John Wall drove a dagger through the Boston Celtics and their hopes of avoiding a Game 7, but as the dust settled from a dramatic Game 6 some have noticed Wall got a significant assist from the clock operator.
As Jack Maloney at CBS Sports points out, a bit of human error may have robbed the Celtics of precious time to get a game-winning shot off before the buzzer. After Wall hit a 3-pointer to put the Wizards up with 3.5 seconds in the fourth, the Celtics called timeout.
On the inbound, Al Horford passes to Kelly Olynyk, who is fouled almost immediately by Kelly Oubre Jr. This time, though, they did not try to fight one another. More pressing matters were at hand. The referee calls a foul, raises his arm, and blows the whistle with about 2.8 seconds left on the clock.
But the clock doesn’t stop right at the whistle, which is common because we are all human and mistakes are what make us alive. That doesn’t mean the transgression cannot be corrected, though. And it is not! Boston is left with 1.7 seconds left to get off a play—still time enough to make something happen, but it does limit your options when nearly a full second has escaped because of a slow clock operator and lack of oversight.
This is what happened instead:
https://media.giphy.com/media/l0Iy9vYdMBpksN5Ha/giphy.gif
Instead of correcting it, the Celtics got a long Isaiah Thomas shot over Markieff Morris that was off the mark. The thinking here is that, with more time, Boston can do something more than set a high screen and get off a long three. It was a 1-point game, after all.
More importantly, Maloney argues that situations like these are exactly why the NBA has instant replay.
Now, of course, the clock isn’t going to stop precisely on the foul, as the ref has to realize the foul, blow his whistle and raise his arm, and the clock operator has to stop the clock. That said, isn’t that what replay is for? We see situations all the time where officials convene for what feels like 10 minutes to make sure the time on the clock is right. They didn’t even look at this one.
Considering the noticeable difference between when the whistle is blown on the Oubre Jr. foul and the clock actually stopping, it really is hard to believe the officials didn’t go back and check the time. It doesn’t take anything away from Wall’s heroics, but it did hurt Thomas’s ability to get off a quality shot in the end.
(via CBS Sports)
