With 5.6 seconds remaining in Game 2 of a first-round playoff series between the No. 3 seeded New York Knicks and the No. 6 seeded Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, CJ McCollum missed a pair of free-throw attempts.
After McCollum’s second miss, and with a one-point deficit, Knicks wing Josh Hart reeled in a defensive rebound and immediately began pushing the ball up the floor. He hurled a pass past halfcourt to Mikal Bridges, who teased a drive before stepping back out for a long jumper that clanked off the rim prior to the buzzer.
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Just like that, the upstart Hawks, at one point down by as many as 14 points, completed their double-digit comeback at Madison Square Garden and tied the series 1-1 with a 107-106 victory.
But why didn’t the Knicks call a timeout?
The Knicks didn’t actually have a timeout to use in that final sequence, unlike the NBC broadcast suggested.
NBC apologized for the confusion during halftime of Nuggets-Timberwolves Game 2.
“We just want to say that the scoreboard showed a timeout that the Knicks did not have on the final play, but, due to a data issue, the wrong timeout information was communicated,” NBA on NBC host Maria Taylor said, via Awful Announcing.
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“So that’s why you see a timeout on the scorebug.”
The timeout appeared on the graphic after McCollum’s first missed free throw.
After narrating the Knicks-Hawks highlights, Taylor noted at the time that NBA on NBC analyst Carmelo Anthony, a 10-time All-Star who spent six-plus seasons with the Knicks from 2011-17, had his head down in reaction to the final moments of his former team’s blunder.
“He had to touch the monitor to even really believe what had happened in this Knicks game,” Taylor said.
Anthony then clarified why he reacted that way.
“Well, I was touching the screen because I was under the impression that there was a timeout,” he said. “So, thank you for correcting that.”
The Knicks hadn’t choked in a playoff game as badly as they did Monday night since 1994. That’s when Reggie Miller famously erupted for 25 fourth-quarter points in MSG, tauntingly clutching his throat and leading his Indiana Pacers to a Game 5 win in that year’s Eastern Conference finals. That was the last time the Knicks lost in the postseason after leading by 12 or more points following three quarters of play, according to The Associated Press.
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Entering Monday, per the AP, the Knicks were 40-1 in the shot clock era, in other words from the 1954-55 season on, with that kind of advantage heading into the final frame of a playoff game.
While the Knicks, namely head coach Mike Brown, couldn’t have called a final timeout before Bridges hoisted his final shot, Brown was worthy of ample criticism for his handling of his squad down the stretch of the home setback.
