Fans of the Knicks were understandably upset after the team’s decision-making in the late moments of their game against the Hawks. There was a belief that coach Mike Brown could have called a timeout to strategize, but, in reality, they didn’t have any timeouts left. This confusion was fueled by NBC, which inaccurately reported the Knicks had timeouts remaining during the match at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks ultimately fell to the Hawks, 107-106, creating a tie in the series at one game each. After a missed free throw by the Hawks, Josh Hart snagged the rebound and pushed the ball forward to Mikal Bridges. In the chaos, contradictory information muddied the view of that crucial final play.
During the broadcast, the team announced that the Knicks had one timeout left, and an erroneous timeout was displayed with just 5.6 seconds remaining after CJ McCollum’s missed free throw.
It’s interesting to note that the NBA restricts teams to two timeouts within the final three minutes. Brown had already called a timeout with 2:43 left when Jalen Brunson was driving towards the basket and then used the second one just 10 seconds before the game ended.
After the game, Brown reflected on the earlier timeout, saying, “Some possessions weren’t fluid. So we wanted to make sure we had something we wanted to accomplish… It just didn’t look right, it didn’t feel right.”
This miscommunication led many fans to take to social media, expressing their bewilderment when they discovered the timeout was nonexistent. Fox Sports’ Nick Wright tweeted about the situation, noting how the broadcast had claimed they had timeouts when they didn’t. Sports radio host Zach Gelb also shared his confusion, stating he didn’t understand why a timeout wasn’t taken since the broadcast indicated otherwise.
In a post-game interview, Brown mentioned that if he had a timeout for the last play, it would have been based on a “gut feeling.” He added, “I think it was a good shot. I don’t think it was a shot under a lot of pressure.”
