At the Garden, live, in person, there was no mystery to it: right there, on the enormous scoreboard, were the hard truths facing the Knicks: Atlanta 107, New York 106, 5.6 seconds left. And, tellingly, under “timeouts” for the Knicks: 0.
On the NBC broadcast on TV, they incorrectly showed the Knicks with one timeout left. On the Knicks’ postgame show, Wally Szczerbiak (understandably) would soon repeat that false fact, since he’d been watching the NBC telecast along with everyone else.
This became a critical issue when CJ McCollum, who hadn’t missed much of anything down the stretch of Game 2, somehow missed two free throws. Josh Hart grabbed a rebound. At the Garden, there was little surprise that he soon pushed the ball up court, frantically hoping to start the process of pulling a rabbit out of the hat for the Knicks, ultimately finding Mikal Bridges who launched a clear-look 12-foot fadeaway that clanked off the rim at the final buzzer. There was an arena-wide sigh, then silence. Disappointment with a shrug: they knew there was no timeout to take.
Elsewhere, the anger was palpable. Social media was immediately filled with the same perturbing question: why not call timeout there, move the ball to halfcourt, reset, set up a shot that almost surely would’ve been better than a rushed fadeaway.