Mavs owner Mark Cuban plans to protest over free bucket for Warriors

DALLAS (AP)— Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he plans to protest atwo-point loss to Golden State after a confusing sequence led to anuncontested basket for the Warriors on Wednesday night.

KevonLooney had an easy dunk on an inbounds play with the Maverickslined up on their offensive end after a timeout late in the thirdquarter of Golden State’s 127-125 victory.

TheMavericks thought they had the ball after officialAndy Nagypointed in Golden State’s direction for possessionbut thenquickly pointed to the Dallas bench to indicate a timeout.

Looneyprotested when Nagy pointed toward the Dallas bench, but Nagyappeared to explain that he was signaling the timeout. The publicaddress announcer also indicated Dallas was awarded possession.

After thebreak, the Mavericks lined up on their offensive end, giving Looneythe easy dunk with no defenders around as the Warriors took a 90-87lead with 1:56 left in the third.

For those wondering about the play with 1:54to go on the 3rd, let me explain what happened. The ref called Mavsball . The announcer announced it. Then there was a timeout .During the time out the official changed the call and never toldus. Then when they saw us line up as…

Cuban saidhe planned to protest afterposting on Twitterthat hethought the sequence was the “Worst officiating non call mistakepossibly in the history of the NBA.”

Dallascoach Jason Kidd’s contention was that official Michael Smith musthave thought the Mavericks had possession because he was on thesame end of the floor as the Mavs.

“There wasquite a few people out of position,” Kidd said. “It’s correctable,but you first have to admit there was a mistake.”