Kings battle, get burned by officials, South Beach shuffle

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The South Beach shuffle.

Sacramento Kings fans are used to reading the NBA’s Last Two-Minute report. They are used to being on the short end of the stick when it comes to the officials. They are ready for another soft admission of error tomorrow when the league releases its findings on the Kings’ 110-107 loss to the Miami Heat.

Mike Brown is new to town. Maybe he doesn’t know the history or hasn’t read the brief on the NBA Officials vs. the Sacramento Kings. It’s a lengthy read, filled with hyperbole and conspiracies wrapped around undeniable video evidence. This is another game tape for the anthology.

“Tyler Herro is a great player, but at the end (of the game) he traveled,” a clearly frustrated Mike Brown said. “He traveled and I would not be doing my job if I didn’t come up here and protect my guys. My guys fought their behinds off for close to 48 minutes and to pump fake and then sidestep, sidestep or hop, and then one-two and a shot, is just unbelievable.”

This wasn’t the only statement Brown made. He wasn’t happy about a second no-call against Harrison Barnes in the waning moments of the fourth, as well.

“They’re good officials, but at the end of the day, we have to go earn our respect,” Brown said. “Because right now, people get caught up in the hype and the excitement of the crowd and they look what’s on our jersey. I’m assuming it says Kings and maybe they expect us to lose, I don’t know. But it’s just two, like, blatant calls that were right in front of guys. I felt bad for my players.”

Brown will be hit with a fine for his honesty tomorrow, but seeing a coach speak out against a poor call is refreshing. Mistakes happen, but Sacramento is the Charlie Brown of the league. Nothing will come of this, like so many other times.

To get into the specifics of the game, the Kings and Heat were tied at 107-107 with 12.8 seconds remaining. Miami inbounded and got the ball to Herro, who had been lights out the entire fourth quarter.

Terence Davis stuck with the Heat guard, forcing him to pick up his dribble. As Herro picked up his dribble, he took two steps and then came to a jump stop. Davis was still in his face, so Herro brought the ball back down, took two more steps to clear space and launched a 24-footer.

The video replay shows both of Herro’s feet lift off the ground and reposition while official Ray Acosta (No. 54 in the video) is staring right at the play with a clear, unobstructed view from less than 10 feet away. Officials Eric Lewis and Michael Smith swallowed their whistles as well.

It wasn’t even a bang-bang play. It took over two seconds for Herro to complete his motion, which by NBA standards is an eternity. In the heat of the moment, it’s difficult to make a call, but that was the proper thing to do and the refs, all three of them, missed it.

In a perfect world, the Kings would have been handed the ball out of bounds with somewhere between 3.9 and 4.1 seconds remaining. They didn’t have a timeout, so it would have taken some heroics to end the game. But the worst-case scenario likely would have been overtime.

Unfortunately, even an apology from the league means nothing. The league doesn’t allow for a redo of the final seconds of a game, regardless of how egregious the call may have been.

Brown and his team will spend another night in Miami before traveling to Orlando for the third leg of their four game trip. They’ll take a 2-5 record with them to the Amway Center where they will look to start a new win streak.

For the players, this is a disappointing outcome to a very competitive game. For Brown, it may be his “welcome to Sacramento” moment. L2M, a Sacramento tradition.