The NBA released its Last Two Minute Report for Game 6 of Celtics-Wizards. Nothing truly egregious happened, but there was one situation late in the game that cost the Celtics precious time.
After John Wall hit his clutch 3-pointer to put Washington up one with 3.5 seconds left, the Celtics inbounded the ball straight towards the rim to Kelly Olynk. Washington's Kelly Oubre, who was guarding Olynyk at the time, fouled him on the catch, which ran the clock down to 1.7 seconds.
With 1.7 left on the clock, Boston was forced to throw up a prayer and missed. Now the Celtics return home for a crucial Game 7.
However, it appears that the Celtics should have had a little more time to get off a good look. Per the L2M report, the clock ran one whole second longer than it should have after the whistle.
The L2M report for the qualifying game from last night has been posted on https://t.co/edslpDG0O7
— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) May 13, 2017
@NBA reveals Oubre foul on Olynyk called at 2.7. Clock should have been stopped at whistle or adjusted by clock operator. Not reviewable.
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) May 13, 2017
One second at first feels meaningless, but had the Celtics been given 2.7 seconds to run a play instead of 1.7, they may have had time to get a better look. Instead they had to result in a desperation heave before the clock hit zero.
These kinds of mistakes are common, especially for the road team, but sadly there's really nothing that can be done about them. If nobody notices that extra time has gone off the clock then it's easy to have that go unnoticed. The only real way for teams to avoid it is to not put themselves in that situation in the first place.
