NBA: Thunder beat Spurs, but ‘should have had an offensive foul’ on final sequence

Officials admitted they made a mistake in the final sequence and Dion Waiters, who committed the foul, pleaded ignorance of any infraction as the Oklahoma City Thunder won Game 2 on Monday night.

Oklahoma City Thunder players Cameron Payne, left, and Dion Waiters, right, celebrate with teammate Russell Westbrook during their win on Monday night. Larry W Smith / EPA / May 2, 2016

The Oklahoma City Thunder nearly gave the game away in a wild final sequence that referees acknowledge should have been blown dead before it started.

All that matters to the Thunder is that they’re all even with the San Antonio Spurs.

Russell Westbrook had 29 points and 10 assists, and the Thunder held on to beat San Antonio 98-97 on Monday night, evening the series at one game apiece when the Spurs failed to score in the final seconds.

Kevin Durant added 28 points as the Thunder handed the Spurs just their second home loss of the season, rebounding from a 32-point beating in Game 1.

With San Antonio trailing 98-97 with 13.5 seconds remaining and Oklahoma City out of timeouts, Thunder guard Dion Waiters elbowed Manu Ginobili to get the space needed to inbound the ball.

“On the floor, we did not see a foul on the play,” referee Ken Mauer told a pool reporter. “However, upon review we realise and we agree that we should have had an offensive foul on the play. It’s a play that we have never seen before, ever, but we feel we should have had an offensive foul on Waiters.”

Waiters claimed he was unaware of any contact.

• Read more: Oklahoma City may have won a game, but they still probably have no real chance

• Also see: 2016 NBA play-offs analysis, previews and more

“No, I’m in the game, man, I don’t really know what’s really going on,” Waiters said. “My whole mindset is get the ball inbounds and hopefully we get a foul once the ball gets inbounds, but it was a crazy sequence the last 13 seconds. So we pulled it out, that’s all I care about.”

Waiters inbounded to Durant, who was immediately stripped by Danny Green. Patty Mills missed an open three-pointer, LaMarcus Aldridge lost the ball after grabbing the airball and Kawhi Leonard was unable to gather the ball before the buzzer sounded.

“I don’t know what it is, to tell you the truth, what type of violation it is,” Ginobili said of Waiters’ elbow. “It’s got to be something. But again, it’s not that play that decided anything. We got the steal, we got the shot, we got an offensive rebound.”

Aldridge had 41 points, but the Spurs shot 43 per cent as a team after shooting 61 per cent in the series opener.

“It feels horrible,” Aldridge said. “Feels like it was wasted. I’ve never been about trying to get points and not win, I always try to do things to win. If you win it’s totally a different feeling, but losing like that hurts.”

Leonard was held to 14 points on 7-for-18 shooting. Ginobili was the only other San Antonio player in double figures, scoring 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting.

San Antonio missed 12 of their first 13 shots, struggling to even hit the rim after seemingly making every shot they took in the opening quarter of Game 1. The Spurs missed six layups and Green awkwardly tossed a hard runner that ricocheted off the backboard.

“I thought we did a good job from the beginning making it tough,” Durant said. “That first (Spurs) basket didn’t go in and that was a step in the right direction for us after what happened last game. We just try to make every basket tough.”

Game 3 is Friday at Oklahoma City.

Aldridge had 13 points in the final quarter, including a pair of three-point plays. The all-star forward drained his second three-pointer of the season to pull San Antonio within 96-94 and then made three free throws after being fouled by Serge Ibaka to pull the Spurs within 98-97 with 13.5 seconds to set up the final play.

The series of missteps almost wiped away a strong outing by the Thunder.

Oklahoma City moved the ball much better than they did in the opener, providing the space they needed against San Antonio’s collapsing defence and providing Westbrook with room to drive and set up teammates, including a thunderous dunk by Steven Adams after a pass backward.

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