Fox and Brown mourn another referee not called on last play of Kings loss

Fox and Brown mourn another referee not called on last play of Kings loss originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO – De’Aaron Fox was adamant that Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal fouled him in the closing moments of Friday night’s game, and he made no attempt to hide his frustration at not having a warning after the costly defeat of his Kings by 108-107 in Centro Dourado 1.

“I got fouled,” said the Sacramento star. “I wasn’t even close to the ball. You can go watch. [Beal] It clearly got me, but whenever it’s me, they always say, ‘I didn’t see it’ or ‘Marginal contact’. It doesn’t matter what the play was. If I got fouled, I would get fouled. Trying to get the ball, he hits my whole arm, they steal it.”

Television replays were not as clear. Fox caught the ball at the top of the arc after an inbounds pass and began driving toward the rim. Beal slipped out of the key and, in an attempt to free the ball, took a swing at it. Devin Booker passed to the double-team Fox, who lost control of the ball without making a shot, allowing the Suns to escape in the final seconds.

Kings coach Mike Brown’s frustration with the referees went deeper than just one call.

Seven seconds before Fox believed he had been fouled, Sacramento big man Domantas Sabonis was called for a foul while trying to box Jusuf Nurkic with the score tied at 107. Nurkic sank the first free throw attempt in front of the rim before sinking the second, which proved to be the game winner.

“From where I sit, I’m perplexed,” Brown said. “I don’t know why we couldn’t get a call from an NBA official in the future. For them to call a box-out on Sabonis, a box-out foul when the game is as physical as it is, and give them two free throw attempts to take the lead with seconds left in the game [was wrong]

“I hope I’m wrong, but from my seat, it looked like Fox was hit in the arm. In fact, I pray I’m wrong, because then I’ll sleep better at night.”

Brown said this wasn’t the first time during the 2023-24 season that he believed referees missed calls in a critical game. Each time, the NBA Two-Minute Report noted the referees’ mistakes.

At this point, it’s obviously too late to matter. And it’s little consolation when the result is a loss in what the Kings believe was a bad decision — or, in this case, a non-decision.

“They probably look at the Kings in our jersey, I don’t know,” Brown responded when asked what he believed his team needed to do to get more calls. “I do not know what it is. I assume we have to do more in the league to get respect from referees. It’s just hard to wait for the Two Minute Report and hear these things when they’re right in front of them.

“I just hope I’m wrong. To get another two-minute report saying they made a crucial mistake in a game of this magnitude…it’s just not fair.”

Even if the replays were unclear, the truth is that the crucial game should never have reached its controversial end.

Sacramento controlled the action for most of the night before falling apart late. The Kings held a 103-96 lead with 4:50 remaining, then allowed the Suns to close on a 12-4 run.

Instead of heading into Sunday’s regular-season finale with a chance to move into seventh place in the Western Conference, then needing just one play-in tournament win in two games to advance, the Kings now face the very real possibility of being in last place. half of the bracket, where it’s basically win or go home.

“We can’t sit here like the season is over,” Fox said. “We’re stuck in a play-in game. We still have a chance and we have to figure it out.”

Still, it won’t be so easy to move forward as long as the memory of the final play lingers. It will be even more difficult if the Two-Minute Report, which is expected to be released on Saturday around 1pm PT, reveals that the referees actually missed the foul on Fox.

“It’s tough when you can’t get a call, but the other team keeps getting calls and the refs think they’re right,” Brown said. “Then the Two Minute Report comes out… and [the refs] go home and sleep at night. We stay up all night worrying about the game because we are fighting for our lives in the playoffs.

“It’s difficult to see this from my seat. I hope the employees were right not to call. Just a tough way to lose basketball games when things are as obvious as they are.”