Although the dramatic and controversial loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night at the United Center was still a hot topic Wednesday, the Bulls tried not to dwell on it and instead looked forward to the game with the Toronto Raptors.
“There’s frustration because you think you won a game,” coach Vinny Del Negro said. “It’s difficult. But I think we’ve regrouped and I expect us to come out with good effort tonight and ride the emotional rollercoaster.”
In case you’ve been in a cave the last 24 hours, you’ve seen the replay of Brad Miller’s attempt at a buzzer beater countless times. But just for the record, the Bulls inbounded the ball with 0.3 seconds left and Miller’s heave was initially called good and the Bulls thought they had a miraculous win.
But a shot at the end of the clock (in any quarter) is automatically reviewed. The process isn’t supposed to take longer than two minutes, but the review took at least four minutes before crew chief Mark Wunderlich waved off the shot, giving the Nuggets the win.
Del Negro said he watched the replay “several” times, but declined to offer an opinion when asked.
“It’s irrelevant, my opinion, right now,” he said. “They made the decision and you move forward. We have the game against Toronto and that’s what I’m gonna focus on.
“It’s disappointing. But we have a very difficult game tonight we have to get ready for.”
The replays shown on the Comcast SportsNet’s telecast appeared to be inconclusive, but Ron Johnson, the NBA’s senior VP of referee operations said during an interview on ESPN’s 1000 “Waddle and Silvy” show that the officials had access to an angle that the TV audience may not have seen.
“Mark finished looking at various views and then he asked if there was any other view available,” Johnson said. “He was given a view that showed clearly that Brad Miller’s fingers were still in contact with the ball when there was zero seconds left on the game clock. Therefore, the ball had not left his hand.”
