The timeout angered Knicks fans because they believed the team did not use one in the final seconds of the game.
The only problem was that there was no timeout left for Knicks coach Mike Brown to use, despite NBC incorrectly broadcasting it saying they still had a timeout left at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
The Knicks lost Game 2 to the Hawks 107-106, and the series is now tied at one game each.
The confusing piece of information changed the way fans viewed the final play of the game after Josh Hart grabbed the rebound off a missed Hawks free throw and quickly moved the ball up the court to Mikal Bridges, who missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer.
The NBC broadcast team said the Knicks still had one timeout remaining and the score error appeared to show one remaining.
What appears to have come into play is the fact that the NBA limits teams to two timeouts with less than three minutes remaining in the game.
Brown bizarrely connected on one with 2:43 left on the clock with Jalen Brunson already driving to the lane and then used a second with 10 seconds left.
“Some possessions weren’t smooth sailing,” Brown said after the timeout at 2:43. “So I wanted to make sure we had something that we wanted to get to, or set up something offensively. Because we sniffed the last few possessions. It didn’t look right, it didn’t look right.”
The whole situation led to people jumping on social media to express their confusion after discovering that the deadline did not actually exist.
“I deleted my tweet about the Knicks not having a timeout because… they clearly didn’t have a timeout???” Fox Sports Nick Wright wrote on X. “The broadcast said they did, and the score error (after they initially said they didn’t have one) said they did, but apparently all of that was incorrect. That makes a lot more sense.”
“I didn’t like not taking a timeout there as the broadcast said they had a timeout, but it turns out they didn’t, so it makes sense not to do it. It’s very confusing.” Sports talk show host Zach Gelb wrote on X.
brown He told reporters after the match That it would have been a “gut feeling” if he would have used a timeout on that final possession, if he had one.
“I thought it was a good shot. I don’t think the shot was under a lot of duress,” he said.