It was the wildest finish of the playoffs so far, but should it not have counted?
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse claimed he tried to call a timeout before his team inbounded the ball in the crazy final sequence, but the referees ignored him, leading to a scramble and a 3-pointer from Donte DiVincenzo that would snatch the lead away.
“Obviously they score, we take a look at getting it in quick, we don’t get it in quick. I call timeout, the referee looked right at me. Ignored me,” Nurse explained. “Went in to Tyrese [Maxey], I called timeout again, then the melee started.”
“I guess I gotta run out onto the floor or do something to make sure I get his attention, but I needed a timeout there to advance it. Would’ve been good but couldn’t get it.”
It was an electric ending at Madison Square Garden.
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Knicks star Jalen Brunson got a favourable bounce on a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left. Then on the inbound, Kyle Lowry had some trouble trying to find an open teammate as his pass to Tyrese Maxey was poked up, with the two squads scrambling for possession on the floor.
Ahead of that inbound, Nurse attempted to call his timeout but was ignored. He tried to call another timeout after the ball was inbounded to Maxey.
Eventually, Knicks wing Josh Hart came up with the loose ball and sent it to DiVincenzo for an open 3-pointer, but he missed his first attempt. Centre Isaiah Hartenstein would come down with the offensive rebound and swing it around for another open look from DiVincenzo that would end up being the decisive bucket for New York.
The Knicks finished the game scoring eight points in the last 28 seconds to turn a five-point deficit into a three-point lead.
Nurse wasn’t all too pleased, and the tape-grinding started early for the former Raptors head coach.
“You can ask him if you want to, see if he saw me calling a timeout,” Nurse said, evidently frustrated. “I watched the film just to make sure. I’m clearly calling a timeout, I didn’t see if he looked at me in the film but I can see me clearly calling timeout. Twice.”
According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, the 76ers plan to file a grievance with the NBA about the officiating across the first two games of the series
Joel Embiid echoed that sentiment post-game, saying that more importantly than the timeouts, the referees missed plenty of calls at the end of the game.
“Everybody on the floor was trying to call a timeout, myself included,” Embiid said in the locker room after the game, also visibly frustrated. “Nico [Batum], coach on the sideline, but they didn’t give it to us. But forget about the timeouts, there were a bunch of fouls. … That’s [expletive] unacceptable.”
Now, the 76ers find themselves at a 2-0 deficit in the first round series after two games that could’ve gone either way.
Philadelphia has never recovered after being down 2-0 in a series. With injury concerns seemingly always surrounding Joel Embiid and calls like these not going their way, making franchise history could be that much harder for the 76ers.
“It makes the series a little longer,” Nurse said, confident that his team can still get the job done.
The two teams will head to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Thursday, April 25. It tips off at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT.
