The NBA announced Thursday it has denied a protest issued by the Dallas Mavericks over a disputed basket that occurred during the team's two-point loss to the Golden State Warriors on March 22.

The league said in a statement that game officials incorrectly handled a confusing sequence that led to a Warriors' basket late in the third quarter of Golden State’s eventual 127-125 victory, but determined the Mavericks were not denied a fair chance to win the game.

The incident in question occurred following a timeout called by the Mavericks in which they believed they had possession when play was to resume. Official Andy Nagy at first pointed in the Warriors' direction to indicate Golden State would have possession, then pointed to the Mavericks' bench to award the timeout.

Dallas lined up on its offensive end following the timeout, which led to the Warriors’ inbounding the ball to Kevon Looney for an uncontested dunk that gave Golden State a 90-87 lead.

The game's public address announcer also erroneously stated that the Mavericks would have possession after the timeout.

Dallas did regain the lead twice in the fourth quarter and held a 119-118 advantage with under 3 1/2 minutes left in the game, which factored into the NBA's decision to deny the protest.

"The incident occurred with nearly 14 minutes remaining in the game, and Dallas thereafter took the lead twice in the final four minutes," the league said. "Under these circumstances, Dallas was not able to show – as required under the standard for NBA game protests – that it was deprived of a fair opportunity to win the game, and the protest failed on that basis alone.

"Although the game officials could have taken steps to better manage this particular situation, that did not provide a basis for the extraordinary remedy of upholding a game protest."

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban announced shortly after the game he planned to issue a protest while also heavily criticising the officials in a social media post.

"Worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA," Cuban tweeted. "All they had to do was tell us (it was the Warriors' ball) and they didn’t."

The NBA said Dallas acknowledged that the officials signalled Golden State possession in its formal filing of the protest.

The decision to uphold the final result could have a major impact on the Western Conference playoff race. The Warriors currently are one game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 6 seed, which would allow Golden State to avoid the play-in tournament.

Dallas is presently tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 10th and final spot for the play-in tournament with two games remaining in the regular season.