The Pool Report interview was conducted by Kelly Iko (The Athletic) with Crew Chief Ed Malloy following tonight’s LA Clippers at Houston Rockets Game 

QUESTION: After the review in the 4th quarter, with 16.1 seconds, left why was possession ultimately given to the to the Clippers and not deemed a jump ball?

MALLOY: After going to replay review for a coach’s challenge for the foul, we deemed that it was a legal play, a good blocked shot, so it is technically an inadvertent whistle.  Then we are going to look to see where the ball was when the whistle is blown. Replay review showed that when the whistle was blown, Robert Covington had control of the basketball, therefore, Los Angeles got possession.

QUESTION: Is that always going to be the outcome? The team that has the ball in that situation or is it typically a jump ball?

MALLOY:  Whenever we have an inadvertent whistle, we are going to look to see where the ball is at when the whistle was blown. If the ball was loose, it would be a jump ball between any two players at center circle.  When we look and see that when the whistle was blown, and one team or the other has control of it, then they are going to get possession on the side.  Basically that is what happened with this play here.  We looked to see when the whistle was blown, Robert Covington had control, so LA got the ball.