Referees missed a foul on Tim Hardaway Jr on the final play of Detroit’s 94-93 playoff loss to the Knicks on Sunday. The NBA acknowledged the mistake shortly after the game, saying a foul should have been called on the Knicks’ Josh Hart.
Had the foul been called, Hardaway would have been awarded three free throws with about 0.3 seconds left. Instead, the game ended on that play and Detroit were left fuming.
“You guys saw it,” Hardaway said after the game, speaking to reporters. “Blatant.”
The Knicks took a 3-1 lead in the series after their victory, with Game 5 in New York on Tuesday.
“During live play, it was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play,” crew chief David Guthrie told the media after the game. “After postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr and a foul should have been called.”
Hart didn’t dispute that he made contact with Hardaway.
“Did I make contact with him? Yeah, I made contact with him,” Hart said. “Was it legal? I don’t know. We’ll let the two-minute report say that.”
The NBA puts out a review of all calls in the final two minutes of games decided by three points or fewer, with those reports released the day after the game. But in this case, the NBA had Guthrie speak to a reporter and explain what happened.
Detroit argued to no avail after time expired. Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff was clearly angered and approached the officiating crew, but he had no recourse to challenge the call. Firstly, the Pistons had used their challenge earlier in the game and secondly, even if Bickerstaff still had the challenge it wouldn’t have mattered – technically, no call was made, so he couldn’t have challenged.
“There’s contact on Tim Hardaway’s jump shot,” Bickerstaff said. “I don’t know any other way around it. There’s contact on his jump shot. The guy leaves his feet, he’s at Timmy’s mercy. I repeat, there’s contact on his jump shot.”
The Pistons had the ball with 11.1 seconds left, down by one. Cade Cunningham missed a jump shot with 7.4 seconds remaining and, after a scramble, the ball ended up in Hardaway’s hands in the left corner. Hardaway ball-faked to get Hart into the air, and Hart clearly made contact with the right side of Hardaway’s body as he was in the act of shooting.
Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns was asked for his view of the play after the game.
“What do you want me to say? View of what?” Towns said, smiling. “Going back to Madison Square Garden. Happy we got a win. You like that answer? Is that good?”
Elsewhere on Sunday, Jaden McDaniels converted a three-point play with 39.5 seconds left for the lead and stole the ensuing inbounds pass from LeBron James, leading a rally by the Minnesota Timberwolves for a 116-113 win over the Los Angeles Lakers that put them up 3-1 in the first-round series.
Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics went up 3-1 in their series against the Orlando Magic with a 107-98 victory.