That the referees counted Michael Finley's three good without the benefit of replay … that's perfect. It seemed like a joke when the refs moved on with the game, and Randy Brown had to tell Andres Nocioni to go to the huddle. When Shareef Abdur-Rahim asked Danny Crawford, "That was late. Watch the replay." "We can't," Crawford replied. "Oh," said Abdur-Rahim. I mean, it seemed like everyone was like — "Ok, joke's over, review it and reverse it." Like Crawford would keep a straight face walking up to Kenny Natt … and then pull out a gun with daisies coming out of the barrel. "HA! HA! You shoulda seen the look on your face! Of course we'll review it."

Sadly, as has been the case this entire season, that was no joke.

For those that missed it, game tied at 92. S.A. ball, roughly 2.5 seconds separate the game and shot clocks. Sacramento's defense stifles Tony Parker's penetration (a true rarity), and T.P. kicks out to Michael Finley with one tick left on the shot clock. Finley rises … the shot clock goes off … Finley fires, in. Crawford, the nearest referee, is watching Finley's feet. He counts it good. The other two refs don't dispute it. Review shows the shot clock expired by at least a half-second. No matter, as a shot clock play isn't reviewable by the refs. The Kings get the ball with 1.3 seconds, and Nocioni airballs the wing three.

It's a sad story only made brighter by the fact that …

… the Kings will have the most ping pong balls on May 19.