Referees missed Detroit’s Tim Hardaway Jr. getting fouled by New York’s Josh Hart on the final play of the Pistons’ playoff matchup against the Knicks on Sunday, the NBA acknowledged shortly after Game 4 ended.
It was a critical missed call: Detroit lost the game by a single point, 94-93. Hardaway’s 3-point shot officially came with 0.3 seconds remaining. Had the foul been called, he would have gone to the foul line for three free throws that could have given Detroit the lead.
“During live play, it was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play,” crew chief David Guthrie told a pool reporter after the game. “After postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr. and a foul should have been called.”
New York’s win gave the Knicks a 3-1 lead in the series.
“Did I make contact with him? Yeah, I made contact with him,” Hart said. “Was it legal? I don’t know. We’ll let the two-minute report say that.”
The NBA puts out a review of all calls in the final two minutes of games decided by three points or fewer, with those reports released the day after the game. But in this case, with a pool report requested, the NBA had Guthrie speak to a reporter and explain what happened.
Detroit argued to no avail after time expired. Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was clearly angered and approached the officiating crew on the floor shortly after the final shot, but he had no mechanism to challenge the call. One, the Pistons had used their challenge earlier in the game and two, even if Bickerstaff still had the challenge it wouldn’t have mattered — technically, no call was made, so he couldn’t have challenged anyway.
“There’s contact on Tim Hardaway’s jump shot,” Bickerstaff said. “I don’t know any other way around it. There’s contact on his jump shot. The guy leaves his feet, he’s at Timmy’s mercy. I repeat, there’s contact on his jump shot.”
The Pistons had the ball with 11.1 seconds left, down by one. Cade Cunningham missed a jump shot with 7.4 seconds remaining and, after a scramble, the ball ended up in Hardaway’s hands in the left corner.
Cunningham had 25 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds for his first playoff triple-double and the third in franchise history, but he missed two shots and turned the ball over in the final 1:07.
Karl-Anthony Towns made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 46.6 seconds left and finished with 27 points for the Knicks. Jalen Brunson had 32 points.
The Pistons have lost nine straight home playoff games since 2008, equaling an NBA record set by Philadelphia from 1968 to 1971.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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