Jeff Teague Hits Disputed Sideline 3-Pointer & Does MJ Shrug

Within the last three minutes of Atlant and Indiana’s Game 3 Larry Bird peeked at between his fingers, the Hawks’ underrated point guard Jeff Teague hit an off-balance three-pointer as the shot clock expired. It was a huge part of shredding the last hopes of an Indy comeback; except, Teague was also out of bounds on the play, which isn’t reviewable.

Ball Don’t Lie’s Dan Devine gives a lot more detail, but it seems @NBAOfficial, who tweets out various NBA rules for specific calls during a game, presciently sent this tweet a couple hours before Teague’s controversial three-pointer.

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Teague stepped out of bounds on the left sideline before he drained the three. But as the tweet shows above, the three-man crew couldn’t review whether he stepped out of bounds, but only if it came from beyond the arc or if he was fouled.

Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star (by way of Devine at BDL) explained her conversation with Tony Brothers, one of the refs working the game:

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So, that’s gonna piss some Pacers fans off because, while it happened with plenty of time remaining for Indiana to get back in the game, the psychological affect of giving up a three after playing good defense for 23.9 seconds, was demoralizing for Indiana.

As for the comparison with MJ’s famous sideline shrug to Magic and the crew during Game 1 of the 1992 Finals, Teague’s shrug was one more of bewilderment than MJ’s hot hand. In fact, Teague said after the game he thought it was going to be an airball.

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(via BDL)

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