For the Miami Heat, the story of the night will be how LeBron James went into Quicken Loans Arena and dropped 43 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field to help his team come out with a 100-96 victory.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will largely wonder how Dion Waiters didn’t get a foul call when it mattered the most.
Down 95-90 with just under 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Waiters saw an opening and drove to the basket past Ray Allen. He was met with resistance from behind, as both James and Udonis Haslem converged to stop the guard. They sandwiched Waiters in mid-air and blocked his shot attempt, but appeared to have bodied him pretty good in the process. No call was made, however, effectively ending any chance the Cavaliers may have had of winning the game. Writhing in pain, Waiters stayed on the floor after landing hard on his right hip.
The Cavaliers announcers were flabbergasted about the no-call, as was Waiters once he got off the ground. Naturally, Dan Gilbert was watching the game as well and couldn’t believe what he saw, to the point where he wouldn’t even finish his sentence:
That is beyond incredible. What a complete and total joke and tra
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) March 19, 2014
Waiters retweeted a screenshot from a fan showing the exact moment he was hit:
Foul RT @JosephrayTurner: @dionwaiters3 clearly a foul on u dion! Smh @ the refs. pic.twitter.com/VUkIwtEQjO
— Dion Waiters (@dionwaiters3) March 19, 2014
Even beat writer Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio couldn’t help but vent after that particular play:
Dion Waiters hammered in face, shoved to ground and hurting. No call. Just emailed Adam Silver, asking how some of these clowns get jobs.
— Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) March 19, 2014
The frustration is understandable, but if the referees felt the contact came after the blocked shot, it’s also easy to see why the call would not be made. That’s not to say that Waiters wasn’t fouled because it did look like there was plenty of contact on the play, but this is not the first time a close foul call was not made at a critical juncture of a game, and it certainly won’t be the last.
The Cavaliers are now six games back for the eighth seed of the Eastern Conference. With Kyrie Irving out for the next couple of weeks and possibly longer, their season appears to be all but over.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.