On Thursday, the NBA acknowledged that LeBron James’s crucial block of Victor Oladipo’s layup in the last few seconds of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA playoff win over the Indiana Pacers was illegal goaltending. The NBA said video taken from above the basket “shows that James blocks Oladipo’s shot attempt after it makes contact with the backboard”– which is an illegal block, and had it been called the basket would have given the Pacers a 97-95 lead. Instead, Cleveland gained the ball, called a timeout and inbounded the ball to James, who made the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to put the Cavs up 3-2 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.
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