The NBA Admitted That Russell Westbrook Traveled During A Crucial Moment Of Game 1

On Monday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder stunned the Golden State Warriors with a 108-102 Game 1 victory at Oracle Arena, stealing home-court advantage in the Western Conference Finals. But instead of talking about that, everybody is talking about a controversial missed call in the final seconds, much like they were with Dion Waiters’ uncalled offensive foul on an inbounds pass in Oklahoma City’s Game 2 win over the San Antonio Spurs in the second round.

With 22 seconds remaining in the Monday’s game, and the Thunder up three, Russell Westbrook dribbled the ball up the court and turned to an official to call timeout. The Warriors players, and head coach Steve Kerr, wanted a travel.

Here’s the video, which shows Westbrook dragged his pivot foot before calling the timeout:

After the game, the NBA posted a Q&A with Joe Borgia, the league’s Senior Vice President of Referee and Replay Operations, who called it “an unfortunate miss.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the league confirmed as much, releasing their customary report on calls made in the final two minutes of close games. The report indicated that Westbrook should have been called for a travel:

Westbrook (OKC) turns toward the referee to request a timeout as he slides his pivot foot. The referee is focused on a possible take foul or timeout and misses the travel violation.

It’s a big call to miss, because it was still a one-possession game at that point and a Westbrook travel would have given the ball back to the Warriors with a chance to tie the game. It’s hard to blame the outcome entirely on this call — after all, the Warriors were up by 13 points at halftime and allowed the Thunder to outscore them by 19 in the second half. But they have a legitimate gripe here, and the Thunder have made this a series.

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