Joakim Noah came out of nowhere to tip in what should have been the game-winning bucket in overtime, but after a review, the referees incorrectly waived it off. Tom Thibodeau and his players, as you might imagine, were furious with the call. Per the Chicago Tribune: “After two tough calls that sealed Monday night’s emotional 119-118 overtime loss to the Nuggets, the Bulls will make one more on Tuesday. ‘I guess we have to call the league to get an interpretation,’ an angry coach Tom Thibodeau said. The dispute centered on two calls in the final 46.4 seconds, both of which went against the Bulls. First, officials allowed Kosta Koufos’ tip-in of Ty Lawson’s miss, giving the Nuggets a 116-115 lead. The Bulls screamed for offensive interference, but since no call was made, officials told Thibodeau — correctly — they couldn’t use video review. Then, after Joakim Noah tipped in Nate Robinson’s miss to put the Bulls ahead and Andre Iguodala buried a dagger 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left, the real nuttiness started. In an amazingly athletic and acrobatic play, Noah tipped home Marco Belinelli’s miss with 1.7 seconds left, setting off a wild celebration. But officials used video review to uphold what they called as offensive interference. By rule, Noah’s tip-in appeared to be called correctly since players can’t interfere with shots on a downward trajectory that have a chance to hit the rim. The crux of the Bulls’ biggest beef is this: Thibodeau, Noah and several players claimed no goaltending call came in real time, meaning, like the Koufos play, no video review should’ve been allowed. A pool reporter interviewed crew chief Ken Mauer, but Mauer took only one question and it didn’t address this controversy. ‘They went to the timeout and then they decided they were going to review,’ Thibodeau said. ‘I didn’t see them call it. And I watched on the replay and didn’t see it called there.’ Noah, using two expletives, said officials called ‘basket’ on the floor. ‘It’s very disappointing,’ Noah said. ‘You play the game so hard. I just don’t understand how you can review my tip-in, but two plays before that, you can’t review the other one? There has to be consistency. The refs are doing the best they can. But it cost us the game.'”
