Mavericks blatantly robbed of win over Pelicans by egregious missed call

Heading into the Dallas Mavericks' game on Wednesday night against the New Orleans Pelicans, it was all doom and gloom in Dallas.

Kyrie Irving wasn't set to play after originally expecting to play due to his back injury, Dereck Lively II was out due to the ankle sprain that he suffered last night, and they had lost back-to-back games to the Denver Nuggets just a few days before.

Things were not ideal in Dallas heading into this game, but Daniel Gafford, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Jaden Hardy kept the Mavericks in this game.

They combined for 68 points in this one, and Gafford bounced back after calling himself out for a lack of effort and physicality in last night's game against Denver. They each did their best to keep Dallas in this game, but none of them could save the Mavericks from one of the worst missed calls we've seen in the NBA in some time.

Mavericks fall to Pelicans after all-time awful missed goaltending call

With less than 10 seconds remaining, Dallas trailed 117-116, and they were pushing the ball in transition. Naji Marshall found Dinwiddie cutting to the rim, and he attempted a layup on the right side of the lane. After the ball had already hit the glass, Trey Murphy III blocked the shot, and the referees missed the blatant goaltending call with about three seconds left in the game. Dallas didn't have any timeouts remaining to challenge this play, and there was nothing called for them to challenge to begin with, and they lost the perfect chance to walk out of New Orleans with a win.

Dallas then had to play the foul game and Murphy III drilled both free throws. They then had a chance to tie the game up, but Marshall's 64-foot shot from way beyond half-court fell short and the Mavericks lost 119-116.

This missed call ultimately robbed Dallas of the chance to get the win, and Mavericks fans should be furious at the way the end of this game was officiated. Dinwiddie explained the play during his postgame media availability, and he talked about how he purposely holds the ball far away from his body when he goes for scoop layups because if a player blocks it, the shot would have already hit the backboard. This entire play was calculated by Dinwiddie, the referees just missed the call.

After the game, Jason Kidd was clearly frustrated with the missed goaltending call, and he called out the officiating crew. The explanation that he got from the referees was that "they didn't see it," and since nothing was called on the floor, there was nothing the officiating crew couldn't go back and look at that play.

"They didn’t do their job tonight," Kidd said. "The referees have a tough job, they clearly did not get that one right. It cost us the game…Hopefully the referees can be better in close games."

Kidd isn't the only one who was upset about the missed call, as Naji Marshall posted a tweet after the game saying "Mines well just play pickup and call our own fouls and calls!!!" in response to a video of the play in which the goaltending happened.

Kidd said that he does not know if the team plans on protesting this call, as that decision is made by the higher-ups in the organization, and this was the most brutal way to lose imaginable. Things are only poised to get harder for the Mavs moving forward, as they play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night.