NBA denies Mavericks' protest

LOS ANGELES — Hours before the Rockets would tip off against the Lakers, they won a game that began Dec. 18.

NBA commissioner David Stern on Tuesday denied the Mavericks’ protest of the Rockets 116-108 win in Dallas, ruling that the technical foul called on Dallas center Erick Dampier was a judgment call and not misapplication of the rules as the Mavericks contended.

The Rockets never seemed concerned that they would be taking a third trip to Dallas this season.

“It was clearly the brilliant argument our legal department made that turned the case,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said via e-mail.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban initially argued that Dampier was given the technical foul, his second of the game, only after improper video review of a flagrant foul called on Rockets guard Aaron Brooks. In subsequent comments, he contended that the call itself was wrong and that Dampier should not have been given his second technical and the automatic ejection that came with it.

The Mavericks sought to replay the 1:01 left in the game after Dampier was ejected.

“All I can say is that we disagree with the ruling and that we will deal with the issue at the Board of Governors Meeting so hopefully it doesn’t come up again in the future,” Cuban said in an e-mail response.

“I don’t think anybody in this locker room was worried,” Rockets center Chuck Hayes said. “It would have been pointless (to replay 61 seconds). There was no grounds for a protest.”

Brooks, whose flagrant foul prompted the Dampier elbow and video review, called the protest “corny.”

“It had nothing to do with the game,” Brooks said. “It actually helped them out. They got a better free throw shooter (Kris Humphries) on the foul line, they got to shoot two free throws and got the ball back. I don’t think they would have turned the outcome of the game (to change the call.) It wasn’t a flagrant foul or a technical. We could have disputed it, too.”

In its statement, the NBA said “Commissioner Stern determined that the referees’ decision to assess a technical foul on Dampier was a judgment call, and not a misapplication of the playing rules, which cannot successfully be protested under NBA rules.”

The Rockets argued that the Mavericks were merely debating the merits of an official’s call.

“That’s good news,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman when told of the decision hours after the announcement. “I just could never believe they were going to do something like that. You have so many instances in games over the year and over the years. You start doing something like that and you’re going to have every game protested with the hope that things could change.

“If they are going to look at the elbow, they should look at the flagrant foul they called because that was the most unflagrant foul I’ve ever seen in my life. I did not think they were going to uphold that, but that’s good. I don’t want to go back to Dallas — not in the regular season.”