NBA admits referees failed to notice 1.5 seconds tick off the clock late in Celtics' loss to Hornets

BOSTON -- Everybody understands that the Boston Celtics never should have been in a tight game with the Charlotte Hornets, and everybody also knows that if Jayson Tatum had just hit his three free throws late in overtime, then there would be no need to talk about the clock.

At the same time, NBA referees are expected to perform their jobs at a certain level, and when they don't, it's newsworthy.

The NBA admitted in its Last Two Minute Report for Monday's Hornets victory that the officials made a couple of mistakes after Tatum missed his third free throw in overtime -- a shot that would have tied the game at 119.

After the miss, the NBA said that Holiday actually fouled Brandon Miller with 5.2 seconds left in the game when he pulled Miller's hand off the ball "and affects [Miller's] ability to secure the rebound."

(The shooting foul on Gordon Hayward, which put Tatum at the line to begin with, was deemed a correct call on review.)

Holiday was eventually called for a foul after Miles Bridges secured the rebound.

Though the clock clearly kept running after that foul was called, the officials didn't notice, and the Celtics didn't raise enough alarm to get them to double-check. The three-man crew of Rodney Mott, Mitchell Ervin and Robert Hussey were apparently unaware of the extra time ticking away, so the clock remained at 1.7 seconds in the game.

The L2M report said that the clock should have been stopped at 3.2 seconds.

"Although the foul is called with 3.2 seconds remaining on the game clock, the clock continues to run to 01.7 and it is not recognized by the officials," the report said. 

After the Holiday foul, the Celtics had to commit another foul off Charlotte's inbounds, a sequence that took 0.9 seconds off the clock.

If the clock had been corrected, then the Celtics would have had 2.3 seconds to try to make a tying or winning basket after Hayward's made free throws. Instead, they had 0.8 seconds, and Holiday's inbounds pass was intercepted by Bridges to end the game.

Would the Celtics have made the most of those 2.3 seconds if they had them in that moment? Doubtful. Joe Mazzulla is many things, but a master of drawing up ATOs is not one of them.

Still, while officials can often be forgiven for not getting every foul call correct in a sport full of giant bodies moving at full speed ... they should be able to get the clock right. In a multi-billion dollar league, basic mechanics of game management shouldn't ever really be a factor in the game.