NBA: Aldridge Goaltend On Durant Was Actually A Block

Grant Belcher, News9.com

NEW YORK – With six seconds left in the Thunder's win against the Blazers on Monday night, Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge was called for goaltending on Kevin Durant, resulting in a tie game at 103 and a forced overtime.

But the NBA released a statement on Tuesday saying that after reviewing the play, goaltending was not the correct call and the play was actually a clean block by Aldridge:

"With six seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Blazers' LaMarcus Aldridge was called for goaltending on a shot attempted by the Thunder's Kevin Durant. With the benefit of slow motion replay following the game, it has been determined that Aldridge made contact with the ball just before the ball hit the backboard. Therefore, this should have been ruled a good block and goaltending was the incorrect call. (As determined by the NBA's Competition Committee, referees may not use instant replay on goaltending calls.)"

The goaltending call is not reviewable in-game, and therefore the ref's initial call was final as soon as he made it.

Postgame reviews and corrections by the NBA regarding missed calls serve no changes to wins, losses or player statistics. Durant will keep his two points and LaMarcus Aldridge will not be credited with another block on his stat sheet despite the review.

Before the goaltending was called, the blocked ball was deflected out toward half court, where Thunder guard James Harden chased it down. Oklahoma City would've likely had three or four seconds to attempt another game-tying or game-winning shot if the play would have been called a clean block during the action.

The Thunder are no strangers to NBA reviews on missed calls following a game.

In 2010, Oklahoma City trailed the Utah Jazz by one point in a regular season game. Kevin Durant caught an inbound pass and was fouled attempting a 3-pointer, but it was not called.

The NBA released a similar statement after that game admitting that a foul should have been called, but the statement serves little purpose other than slight vindication and an even slighter mark on the referees' resumes.