History was unintentionally made during Friday’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies, as the two sides ended up playing 13:06 minutes in the third quarter, due to a bizarre shot clock error. An X user named Ramiro Bentes was the first to point out that the game clock was reset to 2:20 following a shot clock violation at the 1:14 mark.
Just realized the Lakers and Grizzlies played 13:06 minutes in the 3rd quarter last night. When the shot clock was supposed to be reset at 1:14, the game clock was also accidentally reset to 2:20. No one noticed and they played the rest of the way with the new game clock. pic.twitter.com/oeEE0F7f3C
— Ramiro Bentes (@NbaInRstats) April 13, 2024
Somehow, no one at the time noticed this happened and it only came to everyone’s attention the following day when Bentes pointed it out. With his post going viral, the NBA released a statement in which they admitted that an error was made.
“We have confirmed that the game clock was inaccurately set in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers-Memphis Grizzlies game last night at FedExForum,” Tim Frank, a spokesman for the NBA, said. “After a shot clock violation, the clock was set at 2:20 when it should have been at 1:14. The error was not noticed in real time by the teams, the referees, the game clock operator or the stats crew. While unfortunate, the error was not identified in time to resolve the situation in-game.”
This is such a bad look for the NBA. While you would have thought the teams, especially the Lakers, considering the stakes, would be keeping a close eye on the clock, I wouldn’t flame them for somehow missing this error.
As for the referees, the game clock operator, and the stats crew, they deserve to get flamed. I am not sure how the game clock operator could miss something like that, as that is literally their only job. It would be one thing if we were talking about a few seconds, but this was over a minute.
You do wonder, following this incident, whether there have been others like this in the past. Had it not been for Bentes, everyone probably would have missed this one. As for what happened in that additional minute or so, the score was tied at 2-2.
The Lakers would eventually go on to win 123-120, with LeBron James recording 37 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. Had they lost, though, you wonder if the team would have filed some sort of protest.
The Grizzlies are unlikely to do anything of that sort now, as they have nothing to play for, but the Lakers are battling for seeding in the NBA Play-In Tournament. They rose to eighth in the standings with the win but would have stayed at 10th with a loss. Fortunately, with the Lakers winning, none of those conversations will be had.
This issue with the game clock wasn’t the only oversight made by the officials on the night either. As per the L2M report, LeBron should have been assessed with two traveling violations, and a foul by Rui Hachimura on GG Jackson was missed as well. It was just a bad night in all for the referees and the game clock operator.
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