Referees assigned to a critical game between the Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves missed six calls in the final two minutes and overtime, the NBA announced Thursday as part of its Last Two Minute report.
According to the report, which the league releases the day after close games to promote transparency about officials and how they’re evaluated, the three-man crew of Scott Foster, Ray Acosta and Mousa Dagher made four incorrect non-calls and two incorrect calls down the stretch. Five of the officials’ mistakes occurred in overtime, with three going against Minnesota and three against Houston.
The game ended with Minnesota pulling out a stunning 110-108 victory after scoring the final 15 points of the game. The win gave Minnesota, the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, a 1.5-game lead over the Rockets in the standings with 2 1/2 weeks remaining in the regular season.
The most significant of the six mistakes was the foul call against Minnesota’s Julius Randle with 3.3 seconds left in overtime that sent Houston’s Kevin Durant to the line with an opportunity to tie the game. According to the Last Two Minute report, the foul should not have been called because Randle “maintains verticality as he defends Durant’s shot attempt.”
Durant, an 88-percent free-throw shooter on the season, missed both attempts, which allowed the Timberwolves to seal the comeback victory after Houston jumped ahead by 13 points in overtime.
Three of the other five errors occurred on a single possession with one minutes and 14 seconds left in overtime. According to the report:
Houston’s Alperen Şengün actually knocked the ball out of bounds, which should have given Minnesota the ball.
Minnesota’s Kyle Anderson should have been whistled for a foul on Durant, which would have negated Durant’s turnover.
In the ensuing scramble, the referees should have whistled Minnesota’s Donte DiVincenzo for kicking the ball to himself, which should have given the ball back to Houston.
Those six missed calls weren’t the only controversial moments from the officials in this game. Foster, who has a history of combative exchanges with players and coaches, received roaring boos from the Target Center crowd after he ejected Timberwolves forward Naz Reid with 4:13 left in overtime. It was Reid’s only technical foul of the game.
When asked why he ejected Reid, Foster told a pool reporter that “Reid made a statement that questioned the integrity of the crew.”
After the game, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said he felt Durant should have been whistled for a foul on Randle’s game-winning shot attempt at the end of regulation. However, the NBA determined the officials made the right decision not to blow the whistle on that play.
“The game should’ve ended at regulation,” Finch said. “Julius clearly gets fouled on the gather at the end of regulation, and yeah, guys were certainly frustrated.”
SENGUN WITH A GAME-SAVING SWAT!
WE ARE GOING TO OT IN MINNESOTA 🍿 pic.twitter.com/OaIifHV76I
— NBA (@NBA) March 26, 2026
Since 2015, the NBA has released Last Two Minute reports for any game in which the margin was within three points with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. The report lays out the NBA’s determination of all the close calls that were made (or not made) by officials in the final two minutes of games, noting whether the officials made the right decisions in those moments. They usually come out at around 5 p.m. the day after the games in question.