After last night’s tough loss to the Utah Jazz, there was a lot of vitriol being directed at the officials for their performance down the stretch. In particular, Kings fans were incensed when veteran official Ken Mauer called a 5 second inbounding violation on Sacramento instead of granting Arron Afflalo a timeout. Mauer seemed to count a very quick five seconds, but unfortunately none of that was reviewable and it cost the Kings a big possession.

Today, the NBA released their last two minute report for last night’s game and lo and behold, they’ve confirmed many of our suspicions that Mauer whistled the violation too early.

The only other incorrect non-call went against the Kings as well, a moving screen that was set by Rudy Gobert that freed up Gordon Hayward for a big three to cut the lead to 1 and helped to set up overtime. You can watch that screen for yourself here.

Interestingly enough, a George Hill pushoff on Willie Cauley-Stein late in overtime that was another call that many thought should have been a foul was judged to be a correct non-call because the contact was “incidental”. You be the judge.

Also, Utah had their own five second violation near the end of the fourth that wasn’t called (and it was very shortly after Afflalo’s violation), but the NBA doesn’t deem calls that need review with a stopwatch or enhanced replay as incorrectly officiated.

As always, these last two minute reports never change the outcomes of the games themselves. There’s no appeals process, and the results won’t change. The Kings still lost, and now we know the refs were at least partially to blame (or thank, depending on which side of the tank brigade you’re on).