.”
No technical was called by officials James Capers, Jason Phillips and Zach Zarba and the mistake did not impact the outcome of the game, which was won by the Mavericks.
“Some guy just didn’t walk off the court, that’s all,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
