The Miami Heat and Sacramento Kings have each gotten off to slow, disappointing starts this season, making their Wednesday night showdown in South Florida feel a little bit more meaningful than it actually was in the scope of the NBA’s 82-game regular season. With Jimmy Butler missing his first game with injury for the Heat and the Kings being without De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento and Miami played a thrilling back-and-forth game that ended on a game-winner from Tyler Herro and a controversial no-call from the refs.
Mike Brown called out refs for not calling Tyler Herro for traveling on game-winner
The refs missed an obvious travel on Tyler Herro’s game-winner, and Mike Brown was not happy about it.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The game had 12 ties and 26 lead changes. Herro won it for the Heat on their final possession, getting Terence Davis to bite on a pump fake before drilling the dagger. Only one problem: didn’t Herro already lose his dribble before hopping into a step-back to get free for the game-winner? It sure looks like it. Watch the clip here:
Kings coach Mike Brown was not happy with the refs after the game, citing multiple examples that he believes will show up in the league’s “2 minute report” when it reviews the officiating.
“To pump fake, then side-step or hop, then 1-2 into the shot, and not make that call is just unbelievable,” Brown said in his post-game press conference. “I don’t think we got a fair whistle. I hope when the officials go back and look at the game, they can see it.”
Our Kings community Sactown Royalty said Brown was right, and Herro traveled. I agree. Here’s a snippet from Vince Miracle at StR:
While Brown’s comments didn’t come with an angry tone, the frustration was clearly there in his words, and after rewatching that play it’s hard not to see Brown’s point. It will be interesting to see if the League will look to fine coach Brown after making these comments regarding the refs. Perhaps they won’t after the 2-minute report is released and they look at the video, but the NBA usually doesn’t miss a chance to protect their referees.
Meanwhile, Herro had his own way of defending himself:
Herro is of course referring to the NBA finally enforcing carrying. I’m not sure that’s a good argument in his favor.
Rough loss for the Kings, but there were some things to feel good about. Kevin Huerter played another great game, Malik Monk got hot off the bench, and Domantas Sabonis was able to carry the offense without Fox. It would just feel so much better if it ended in a W.
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