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NBA admits 12 blown calls in final 2 regulation minutes, 4 OTs in Hawks-Knicks

Butch Dill / USA TODAY Sports

The NBA's last-two-minute report turned into a last-22-minute report on Monday, as the league needed to sift through four overtimes' worth of game tape in addition to the final two minutes of regulation to determine if justice was done in the Atlanta Hawks' win over the New York Knicks.

That much game time is bound to produce a few mistakes, and the report acknowledged 12 of them - two incorrect calls and 10 incorrect non-calls - with seven benefiting the Hawks and five benefiting the Knicks.

Here's a quick rundown:

  • With 1:11 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Hawks leading 101-99, Knicks center Joakim Noah got away with setting an illegal screen on Dennis Schroder.
  • With 54.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Knicks leading 102-101, Carmelo Anthony got away with a loose-ball foul on Hawks center Dwight Howard.
  • With 30.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Hawks leading 103-102, Schroder got away with a loose-ball foul on Noah.
  • With 3.5 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Hawks leading 104-102, Paul Millsap's shooting foul on Anthony's game-tying layup went uncalled.
  • With 1:14 remaining in the first overtime and the Knicks leading 111-108, Howard got away with a defensive three-second violation.
  • With 53.6 seconds remaining in the first overtime, Noah was whistled for a shooting foul on a Howard alley-oop layup (which cut the Knicks' lead to 111-110) that should've been a foul on the floor.
  • With 35.2 seconds remaining in the first overtime and the score tied at 111, Anthony got away with traveling.
  • With 12.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime, Anthony was mistakenly whistled for a foul on Shroder's driving layup, which gave the Hawks a 123-120 lead.
  • With 4.4 seconds remaining in the third overtime and the Knicks leading 130-128, Knicks guard Justin Holiday got away with fouling Schroder on his game-tying layup.
  • With 1:26 remaining in the fourth overtime and the Knicks leading 139-138, Hawks guard Malcolm Delaney got away with fouling Brandon Jennings on a drive to the hoop.
  • With 10.2 seconds remaining in the fourth overtime and the Hawks leading 142-139, Knicks forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas got away with a loose-ball foul on Mike Muscala after Schroder's missed free throw.
  • With 5.4 seconds remaining in the fourth overtime and the Hawks leading 142-139, Muscala got away with a loose-ball foul of his own on Willy Hernangomez after Knicks guard Courtney Lee missed a 3-pointer, though Lee recovered the rebound anyway.

The report also cited several ostensible "missed calls" that were deemed incidental or immaterial, as well as a handful of traveling violations - another three of them committed by Anthony - that were only observable using "enhanced video."

That seems like a lot of poor officiating, but again, this was 22 minutes of game time, and the scrutiny is mostly an exercise in minutiae. Few of the blown calls, if any, were glaring.

If anything, this is just a preview of what a potential 48-minute report might look like.

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