One of the most dramatic moments of the NBA playoffs came in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, when Deandre Ayton made a game-winning dunk, exploiting a little-known rule that a player cannot commit goaltending on an inbounds pass.
Clippers fans obviously lamented the play the second it happened, but even neutral observers had a hard time appreciating the theatrics because of what preceded that dunk. The last 90 seconds of that game took 33 minutes of real time because of five replay reviews, two of which were to determine possession on out-of-bounds plays.
Perhaps as a result of that finish, the Board of Governors is considering eliminating automatic reviews on those plays in the final two minutes, requiring a coach’s challenge to reverse the decision.