On Monday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics dropped to 11-3 on the young 2023-24 NBA season with a crushing 121-118 overtime road loss to the Charlotte Hornets. Although Tatum scored 45 points in what was largely a virtuoso performance, he also missed a free throw late in the overtime that would have tied the game for the Celtics. The Hornets then grabbed the rebound and were fouled, hitting two free throws to extend the lead to three with marginal time remaining.
However, there was just one problem: there should have been a lot more time left on the clock. On Tuesday, the NBA confirmed in its Last Two Minutes report that, following the Tatum missed free throw, a foul should have been called on Jrue Holiday with 5.2 seconds remaining, per Taylor Snow. The call was actually made with 3.2 seconds left, and even after that delay, an additional 1.5 seconds drained off before the clock was finally stopped with 1.7 seconds left.
In other words, there should have been 3.2 more seconds for the Celtics to work with than what they had. On their last gasp attempt, the Celtics had a pass intended for Jaylen Brown picked off by the Hornets’ Miles Bridges, ending the game.
While 11-3 certainly is not a bad record (in fact, it’s actually the best in the NBA), the Celtics know the importance of collecting every win possible in order to set up home court advantage in the playoffs, and they certainly let an opportunity to do that slip away on Monday, made more frustrating by the egregious officiating mistake.
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