Report: Raptors file protest with NBA over loss to Kings

The Toronto Raptors have reportedly protested their Sunday night loss to the Sacramento Kings.

The Raptors - who lost the game when Terrence Ross' game-tying, ostensibly buzzer-beating 3-pointer was waved off after an unusual replay review - filed their protest with the NBA on Tuesday, sources told ESPN's Marc Stein.

Though Ross got the shot off with about 0.5 seconds remaining in regulation, the Kings triggered a review on the basis of a clock malfunction, as the 2.4 seconds remaining when the Raptors inbounded the ball hadn't begun to tick down immediately after DeMarcus Cousins got his fingertips on the inbounds pass.

The NBA replay center determined that 2.5 seconds elapsed between Cousins' deflection and Ross' release, so the officials waved off the basket and ended the game right then and there. Their decision was reaffirmed by the league in its last-two-minute report the following day.

Sportsnet's Michael Grange reported Monday that the Raptors would be protesting the decision on two claims:

First, that the replay center officials made their estimates of when the clock should have started based on frame-by-frame video, which doesn't accurately reflect the human element of a timekeeper starting the clock.

Second (and likely more convincing), that Ross timed his shot based on the in-arena clock, and could conceivably release it earlier had he seen the correct time. The Raptors don't feel they should be penalized for an inaccuracy caused by the Kings' timekeepers.

The NBA has five business days to make a ruling.