Last 2-Minute Report says Maxey traveled before 4-point play in Game 5 OT win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Another Sixers-Knicks playoff game, another Last Two-Minute Report to sort through the next day.
The Sixers felt aggrieved after their Game 2 loss at Madison Square Garden. Following that game, the NBA’s L2M said Tyrese Maxey was fouled twice during the wild sequence leading to Donte DiVincenzo’s go-ahead three-pointer.
After Maxey rescued the Sixers from elimination Tuesday night by scoring 46 points in a thrilling Game 5 overtime win, the L2M detailed three wrongly called plays that hurt the Knicks.
Here are the four plays — three against New York, one against the Sixers — that the report says were not correctly officiated over the final two minutes of regulation and the final two minutes of overtime:
• Maxey should’ve been whistled for traveling right before his four-point play with 25.4 seconds left.
Per the report, Maxey “gathers the ball on his left foot, takes two legal steps, and then moves his right foot again just before he is fouled on his shot.”
• Instead of the fourth-quarter clock running out, the Knicks should’ve had a baseline out-of-bounds chance with 0.4 seconds left. That’s because, after Nicolas Batum blocked Jalen Brunson’s runner, the ball “goes directly behind the backboard and is therefore out of bounds.”
• Brunson got away with an offensive foul on Batum in overtime, since he “hooks Batum’s arm to create the illegal contact between the two players.”
As soon as the call went against him, Batum voiced his strong objection to it.
• Josh Hart was not out of bounds as he pursued Brunson’s miss with 41.5 seconds remaining in OT, so the Knicks should have retained possession. It’s impossible to know how that would have played out, but Hart tipped the ball to Isaiah Hartenstein near the rim.
In the end, the record will still show that Maxey’s magnificent night lifted the Sixers to a Game 6.
Their next goal is forcing a Game 7 back at the Garden.
Source Agencies
