The Knicks didn’t need help finding a way to lose — just to do it in a way no one had ever seen.
A few minutes before the Knicks suffered an embarrassing 99-96 loss to the NBA-worst Hawks, Madison Square Garden was as loud as it had been all Sunday afternoon, following Tim Hardaway Jr.’s dunk to put the Knicks up five. The whistle blew, and he stepped to the line for a potential three-point play.
Then, the play was erased from history.
With 3:49 remaining, Hardaway had committed a questionable foul beyond the arc on Atlanta’s Kent Bazemore, who missed his first two free throws. But following his second miss, the referees mistakenly allowed play to continue, with Kristaps Porzingis finding Hardaway for the dunk 17 seconds later.
With the break in action, the referees were informed of their error by game officials at the scorer’s table, and negated Hardaway’s basket. The 17 seconds that had elapsed were restored to the clock, and Bazemore went back to the line for his third free throw, which he made.
Referee Pat Fraher explained — citing Rule 2, Section 6A(f) — that if more than 24 seconds had passed, Hardaway’s shot would have counted.
“Play continued erroneously after two free throws. … Then it was brought to our attention that we should’ve shot one extra free throw,” Fraher said. “[The rule] says if there’s a merited free throw that was not shot, that was to remain in play, which was what our situation was, then if under 24 seconds have elapsed, we go back to the point of interruption, reset the game clock, and nullify all play that happens until that point.”
Though it was the correct ruling, Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer acknowledged how lucky his team was that the error was caught in time.
“I can’t remember anything like that,” Budenholzer said. “It’s just unfortunate. We caught a break there, no doubt about it. … In some ways it was fortuitous there was a foul on the play. Then they can go to the clock and correct it.”
The Knicks committed too many self-inflicted errors to blame the officiating.
“That play didn’t really affect the outcome of the game,” Courtney Lee said. “That’s the rules. You can’t complain about it. He got fouled on a 3-pointer, and he was supposed to shoot three free throws, and he only shot two. It’s the right thing to do.”
Even though the play that now never existed swung momentum, the Knicks reeled it back, and led by six with 2:15 remaining.
It mattered, but it shouldn’t have.
“It was obviously a big play, but still, with that, we have a lead and we didn’t finish it,” coach Jeff Hornacek said. “We didn’t say anything about the refs. That’s part of the game. If that happened with five seconds to go in the game it might be different.”