The Sixers were not at all happy with the refereeing in the dying minutes of the franchise’s Game 2 104-101 loss to the Knicks.
Philly led by five points at Madison Square Garden on Monday night with less than 30 seconds to play.
There was hectic turn of events in the last remaining seconds, which started when Jalen Brunson shot a three that bounced off the rim and in.
Sixers guard Kyle Lowry went to inbound the ball and Tyrese Maxey was unable to hold onto it for long, because Brunson looked to be holding Maxey’s jersey when Lowry threw the ball in.
The ball was loose and this is when Philly coach Nick Nurse says he tried to call a timeout.
Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo then shot the ball from three and missed, but it ended up back in his hands and he shot a game-winning long range jumper.
DIVINCENZO AND BRUNSON DRILL BACK-TO-BACK 3’S AND THE KNICKS TAKE THE LEAD! 🔥
13.1 REMAINING IN GAME 2 ON TNT 🍿 pic.twitter.com/x0PwLjhsbw
— NBA (@NBA) April 23, 2024
Nurse says he actually tried to call a timeout on two occasions during this frantic sequence.
“The first thing is they score,” Nurse said. “We take a look at getting it in quick. We don’t get it in quick. I call timeout. The referee looked right at me, ignored me. (The ball) went into Tyrese. I called timeout again. Then the melee started.
“I guess I’ve got to run out onto the floor or do something to make sure I get his attention. I needed a timeout there to advance it. Would’ve been good, but I didn’t get it.”
Nurse said he didn’t get any explanation as to why there was no timeout called for him.
“There was no time to talk about it. … I just watched the film, just to make sure, and I’m clearly calling timeout,” Nurse said. “I didn’t see if he looked at me in the film, but I could see me clearly calling timeout twice.”
Joel Embiid summed up the night by saying, “That’s just unacceptable, to put us in that situation. That’s f***ing unacceptable to lose a game like this, especially in the playoffs.”
The Sixers are 2-0 down in the series after the loss, but are looking forward to playing their next two games at Wells Fargo Center.
“It sucks,” Maxey said. “We’ve got to put it behind us now. We’ve got 48 hours to think about it and come up with a plan to get two at home.”
Embiid wasn’t deterred by his team’s second straight loss.
“We should be [up] 2-0, so we’re good,” he said. “We should be winning this series. We’re going to win this. We know what we’ve got to fix. We did a better job today, so we’re going to fix it. But we’re the better team and we’re going to keep fighting.”
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