Getty Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics.
The NBA released the Last Two Minute Report of Game 6 between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat on May 28, 2022. In the report, the NBA acknowledged that there were six calls that were either incorrect no-calls or incorrect calls that occurred during the last two minutes of the game. Four of these incorrect rulings went against the Celtics.
The first of these rulings came at the one-minute, 51.5-second mark where the league said that Bam Adebayo should have been called for defensive three seconds. While getting a technical free throw would have helped the Celtics cut into the Heat’s three-point lead, if Bam had been called for it, it would have negated PJ Tucker’s clean strip of Jayson Tatum that gave the ball back to Miami.
The second ruling came at the one-minute, 45.5-second mark where the league said that Derrick White had incorrectly been called for a fouling Tucker while trying to poke the ball away from him. Because the Celtics were over the limit, the foul put Tucker on the line, who then extended Miami’s lead to five.
The third ruling came at the one-minute, 25.6-second mark where the league said that Derrick White again had incorrectly been called for fouling Tucker while trying to strip the ball away from Tucker after Tucker had rebounded it. Because the Celtics were over the limit, the foul put Tucker back on the line, who then extended Miami’s lead to six.
The fourth ruling came at the 29.9-second mark where the league said that Bam Adebayo should have been called for offensive three seconds. If it had been called, the Celtics would have had the ball with that much time left to catch up.
Other factors went into how Boston lost Game 6, but all of these incorrect calls and no-calls swung the momentum against Boston in the closing minutes.
The Incorrect Rulings That Went Against Miami
Even though some of the calls and no-calls went in Miami’s favor in the last two minutes, some of the calls and no-calls went against them too.
The first ruling came at the one-minute, 9.5-second mark, where the league said that Tatum should have been called for traveling moments before he drove to the basket to drop a floater that cut Miami’s lead to four. If it had been called, Miami would have had the ball while being up by six.
The second ruling came at the 10.9-second mark, where the league said that White should have been called for a five-second violation. That would have given the ball back to Miami while being up by six. By that time, the game was already out of reach for Boston.
Miami may not have been called completely fairly in the last two minutes of the game, but the NBA’s report indicates that Boston had it much worse.
Miami Fined For Bench Decorum During Game 6
On May 28, the NBA announced that they had fined Miami for “violating league rules regarding team bench decorum.” More specifically, they were fined because “several players stood for an extended period in Miami’s team bench area, stood away from the team bench, and were on, encroaching upon or entering the playing court” during the game.
The following was released by the NBA.
Some of these instances were caught by those on Twitter. One sequence, in particular, came when Kyle Lowry looked as though he was trying to interfere with Al Horford from behind on the sideline when Horford was taking a three-point shot late in the game.
nba tracking data will show kyle lowry was the primary defender of al horford on this shot
Giving a team that was reportedly worth $2.3 billion by Forbes in October 2021 a $25,000 fine for these antics doesn’t come off like much of a punishment. At the very least, it’s not one that’s harsh enough to discourage the Heat from doing something like this again.