A pair of goaltending non-calls from Sunday night's Game 2 have fans of both the Lakers and Magic complaining.

Dwight Howard reached through the basket to reject Pau Gasol in the first quarter, a clear violation of NBA rules. Rule No. 11, Section 1, Article G, states that goaltending occurs when a player "touch[es] the ball at any time with a hand which is through the basket ring."

At the end of regulation, with just 0.6 seconds left on the clock and Courtney Lee attempting a game-winning lay up, Gasol touched the basket while contesting the shot.

Rule No. 11, Section I, Article H of the NBA rule book states that a player must not "vibrate the rim, net or backboard so as to cause the ball to make an unnatural bounce, or bend or move the rim to an off-center position when the ball is touching the ring or passing through."

While the Howard call should have been obvious, Gasol's contact with the rim didn't appear to alter the course of the shot.

"If you're interpreting from the rule book, I would not have called that a goaltend last night because the contact with the rim was pretty mild," ESPN analyst Tim Legler said Monday.

"I think that the ball wasn't going in anyway. That ball was coming off the rim too hard. I don't care how much Pau Gasol touched the rim; that ball was not going in the basket. There was too much English on the basketball when it skipped off the glass."

Via Los Angeles Times

Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers

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