The NBA is off Saturday to prepare for the final day of the regular season on Sunday, but the Grizzlies scorer may have clocked in a little early during the team’s loss Friday to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers pulled out a closer than they should have been, 123-120, victory over the holdover Grizzlies in Memphis on Friday night to give themselves a chance to hold on to the eighth seed heading into the NBA play-ins . but it turns out they perhaps should have held on to their lead a little longer than necessary.
On Saturday morning, NBA Twitter user Ramiro Bentes noticed that due to an error made while resetting the shot clock, the Lakers and Grizzlies accidentally played more than a minute of game time extra… and apparently neither team noticed it:
I just realized that the Lakers and Grizzlies played 13:06 minutes in the 3rd quarter last night. While the shot clock was supposed to be reset to 1:14, the game clock was also accidentally reset to 2:20. No one noticed and they played the rest of the time with the new game clock. pic.twitter.com/oeEE0F7f3C
– Ramiro Bentés (@NbaInRstats) April 13, 2024
After the video above went viral on Saturday, the NBA released a statement, admitting the mistake and confirming that…apparently no one in the entire building noticed while this was happening?
Breaking: The NBA confirmed that the Grizzlies and Lakers played 1:06 of extra game time in Friday’s game.
“The error was not noticed in real time by the teams, referees, game clock operator or statistics team,” an NBA spokesperson said.
More⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/eFBSi6d1d8
– Jonah Dylan (@TheJonahDylan) April 14, 2024
I’d make fun of the Grizzlies more for this, but given their injury issues — they were missing 13 players Friday night — it’s possible their regular shot-stopper could adjust to the team. I’d never heard of Jack White before and he played 14 minutes for Memphis, so maybe keeping time is normally his role*?
It would also be easy to make fun of the Lakers and Grizzlies coaches here too – especially those in Los Angeles, given how crucial this game was for them – but I also fully admit that I was watching this game and I didn’t notice it either. Things happen.
I mean, I make a lot less than Darvin Ham, but I’m sure he was just focused on one of the many other details he demonstrated such excellence at in this sea… oh wait.
Oh well anyway.
The funniest outcome here would have been that it actually affected the outcome of a semi-pivotal game and forced the Lakers to file a formal protest against a game they played a large portion of for… appearing to play under protest.
But alas, as deserved as it would have been from the Basketball Gods due to the (apparently) lack of seriousness of the Los Angeles organization this season, GG Jackson, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Co. cannot do much, even with an extra minute. or in which to do it.
Instead, we’re left with this fun future quiz answer, in which LeBron wins a game that featured 49 minutes of regulation time.
In fact, this might just settle the GOAT debate: after all, Jordan never did that, did he?
*it’s a joke, Jack White starred in three games for the Grizzlies and is (presumably) not also the team’s scorer. I mean, I’m not POSITIVE, but I’m pretty sure.