{"id":616109,"date":"2026-02-21T17:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/616109\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:10:18","slug":"nba-admits-clippers-on-wrong-end-of-missed-call-against-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/616109\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Admits Clippers on Wrong End of Missed Call Against Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> narrowly beat the Denver Nuggets<\/a> during their showdown at Intuit Dome on Thursday, 115-114. However, they could have probably added more to their score had it not been for an officiating mistake.<\/p>\n

Bennedict Mathurin, who was traded to the Clippers from the Indiana Pacers<\/a> prior to the trade deadline, stepped up big time for L.A. He exploded for 38 points on 12-of-22 shooting, while adding five rebounds, four assists and three steals.<\/p>\n

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Kawhi Leonard<\/a> added 23 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Derrick Jones Jr. tallied 22 points to help the Clippers take down a Nuggets team led by two All-Stars in Nikola Jokic<\/a> and Jamal Murray<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jokic had a monster double-double of 22 points and 17 rebounds for the Nuggets in the loss. On the other hand, Murray had an all-around performance with 20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and one block.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Clippers guard Bennedict Mathurin (9) reacts to a no call during a game.Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Thomas Shea-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

While it was a close encounter, the Clippers were actually denied a couple of free throws because of a missed call late in the game.<\/p>\n

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With under 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Nuggets trailing the Clippers 111-109, Denver defended hard to quickly get the ball back after L.A. inbounded the ball. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Christian Braun double-teamed Mathurin in an effort to force a turnover.<\/p>\n

Clippers head coach Ty Lue had to use his final timeout at that moment to make sure they retained possession.<\/p>\n

According to the NBA’s Last 2 Minute Report<\/a>, though, a foul should have been called on Hardaway during the aforementioned play. A video of the moment<\/a> showed the Nuggets guard hitting Mathurin, causing him to lose his balance, which should have been a foul.<\/p>\n

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It was deemed an incorrect non-call. The Clippers would have gotten a pair of free throws had it been called correctly since the Nuggets were in the penalty situation at that point.<\/p>\n

“Hardaway Jr. (DEN) initiates contact with Mathurin’s (LAC) arm and affects Mathurin’s SQBR,” the NBA<\/a> commented in the L2M Report.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Clippers, the mistake didn’t end up costing them the win.<\/p>\n

Both the Clippers and Nuggets played again on Friday, with L.A. losing to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and Denver beating the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Nuggets are now 36-21 on the season, good for No. 3 in the Western Conference. The Clippers, for their part, are now 27-29 and sit in the ninth seed in the same conference.<\/p>\n

Related: NBA Admits Incorrect Call in Raptors-Bulls Game<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Feb 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Clippers narrowly beat the Denver Nuggets during their showdown at Intuit Dome on Thursday, 115-114.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,363,561,187,530,126,762,529,135,150,253,471,911],"class_list":{"0":"post-616109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-derrick-jones-jr","13":"tag-indiana-pacers","14":"tag-jamal-murray","15":"tag-kawhi-leonard","16":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-nikola-jokic","19":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","20":"tag-tim-hardaway-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}