MyA missed call on the last play of Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers has infuriated the players and coaches of the Philadelphia 76ers
With less than a second left, 76ers player Kelly Oubre Jr. drove to the hoop and seemed to draw contact. However, there was no foul called, and the Clippers won 108-107. Crew head Kevin Scott subsequently stated that there should have been a foul called in a pool report.
After the no-call, 76ers head coach Nick Nurse meraced onto the court, and Oubre angrily went over to the officials, screaming obscenities at each of them in turn.
Oubre talked about his behavior following the match.
“Heat of the moment, first and foremost,” Oubre declared. “Of course, this basketball game is fierce. We’re also not flawless. The referees aren’t flawless. I would want to express my regret for just losing my composure, as I strive to improve on it daily and do my best to represent God. However, that wasn’t the issue. So all I’m asking for is your pardon.
“But I saw Coach Nurse getting riled up and if our coach is going to fight for us and he’s going there, then I’m right behind him. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t cool. So I’ll take whatever penalties come with that and you have to move on, but I got to be better in a sense.”
Meanwhile, Nurse said his team couldn’t blame the loss entirely on the referees
“Well, at 104-101, we had the ball sideline, [and] Tyrese [Maxey] breaks into the backcourt wide open, slips and falls, and they get an and-1 out of that,” Nurse said. “We come down and score, they’re full-court press and they knock one off of Kelly out of bounds.”
Nurse added that he didn’t agree with some of the calls made late in the game.
“I think [Oubre] took it in there pretty hard,” Nurse said. “I looked at it on our computers a couple times. I thought it was certainly contact, certainly as much of the last two or three that got called and-1s at the other end… I thought it was enough contact to call. [But] that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
The eighth-seeded 76ers are now13-26 without Joel Embiid in the lineup this season, while the fourth-seeded Clippers are 3-7 over their past 10 games.
