mark cuban

NBA Denies Mark Cuban, Mavericks' Game Protest of Warriors' March Win

The NBA announced Thursday that it has denied the Dallas Mavericks' game protest of their loss to the Warriors on March 22

NBA denies Mavericks' protest of Warriors' March 22 win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

Mark Cuban was right about one thing: The Warriors and Dallas Mavericks won’t replay their last regular-season matchup.

That's because the NBA denied the Mavs' protest of the Warriors’ 127-125 win on March 22 in Dallas, the league announced in a statement Thursday.

Cuban, the Mavs' owner, was confident Wednesday that his team would win the protest.

"We'll win," Cuban told reporters in Dallas before a game against the Sacramento Kings. "They just won't replay it."

Cuban claimed last month that after a ball went out of bounds late in the third quarter of the March 22 game, officials and announcers said it was in Dallas' possession. A timeout was called, and Cuban said that’s when officials changed the call to Warriors' possession but never told the Mavs.

Because the strange incident unfolded with plenty of time to play, though, the NBA determined it didn't affect the result.

“The incident occurred with nearly 14 minutes remaining in the game, and Dallas thereafter took the lead twice in the final four minutes,” the NBA said in its Thursday statement. “Under these circumstances, Dallas was not able to show -- as required under the standard for NBA game protests -- that it was deprived of a fair opportunity to win the game, and the protest failed on that basis alone.”

Cuban went on Twitter after the game and absolutely blasted the officials.

However, the league said Cuban’s accusations were false. 

“Following the game, Dallas governor Mark Cuban posted on Twitter that the officials had originally awarded possession to Dallas on the play and then during the timeout changed the call,” the NBA said in its statement. “Those public statements were inaccurate, and in its written submission in support of its protest, Dallas agreed that the referee signaled possession to Golden State.”

RELATED: How Clippers' win over Lakers impacts Warriors' playoff standing

If the protest was ruled successful, the Warriors' win would have been taken away and the game replayed from the time the disputed play occurred, with Golden State leading 88-87 and 1:59 remaining in the third quarter.

The league concluded that although the officials could have "taken steps to better manage this particular situation," there wasn't enough evidence to uphold the protest.

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