While everyone constantly argues about officiating and calls in basketball, the goaltending rule feels pretty clear. A defender can not touch the ball on its descent or interfere with the rim.
So, in the third quarter of the Lakers-Celtics matchup, when Neemias Queta stuck his entire hand through the basket on a Deandre Ayton shot attempt and there was no goaltend called, it seemed like an error by the officials.
On the NBC broadcast, the announcers said live that it was missed and, upon reviewing the replay, doubled down on that take.
Head coach JJ Redick was so irate by this call that he earned a technical foul because of it. After the loss, he expressed shock that a defender had been able to touch the net like that and said he would follow up through the appropriate channels to get clarification.
“Queta stuck his entire hand through the rim,” Redick on Sunday. “Not just grab the net. He stuck it through the cylinder. That’s typically a goaltend. Not tonight, obviously. They recognized that he did that and said that’s not a goaltend. I’ll get some clarification on the rule on that because, honestly, that’s a great way to defend floaters.”
Well, Redick did just that, and at Lakers practice on Monday, he said that Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s SVP of ref development, told him that the call was right.
What?
A player can actually put their hand through the rim, and that’s not interference?
According to the NBA’s official rulebook, it wasn’t interference since it didn’t disrupt the ball. The closest the official statements come to discussing this scenario is Section H of Rule No. 111.
h. Vibrate the rim, net or backboard so as to cause the ball to make an unnatural bounce, or bend or move the rim to an off-center position when the ball is touching the ring or passing through.
I guess since Neemias didn’t cause the ball to make an “unnatural bounce,” it’s not a goaltend, but I’m not so sure he can be absolved so easily. How can we be sure that his putting his hand through the rim and the nets being moved so much didn’t move the rim at all?
After all, the ball was on the rim and bounced off while the net was moving due to Neemias’ interference. It was a dicey play to say the least and a very confusing call for the NBA to make this way.
Given how the NBA tends to review things like tanking and cap circumvention, perhaps it should be expected that their answers will only raise more questions for the rest of us.
While this call felt egregious, there were plenty of other decisions by the refs that were perplexing on Monday.
Austin Reaves still doesn’t understand why he got a technical foul called on him during the game and there was a lot of physicality allowed in the contest, but consistency on what was a foul remained a mystery.
While none of this caused the Lakers to play so poorly against the Celtics, it certainly didn’t help.
And given the answer Redick got to this call, it seems we are even more confused afterwards about what a goaltend even is.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.