In A Cruel Twist Of The Knife, The NBA Admitted They Screwed The Bucks With A Brutal Foul Call At The End Of Overtime That Should Have Never Happened

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I don't know about anyone else, but I still can't even believe the ending of Pacers/Bucks on Tuesday night was real. That was shit that doesn't even happen in 2K

Pure chaos and exactly why the NBA playoffs are so great. As long as there's time on the clock, you still have a chance. Pacers know all about that, given what took place at the end of last year's Game 1 in the ECF, so last night was their turn to finally be on the right side of one of those crazy endings.

There's just one tiny problem with how everything went down. Now that the L2M report has dropped, there's one tidbit that the NBA admitted to that certainly goes a long way in determining the outcome of this game. This play right here

Given the time and score, that AND1 is a pretty massive play/call. Given how physical not only this game had been but how the entire playoffs have been, it was a pretty suspect call to make in that spot. That baseline ref blew the whistle late as hell, and if you were a Bucks fan that was confused as to how that was possibly a foul……the NBA agrees.

"IC" aka "incorrect call". Boy is that brutal. Now to be fair, that doesn't mean Gary Trent Jr shouldn't have caught the ball on the very next possession. There was still a path to victory for the Bucks even without that blown call as long as he catches that soft pass and doesn't turn it over. But taking things from a potential 2-point deficit to a 1-point deficit instead which is what allowed Haliburton's game winner to end the series is…..not great. 

For all we know, this was the loss that might finally get Giannis to ask out of MIL. If the Bucks pull that game out, who knows what happens? And while no refs are going to be perfect, this is now the 4th or 5th playoff game we've had this postseason that has been directly impacted by the incompetence or mistakes from the officials. That's a pretty big deal considering what's at stake this time of year. The biggest issue is of course the lack of consistency when it comes to NBA refs, because given how everything has been called all postseason, there's no way that play on AJ Green should have been a foul in real time. As it turns out, it wasn't.

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And yeah, if you want to make the case that this one call isn't why MIL lost, I'd agree. There were many factors that led to their eventual demise. But that doesn't change the fact that the Bucks got royally screwed there. I'm not sure if that ref was caught up in the moment or what, but those are calls you simply cannot miss. Not in a high leverage situation like that with a season on the line. 

The worst part? It's not like anything will happen to that ref. He won't be held accountable. In the same way David Guthrie isn't held accountable for his mistake at the end of NYK/DET in Game 4. Or the 8 second violation screw up at the end of ORL/BOS Game 3. Adam Silver continues to turn a blind eye and do absolutely nothing about his very glaring officiating problem, and in return all fans/teams get is this stupid L2M report that doesn't change shit. It's not like the teams are going to go back out there and re-play the final 20 seconds. 

When you think of the ramifications that might come as a result of this loss and in a way that missed call, you're talking about a disaster of epic proportions. Maybe all that stuff happens anyway, but you never know what could have changed if the Bucks were able to push this to 6 or 7 games. The entire direction of their franchise moving forward could now be different as a result of what took place last night. 

In the end, this just teaches you a valuable lesson. Don't even put yourself in a position to get boned by the officials, because chances are they are going to bone you. Maybe don't turn the ball over a billion times in the final seconds, if you're Giannis, make your FTs. If you leave yourself exposed in a way that forces the refs to make a decision, they will not make the right one.

Talk about an insult to injury though if you're a Bucks fan. Things already suck given Dame's injury, the team losing in the 1st round (again) and now Giannis' uncertain future. To think at least two of those things may not have been an issue if that mistake never happened, sheesh. That's a tough pill to swallow.