Raptors' Terrence Ross crying foul after buzzer-beater ruled no good

“Clock malfunction” was the official explanation. The Raptors had another one.

“That was just a bad call,” said Terrence Ross, after his two-dribbles-and-shoot heave appeared to beat the buzzer force overtime in Sacramento, then was ruled no good after a long replay review.

Referee Mike Callahan ruled that Kings’ Demarcus Cousins had deflected the Raptors’ inbounds pass to Ross with 2.4 seconds left on the clock. The clock on the floor didn’t start until Ross touched it, though, and thus a disparity that in the referees’ reckoning allowed him too much time – in effect, Ross didn’t beat the buzzer after all and the Kings were 112-109 victors.

From the Toronto Star:

“First of all, the trigger was a clock malfunction,” [Callahan] told a pool reporter. “We had the ball deflected, and the clock didn’t start.”

Of course the Raptors weren’t having anything of it.

“I knew I had at least two seconds,” Ross said. “I knew I could take a dribble and still get it off. I don’t know how a tipped ball can amount for a five-or-six-tenths of a second … Nothing can justify it. That was just a bad call.”

Dwayne Casey said the Raptors (8-5) would look into the call with the league but didn’t know if the team had any real options other than to swallow the difficult outcome.

“I don’t know where the malfunction came, I’ve got to hear more than that because I just watched the same review that they had.”