NBA
NBA Admits Refs Missed Calls In Heat’s 117-115 Loss to Pacers
James is a Basketball Insiders contributor. He earned his bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. James enjoys watching sports and helping gamblers win money.
All posts by James FoglioUpdated09 Apr 2024
On Monday, the NBA acknowledged two officiating mistakes — one wrong call, one missed call — in the final minute of the Miami Heat’s 117-115 loss at the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. It was a costly defeat.
The loss dropped Miami to the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference going into the final week of the regular season. Indiana holds tiebreakers for winning the season series against Milwaukee, New York, Miami, and Philadelphia.
According to the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report from Sunday’s game, T.J. McConnell should have been called for a foul on Tyler Herro’s 3-point attempt with 55.1 seconds remaining in the game.
The L2M reports for the qualifying games played yesterday have been posted on https://t.co/KksEUpgiCR.
— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) April 8, 2024
No foul was called on the play. McConnell made contact with Herro’s hand during the release, impacting his shot attempt. The Heat outscored the Pacers 37-26 in the final frame.
Following that missed call, Bam Adebayo was incorrectly called for a foul after knocking the ball away from Miles Turner. Had there not been a foul, it would have been a Pacers turnover.
However, Indiana was awarded two free throws to give Indiana a 115-111 lead.
NBA said Indiana Pacers’ T.J. McConnell fouled Tyler Herro, Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo made contact with ball
Additionally, the league said that Adebayo “makes clean contact with the ball, simultaneous to Herro … making incidental hand-on-ball contact to dislodge it from Turner.”
Miami did not have a challenge remaining to contest the foul called on Adebayo. The Heat used it unsuccessfully earlier in the fourth quarter. As a result, the Pacers won the regular-season series 2-1.
The two incorrect calls played a significant role in Miami’s loss. Had Herro been awarded the free throws on his missed 3-pointer, the fifth-year guard could have tied the game.
After all, Herro is shooting 83.1% at the free throw line. If Adebayo hadn’t been called for a foul, Miami could have tied the game or taken the lead off the turnover.
This was the other non-foul the L2M report said it was a mistake.
Clear contact. pic.twitter.com/3qz42UQsw0
— 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙉𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 (@HeatvsHaters) April 8, 2024
Indiana remains in the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference with a one-game lead on the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers (44-35). Had the Heat won at Indiana, they would have held the No. 6 spot.
Furthermore, the top six teams in each conference will secure playoff spots. Teams that finish seventh through 10th in each conference have to participate in the play-in tournament next week to determine the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds.
“You want to end up playing games of meaning. But when you say they are games of meaning, that also means they are games of consequences,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s the whole point of this right now in both conferences. There’s going to be wild swings of emotion.”
Miami visits the Atlanta Hawks (36-42) on Tuesday. The Heat will end their regular season on a three-game homestand against the Dallas Mavericks (48-30) on Wednesday and Toronto Raptors (25-53) on Friday and Sunday.
