Celtics: The NBA confirms a critical officiating error in the Hornets’ loss.

 

 

The Boston Celtics fell to 11-3 on the inaugural 2023-24 NBA season with a heartbreaking 121-118 overtime away loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday evening. Tatum scored 45 points in a mainly brilliant performance, but he also missed a free shot late in overtime that would have knotted the game for the Celtics. The Hornets subsequently collected the rebound and were fouled, shooting two free throws to increase their advantage to three points with only a few minutes remaining.

There was only one problem: there should have been much more time on the clock. According to Taylor Snow, the NBA verified in its Last Two Minutes report on Tuesday that, following Tatum’s missed free shot, a foul should have been called on Jrue Holiday with 5.2 seconds remaining. The call was made with 3.2 seconds remaining, and even after that delay, 1.5 seconds elapsed before the clock was eventually stopped with 1.7 seconds remaining.

In other terms, the Celtics should have had 3.2 seconds more to work with what they did. The Celtics’ final desperate try saw a pass intended for Jaylen Brown intercepted by the Hornets’ Miles Bridges, thereby ending the game.

While 11-3 isn’t a bad record (in fact, it’s the best in the NBA), the Celtics know how important it is to win every game possible in order to secure home court advantage in the playoffs, and they certainly blew an opportunity to do so on Monday, made even more frustrating by the egregious officiating error.

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Celtics’ Paul Pierce blasts LeBron James, while Kevin Durant defends Jayson Tatum

Recently, Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce raised eyebrows across the NBA when he declared that current Celtics star Jayson Tatum is the best American player in the NBA, having already passed up LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and with the only challenger to Tatum’s throne, in Pierce’s opinion, being Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

“Right now, Jayson Tatum is the greatest American in the league… “I’m just looking around, and I think he’s passed Kevin Durant and LeBron [James],” Pierce told SHOWTIME Basketball. “The only argument is Steph [Curry].”

Now, Paul Pierce is doubling down on that stance in a response to a fan on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, who questioned Pierce’s rankings, citing Tatum’s position as a First Team All NBA selection last season.

Of course, Warriors supporters may take issue with Pierce not having Jayson Tatum definitely surpass Stephen Curry in the rankings because to the head-to-head encounter we saw between the two in the 2022 NBA Finals, in which Curry decisively outplayed the Celtics star. While LeBron James and Kevin Durant are no longer the force of nature they once were, they are still producing at a high level that is at least similar to what Tatum does for Boston on a nightly basis.

Still, it’s not unexpected that Pierce, who spent the overwhelming bulk of his career with the Celtics, would support Tatum in this debate.