NBA rejects Rockets protest after blown Harden dunk call

LOS ANGELES – The NBA has rejected the Houston Rockets' request for a replay following the blown call of a James Harden dunk in the team's 135-133 overtime defeat to the San Antonio Spurs last week.

The Rockets had lodged a protest after the officiating crew in the game mistakenly ruled out Harden's fourth quarter dunk.

Although officials later acknowledged the mistake, the error turned out to be pivotal, ultimately leading to double overtime where the Spurs would snatch victory.

Weird sequence here. Harden converts a dunk, ball goes under and back through the net.

Basket doesn’t count, Mike D’Antoni and the #Rockets are furious. pic.twitter.com/caV0UdrUTE

— Michael Shapiro (@mshap2) December 4, 2019

The Rockets had requested the league allow them to replay the final seven minutes and 50 seconds of the fourth quarter, just before the officiating error.

In a ruling on the Rockets protest however, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged the referees misapplied the rules by failing to grant a coach's challenge for the incident.

However in a statement issued Monday, Silver said that the Rockets had "sufficient time to overcome the error during the remainder of the fourth quarter and two subsequent overtime periods."

"Thus the extraordinary remedy of granting a game protest was not warranted," the statement read.

The league added that the three referees from the game had been disciplined for misapplying the coach's challenge rules. Details of the sanctions against the referees were not immediately available.