Congratulations Philadelphia 76ers, you were right.
Your reward is that you’re still down 0-2 to the Knicks in their Eastern Conference first-round matchup.
After the game, the 76ers complained about several official calls, especially in the chaotic final 35 seconds of Game 2, when Philadelphia blew a five-point lead to go ahead and lose. The NBA’s last two minutes report found a few missed calls in the final seconds:
• With 34.7 seconds and a fight for a loose ball, Donte DiVincenzo comes out with the ball and when he does, Embiid should have been penalized for a foul for reaching “his left hand forward and striking the head/face of DiVincenzo (NYK) when he starts his dribble.” DiVincenzo maintained control, came out at the top of the key, drove left and finally found Jalen Brunson in the corner, who made a play and hit a 3-pointer.
• With 27.2 seconds remaining (after Brunson’s hit), Brunson should have been called for a foul for pulling Tyrese Maxey’s shirt as he tried to free himself to pass inbounds.
• During this time, “An attempted timeout by the Nurse Coach during this play is neither recognized nor granted by the referees,” but should have been, according to the report.
• As soon as Maxey got the pass, Josh Hart “steps forward into Maxey’s space and initiates lower body contact that causes Maxey to lose balance and fall to the ground,” and this should have been a foul .
• After that, Hart’s steal of Maxey is ruled clean and the refs did the right thing by not blowing the whistle (except for the part where they missed the two calls leading up to that moment).
All this doesn’t change anything. The end of the game will not be replayed and the Knicks won 2-0.
In Game 2 of Lakers vs. Nuggets – a dramatic Nuggets victory – the Last Two Minutes Report found that the only incorrect call was a missed 3-second violation on Nikola Jokic with 1:53 left in the game. He says that all decisions during a round-trip game were correct.
