The Golden State Warriors on Friday swallowed a ridiculous loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves 131-130 at the Target Center after two controversial  calls by the referee in the overtime. 

The Boston Celtics defeated the visiting Indiana Pacers at the TD Garden to rise to No. 4 in the Eastern Conference. The Denver Nuggets swept the Oklahoma City Thunder this season with their a 115-105-victory at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Players should decide the game, not a referee

Minnesota had eight players score double-digit points. Andrew Wiggins claimed the most 24 points while Karl-Anthony Towns had a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds. Josh Okogie, Tyus Jones and Dario Saric got respectively 21, 12 and 10 points. Jerryd Bayless contributed 17 points off the bench while Anthony Tolliver and Gorgui Dieng both had 14 points.

Stephen Curry scored the court's highest 37 points for Golden State after he again buried 11 three-pointers. Kevin Durant dropped a double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds. Klay Thompson got 20 points and Demarcus Cousins, in the 26 minutes he played, totaled 16 points and nine rebounds. Andre Iguodala contributed 14 points from the bench.

The NBA's referees again drew attention for some decisions in the game. When there were only 4.4 seconds to go in the OT, Durant made a three-pointer in front of Keita Bates-Diop when whistled. However, as everyone expected a chance for a four-point play, the referee called it a non-shooting-foul and thus the three-pointer was counted.

Though Curry then made his 11th three-pointer to tie the score 130-130, his efforts were again ruined when the referee called a defensive foul by Durant on Towns who, as a result, got two free throws. Towns made the first one and missed the second on purpose because there was only 0.5 second left, helping the Timberwolves take the win at home.

GSW were furious about the two calls. When asked about the referee's decision in the post-game interview, Curry said: "You'd have to ask the MVP of the night, (referee) Mark Kogut." 

Durant directly called Kogut "the best player on the floor tonight". 

Head coach Steve Kerr used "mind-boggling" on KD's canceled four-point play and responded to the last foul-call as the following: "You mean when the lob was going 10 feet over the rim? Never seen it."

Bleacher Report described the last few seconds as "the most ridiculous thing you'll see this regular season".

The league did their best to protect the referees by forbidding teams from talking about the calls after the game. However, the referees are already given too much power that could let them decide the result of the game. Though there are so-called appeal policies for teams, the league would at most admit that the referees have made a mistake but the outcome of the game will never change. A regular season game may not matter much, but what if the game decides which team make the playoffs? What if it is the playoffs? Or the Finals? 

Finally, Celtics rise to East No. 4

Kyrie Irving scored the highest 30 points on the floor including making the 0.5 second game-winning shot for Boston. The team's two starting big men, Al Horford and Aron Baynes also had good performance by dropping respectively 19 points and 13 points+13 rebounds. Jaylen Brown contributed 16 points, the highest from the bench.

Bojan Bogdanovic again claimed Indiana's most 27 points. Thaddeus Young dropped 18 points and nine rebounds while Myles Turner got 15 points and 11 rebounds. Domantas Sabonis contributed 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench,

The Celtics and the Pacers were similar to each other in many ways. Both were heavily invested on defense and often struggled in the offense. Both relied on jump-shooting as the major weapon and shared the ball too well for them to decide who should be allowed to take the most shots.

The difference in Friday's game was that Boston had Irving who could and should be in charge of the offense in the last five minutes of the game. The six points he got in the last four minutes at the TD Garden were all lead-gaining points for the Celtics. If the team can remain No. 4 until the end of the regular season, they will enjoy home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs though their rival will still be Indiana.

Rockets beat Nuggets, Nuggets beat Thunder

After a painful loss against the Houston Rockets a day earlier, Denver visited OKC for a back-to-back game and took an easy win. Jamal Murray shot down 27 points and nine assists for the team while Nikola Jokic had a double-double of 23 points and 16 rebounds.

As for Oklahoma City, this home game was nothing pleasing. Paul George played 40 minutes while suffering shoulder injuries to get 25 points and nine rebounds. Russell Westbrook had the team's most 27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists but could not help them win.

Friday's game sent different messages to the two teams. Thanks to this victory, the Nuggets should be able to finish the regular season as top 2 of the Western Conference, meaning that they will be able to enjoy home court advantage at least before the Western Finals.

Thunder might look at it more like a wake-up call. George's shoulder problem already affected his shooting, dribbling and penetrating. Steven Adams again showed signs running down in the second half of the game. Head coach Billy Donovan must decide whether to ask his players to go all out for better ranking (between No. 8 and No. 5) or to start resting for the playoffs.

Other games on Friday included: (away teams come first)

Portland Trail Blazers 118-98 Atlanta Hawks

Washington Wizards 124-128 Utah Jazz

Charlotte Hornets 115-129 Los Angeles Lakers