The Milwaukee Bucks still would've been hard-pressed to win Game 5 against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, but an egregious non-call of a Celtics shot-clock violation did them no favors.
Up five points with 80 seconds to play, the Celtics - who'd just gotten away with a backcourt violation - milked the clock until Al Horford put up a desperation jumper that didn't leave his hand in time. None of the three referees, however, whistled the play dead, and the Celtics wound up getting an offensive rebound and a shot-clock reset, allowing them to run another 26 seconds off the game clock.
The Bucks were understandably steamed about the missed call and the lack of a replay review that might've rectified it.
Asked after the game if he'd gotten an explanation for the non-review, Bucks head coach Joe Prunty said, "Not a good enough one."
Point guard Eric Bledsoe was a bit more blunt. "It's bullshit," he said, according to Sporting News' Sean Deveney.
The short explanation is, the situation didn't qualify as a trigger for a replay review. Hilariously, it would have if Horford had actually hit the shot. Referee crew chief Ken Mauer responded to a pool request after the game to explain.
"The rule states that under two minutes we are not allowed to review a potential 24-second violation unless the ball goes in the basket," Mauer told the pool reporter.
Again, the Bucks would've had a considerable uphill climb regardless, but the non-call all but buried them. Per Inpredictable, the Bucks' win probability if they'd been awarded possession would've been 5.2 percent. Once they weren't, their odds dropped to 2.3 percent.