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.
Replay Clarification: no trigger exists allowing referees to determine if ball went out of bounds or player stepped out of bounds
— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) April 24, 2014
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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:
Tony Brothers, one of the 3 refs at tonight's #Pacers-Hawks game, spoke to a pool reporter to explain why Teague's 3-pointer was allowed
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) April 25, 2014
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Citing Rule 13: II (f) (3): …For purposes of this review, the official would look only at he position of the player’s feet…
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) April 25, 2014
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…at the moment they last touched the floor immediately prior to (or, if applicable, during) the release f the shot or the foul.
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) April 25, 2014
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The only reviewable play: Officials are not reasonably certain whether a successful FG was scored correctly as a 2 point or 3.
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) April 25, 2014
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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.
Jeff Teague said he thought his key 3-pointer was an airball. #ATLHawks
— Chris Vivlamore (@ajchawks) April 25, 2014
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(via BDL)
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