The NBA’s Last Two Minute Report revealed that multiple referee errors went against the Miami Heat at the end of their loss against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
Miami ended up losing Sunday’s game 117-115, and the loss knocked the Heat back into the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference with just four games to play. Miami is also 1.5 games back of the Pacers for the No. 6 seed, which is where it would need to get to to avoid the play-in tournament in the East this season.
According to the Last Two Minute Report, Pacers guard T.J. McConnell should have been called for a foul on a 3-point shot attempt by Tyler Herro with 55.1 seconds left in the game. McConnell made contact with part of Herro’s hand that is “not on the ball during his release and affects his jump shot attempt.”
Had Herro – an 83.1-percent shooter from the charity stripe this season – gotten a chance to attempt three free throws, it could have altered the outcome of the game.
Not only that, but Miami was also incorrectly called for a personal foul when trapping Pacers big man Myles Turner with 17.1 seconds left in the game.
Instead of the play resulting in a steal for Miami, Turner was sent to the free-throw line. He made both of his attempts to give Indiana a 115-111 lead.
The Last Two Minute Report states that Heat big man Bam Adebayo “makes clean contact with the ball, simultaneous to Herro (MIA) making incidental hand-on-ball contact to dislodge it from Turner.”
Those were the only two mistakes by the NBA referees in the final two minutes, which is unfortunate since they both went against the Heat.
While the Heat are looking more likely to end up in the play-in tournament after Sunday’s loss, they still shouldn’t be too worried about their current standing.
Last season, Miami had to navigate the play-in tournament and ended up as the No. 8 seed in the East, but it still made the NBA Finals.
Herro, Adebayo and the Heat will look to rebound from Sunday’s loss on Tuesday night when they take on the Atlanta Hawks. That game is scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. EST in Atlanta.