The Dallas Mavericks held on to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 113-107 on Thursday night. Despite a late Clippers run, the game was sealed by one of the strangest sequences you’ll see all year.

Dirk Nowitzki picked up his dribble at halfcourt, realized he was trapped in between Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, and called timeout.

Officials had to deliberate for several seconds as to whether there was a foul, timeout or travel on the play — Nowitzki picked up his dribble and took a step before the foul was called.

Clippers head coach Doc Rivers very enthusiastically campaigned for a travel call.

The foul ended up going against Griffin, giving Nowitzki two free throws to ice the game for Dallas.

It wasn’t a reviewable play, and it was too close to determine fully from instant replay whether the foul was called before the travel too place. Was it the right call? The answer is a shrug and a “probably.” It was a strange way to kill the Clippers’ momentum, but that happens.

With this win, the Mavericks moved into seventh place in the Western Conference standings. The race for the final two seeds between Dallas, Phoenix and Memphis has been a dog fight and it won’t be over until the last day of the season. The Mavs gained a crucial upper hand.