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There are any number of situations in which the ball can become dead without your having blown the whistle. A person travels and then is fouled, with the foul occurring prior to you having whistled the travel. You don't have two calls, you have a travel because the ball was dead as soon as the travel occurred.
In almost all cases, an action causes the ball to become dead. The whistle signifies to the participants that the ball is dead, but does not make the ball dead. I think that Mick's point is, if the ball can become dead from a player losing control of it at the line, then it is dead at the moment control is lost, not the moment that the ref wakes up to the situation and blows the whistle. With or without a whistle, you should not have a lane violation. However, my response to Mick would be that the whistle makes it cleaner. It is used to signal to all participants and thus avoids any controversy, or any need for a discussion with your partner about whether or not the ball was dead.
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