The Mavericks gave the Warriors a totally free basket after defending the wrong side of the court

This may be the most free basket any NBA team will ever get from now until the end of time.

The Golden State Warriors were hilariously gifted a basket on Wednesday during their game against the Dallas Mavericks after quite the embarrassing mistake from the home team. In the third quarter of Wednesday night’s game, the Mavericks came out of a timeout to set their defense up against Golden State on a throw-in attempt.

Unfortunately for the Mavericks, they lined up on the complete wrong side of the court. The mistake allowed Golden State complete free rein to toss the ball in and dunk it for two points with absolutely no resistance whatsoever.

The Mavericks came out of the timeout and weren't guarding the right side of the floor…

Don't see this very often pic.twitter.com/iNiCIwIqsV

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) March 23, 2023

How does that even happen? Well, according to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, it seems as if an officiating snafu is the cause. Via Cuban on Twitter, the Mavericks were told it would be their ball before the time out, but the call was then changed and Dallas was never told.

For those wondering about the play with 1:54 to go on the 3rd, let me explain what happened. The ref called Mavs ball . The announcer announced it. Then there was a timeout . During the time out the official changed the call and never told us. Then when they saw us line up as…

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 23, 2023

Even worse? The Mavericks lost the game by two points, meaning this error was pretty crucial by game’s end.

Here’s how NBA fans reacted to the play.