Steve Kerr was amused by the flashpoint in the Golden State Warriors' 127-125 win over the Dallas Mavericks that had their opponents plotting a protest.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban complained of the "worst officiating non-call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA", but Warriors coach Kerr was confident there was nothing amiss.
The Mavericks took a timeout late in the third quarter and believed they had possession of the ball, asserting they were told as much by the game officials.
What transpired was a referee call that led to Warriors center Kevon Looney scoring an uncontested dunk from a Jordan Poole inbound pass to make it 90-87 with 1:56 left in the third.
The Dallas players were not in position, leading to protests from Cuban and coach Jason Kidd, but the dunk stood.
Kerr teasingly said it was his season's standout ATO – after timeout.
"Number one, it was my best ATO of the year. It worked brilliantly, just the way we got organised and confused them," he said.
More seriously, he added: "I had to stop. When I saw them at the other end, I had to stop and think, 'Isn't this our basket?', because I had drawn up a play for an out-of-bounds [play] underneath, a baseline out-of-bounds.
"When they were down at the other end I had to stop and think, 'Is this right?'.
"I don't know what happened. You'd have to ask their side. I thought it was pretty clear that it was our ball and that's why I was drawing up a play out-of-bounds on the baseline.
"But they all lined up at the other end. I guess they assumed it was their ball."
Looney, who benefitted from the confusion, said: "I didn't know what was going on. I'm just glad JP passed to me because I needed that to get to my double-double."
