“Kyrie Irving blocked Julius Randle but the Nets got the ball back?” Damian Lillard was dumbfounded by Scott Foster’s late-game call resulting in Knicks’ loss

Damian Lillard expresses his confusion over a call made on Julius Randle by Scott Foster. This was late in the Knicks’ loss to the Nets.

The ‘Battle for LA’ might be the more entertaining matchup between two teams residing within the same city but last night’s game between the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets produced a controversial, yet thrilling bout. 

The Brooklyn Nets were in pursuit of their 5th straight win while the New York Knicks were determined to establish themselves as Playoff contenders by moving up the standings, with a win over Kyrie Irving and co. However, with mere seconds left in the 4th quarter, and the Knicks down by 3, Julius Randle rose up for 3-pointer, only to be called for a travel. 

Scott Foster blew the whistle on the All-Star as from his perspective, Julius Randle had jumped in the air and came back down without releasing the ball from his hands. A close-up review of the play revealed that Kyrie Irving most definitely got a piece of the ball. The call wasn’t overturned, which led to a Julius Randle outrage following the 117-112 loss. 

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Damian Lillard reacts to the Julius Randle call 

Many took to social media to call out Scott Foster on yet another poor officiating night, wondering how the ref has been in the NBA for 27 years. Others, such as Damian Lillard, were simply confused by the call. 

Lillard has been on the wrong side of a controversial call a couple of times in his career. Dame is usually the perfect example of the 3 C’s: cool, calm, and collected. However, after an atrocious missed call in a game against the Jazz last season, he had a similar reaction to Julius Randle’s at the end of that game. 

Funnily enough, Kyrie Irving applauded Julius Randle for his quick thinking on returning back to the ground after Kyrie had touched it on the 3-point attempt. Yet, the call was not overturned and Knicks head coach Tom Thibadeau didn’t seem to want to argue about it either. 

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Scott Foster was questioned about this call following the game. He said that Randle’s only two options after coming down with the ball were to shoot or pass, yet he dribbled instead. This is what the whistle was blown for, according to the veteran official.