While most of the NBA world was watching the Golden State Warriors set fire to the San Antonio Spurs, the Charlotte Hornets eked out a double-overtime win over the Sacramento Kings in a game between exciting playoff hopefuls. Though DeMarcus Cousins set the single-game scoring mark for this season with 56 points, it was Hornets reserve Troy Daniels who wound up playing hero with 28 points, including the game-winning three-pointer with less than 10 seconds left in double overtime.
But take a look at Troy’s feet as he sets up for the shot here:
Here’s where looping video really comes in handy. Take a couple of loops to make sure you see both feet. Neither of them stay down as a pivot foot, and Daniels never puts the ball down for a dribble. By the letter of the law, that’s a sure travel. So, Kings fans, go ahead and feel like you got screwed if you want, but watch this angle and realize when in the game it happened before you go yelling about why it wasn’t called.
From that angle, it really doesn’t look all that different from any other time a shooter squares up, save for his stance maybe looking a bit wide. But more importantly, this is in double overtime of a wildly competitive (and fun! Don’t forget how much fun it was, Kings fans) game. Those perimeter travel calls are almost always exclusively the domain of the first half, when referees are more able to remember pregame directives and less mentally tired. It’s the same reason you see moving screens called far more often in the first half.
Moreover, you don’t actually want to see calls like this enforced strictly as a general rule. As dramatic as they are, the ends of NBA games can drag on forever with timeouts and intentional foul calls. We don’t need borderline travels like this deciding games. It’s much better for everyone if they’re left for losing fans to gripe about.
