How important was last night's game between the Raptors and the Wizards to both teams, and more importantly how important was the result? Michael Jordan was unable to hit the game winner as time expired, giving the Raptors a 92-91 victory and tied the two teams at 32-38. Both teams are in a fight to make the playoffs with Miami, both the Raptors and Wizards 3 1/2 games behind Indiana for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. Miami plays today and have a chance to move to 32-27, good enough for ninth in the East, with a win over Boston.
But should the game between the Raptors and the Wizards even come down to Jordan's last shot? According to Washington coach Doug Collins and Jordan himself MJ was fouled on the steal which lead to the Raptors taking the lead by one with 16 seconds left in the game, but there was no call.
"It couldn't have been more obvious," Jordan said about the contact, adding that he had been hit on "the head, the forearm, everywhere. The referee is sitting right there. Obviously, when there's a big call like that, they don't want to make a mistake with it. But I'm pretty sure if the whistle blew, the people would have realized it wasn't a mistake."
Jordan finished with 14 points, his highest since coming back from the knee surgery, on 6-of-17 shooting.