HoopsVibe

If, like me, you watched the Mavs-Nugs game last night, you will have witnessed one of the what-the-f*ckiest moments in NBA officiating this year.  With the Mavericks holding a slim but crucial two-point lead with the decimals showing on the clock, they decided to deny Denver the opportunity to run a set play for a trey, instead using a foul to force them to throw it in.  The zebras, however, decided that Antoine Wright's horribly obvious hackety slash across Carmelo Anthony's chest and left arm was a perfectly legal manoeuvre.

As you can see in the clip below, the rest played out unfavourably for the Mavericks, who watched helplessly as 'Melo hit a twisting three that tickled the twine with one second left.  When Dirk draws air on the turnaround triple at the other end to seal the deal, Mark Cuban can be seen throwing one of his trademark fits of indignation, histrionically pushing aside a cameraman as he charges to the locker room.  Incidentally, the postgame X-rays showed negative for a fracture, although Cuban is listed as day-to-day with a sprained vagina.

In what is becoming an increasingly common move, the NBA issued a statement after the game 'fessing up to the slip.

At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony's three-point basket.

Now if we can just get them to admit we needed 2Ball like a Shawn Bradley nude calendar, we'll be cool.

Check out the clip below and let us know if there's any way Mark Wunderlich, the ref closest to the play, could justify swallowing his whistle on the deciding play.