Utah Jazz editorial: Win over Phoenix Suns makes me feel icky

It’s great that Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz escaped Phoenix with a win on Monday, but I can’t shake the feeling that the Suns got shafted.

Ugly though it was, Monday’s game between the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns featured multiple positive developments for Utah. Donovan Mitchell came through in the clutch in precisely the manner you’d hope for from your go-to guy. Bojan Bogdanovic played through his ankle injury again and continued to look like the get of the offseason in the process.

Finally, the defense was as staunch as ever and, as a result, the Jazz escaped with a win they probably shouldn’t have.

And yet, I can’t shake the feeling Mitchell and Co. got away something. Sure, if we’re pointing fingers, the officials or the timekeeper are easy targets on this one, but any way you slice it, the Suns got hosed.

With the score tied at 95 in the game’s closing seconds, Mitchell took the ball for the Jazz and did exactly what he was supposed to — force the issue and either get points or get to the line. Ultimately, it was the latter that occurred, but he wasn’t the only one that punished the Suns on the play: the foul was whistled with 1.2 seconds left, but the clock was never stopped until it read :00.4.

That’s where it would remain. No replay, no review, no hope for the Suns to get a shot at the win, especially after Mitchell missed the second free throw. Time expired in short order and the Jazz got out of Phoenix with a surprising 96-95 win.

Needless to say, this shouldn’t happen in the best league in the world. And while our Jazz were the benefactors and the Suns may not have been able to hit a game-winner anyway, teams should be given the opportunity to win or lose a game on their own as opposed to having it decided for them.

The worst thing about the Suns having it taken out of their hands on Monday was that the NBA apparently doesn’t see it that way.

When the league released its last-two-minute report for the game, its response to the controversy was essentially, “Sorry, we couldn’t review it. Them’s the rules. Carry on.” From the L2M report —

"“Booker (PHX) makes contact to Mitchell’s (UTA) arm during his driving shot attempt. The whistle occurs at 00:01.2, and officials do not see that the game clock continues to run to 00:00.4. Officials cannot use instant replay to review clock malfunctions unless the clock runs to 00:00.0.”"

A quick check of the NBA’s official rules confirms that time would have to expire to trigger a clock review, but also mentions situations where “officials are reasonably certain that the game clock malfunctioned during the play.”

Clearly, the timekeeper had an issue here and you would hope that the officials would be empowered to rectify the situation. Whether they actually did or not may be in something of a gray area.

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I tend to believe that they acted accordingly in this situation, or at least in the proper manner as they interpreted it. However, the fact that the rule is written this way is appalling. In an era when coaches challenges are a thing, replay is getting expanded and fairness is the order of the day, how can time and score — probably the most important factors during crunch time — not be the top priority for the officials?

The league has this one wrong and they’re putting their referees in a bad spot and sullying the results of games as a result.

As the clock struck 00:00 and the horn sounded at Talking Stick Resort Arena, Suns fans let out a collective, audible groan at what had transpired. And while that was a nice win for the Jazz over an up-and-coming team and, if you could look past the ugliness of the game, there was actually some good stuff happening for the Jazz, I’m right there with them.

Yo, NBA — maybe stop with all the traveling calls we’ve gotten as part of the annual “rule we’re going to over-focus on for a few weeks, then forget about” exercise and fix an actual problem?