The Cleveland Cavaliers have fallen apart late during several postseason games. That is their own doing. However, those collapses have usually been accompanied by missed calls down the stretch. Blowing a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks in Game 1 was no exception.
The NBA’s Last Two Minute Report shows that the Cavs were on the wrong end of two missed calls late and the beneficiary of one missed call. Let’s go through these.
The first missed call benefited the Cavs. Evan
Mobley should’ve been called for an offensive foul for the screen he put on Landry Shamet with just over a minute left in regulation.
The report says: “Mobley (CLE) extends his elbow outward and delivers contact to Shamet’s (NYK) head/face during the pick.”
If called correctly, this would’ve given the Knicks the ball right back.
The next missed call happened on that same possession. The awful Donovan Mitchell floater that didn’t hit the rim wasn’t out on the Cavs. The report says that the missed shot was off OG Anunoby instead of Jarrett Allen, as it was called on the floor.
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It’s difficult to get too worked up on this one. If things were called completely accurately on the floor, the ball would’ve already been with the Knicks due to the missed foul by Allen.
Still, this was a missed call and one that you would’ve liked to have seen Kenny Atkinson use a challenge on, although there wasn’t much time between the ball going out and the Knicks inbounding it.
The final missed call was the one that hurt the Cavs the most. The game-tying basket by Shamet shouldn’t have gone.
The Cavs tried to hedge and recover on Brunson near half-court. Sam Merrill, Brunson’s primary defender, tries to work around the screen. Anunoby makes sure that he can’t get around the screen because he was moving on the pick.
The report says: “Anunoby (NYK) establishes a wide screening position in Merrill’s (CLE) path and the contact occurs to his leg.”
If the screen isn’t moving, Merrill has a better chance of staying with Brunson, and the rotations would’ve been cleaner. More importantly, if this was called correctly, the Knicks would’ve lost possession.
There’s a lot of factors that go into blowing a 22-point lead. It’s fair to say that the Cavs might’ve won this game if these three calls were ruled correctly on the floor. At the same time, they should’ve never let the game be decided by the officials in the first place.
Game 2 is Thursday at 8 PM.
