NBA schedule & results: LeBron James, Kyrie Irving lead Cavaliers over Wizards

Portland then realized its mistake and tried to change the roster by claiming the mistake was a “clerical error,” but the league gave Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers final say on whether the list of active players could be amended and Rivers declined to allow it, according to The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman.

“We were trying to figure out what the heck,” Rivers said after the game. “We knew you couldn’t change the rule, because it happened to us. But it’s not on us to do that. That’s all on them.”

That turned an already favorable matchup for the Clippers into an outright lopsided one. Los Angeles is one of the better teams in the West, while Portland is on the fringe of playoff contention even with McCollum. The Blazers were left unprepared without a top-15 scorer in the league and it was noticeable, especially in the first half.

At halftime, LA led 63-40 and it seemed like the rout was on. Instead, the Blazers made some adjustments after halftime with the full knowledge that McCollum wouldn’t play and made things competitive. An 18-7 Portland run to open the third quarter trimmed the Clippers’ lead down to 12. Another run early in the fourth quarter had the Blazers within six.

Here are a few theories of what is happening here.

1. Russell Westbrook was so proud of that Eurostep he wanted to show off his skills to everyone.

The Pistons had a chance to recover a loose ball, but instead the ball ended up out of bounds to set up a jump ball after officials were unable to determine possession.

It was a fairly standard play that gets lost as an inconsequential line in the play-by-play. Well, to everyone except for Stan Van Gundy.