The Milwaukee Bucks may have lost anyway on Tuesday, but a horribly missed shot clock violation didn’t help. Late in Game 4, with 1:16 left in the fourth quarter, all three referees failed to call out Al Horford’s late three-pointer, one that seemed late even from the naked eye watching the television screen.
The Celtics escaped Game 5 with help from a horribly missed shot clock violation
Boston goes up 3-2 in the series with the win, but they were helped by a blown call.
Here’s the play in question.
Milwaukee was down five points, and there were less than 90 seconds left in this situation. The odds were stacked against them to pull off a comeback win. Still, the missed violation led to a Celtics’ offensive rebound and another 30 seconds running off the clock. That sure didn’t help, either.
While plays can be reviewed under the two-minute mark, this one was not reviewable. Because a shot clock violation was not originally called, there was no trigger for the referees to go back and review the play. If Horford had made his too-late shot, then it’s likely the referees would have double checked it and realized their mistake. Because he missed it, and because play didn’t stop until a foul was called during the offensive rebound seconds later, they were not allowed to review it under league rules.
Of course, this all would have been solved if they got the call right in the first place. It was a bad enough mishap that even an NBA player tweeted about it.
Even in the moment from a casual viewer, it sure seemed like a missed call. The replay only confirmed that, so it’s hard to say how three different referees blew that call.
Milwaukee’s loss puts them down 3-2 in the series against Boston, although now they head home for Game 6. It’s definitely unlikely that the Bucks would have come back even if the violation had been called correctly, but it certainly hurt any chance of that happening. We’ll see if the Bucks can extend this series to seven games when they face the Celtics in Game 6 on Thursday.
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