How does this even happen?
The NBA is off on Saturday to prepare for the final day of the regular season on Sunday, but the Grizzlies’ scorekeeper may have clocked out a little early during the team’s Friday loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers got a closer-than-it-should-have-been, 123-120 victory over the remains of the Grizzlies in Memphis on Friday night to give themselves a chance to hold onto the eighth seed heading into the NBA play-in, but it turns out that they might have had to hold onto their lead a little longer than was necessary.
On Saturday morning, NBA Twitter user Ramiro Bentes noticed that due to a mistake made during a shot clock reset, the Lakers and Grizzlies accidentally played more than a minute of extra game time... and apparently neither team noticed:
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
After the video above went viral on Saturday, the NBA issued a statement, admitting the error and confirming that... apparently just no one in the entire building noticed while it was happening?
Breaking: The NBA confirmed the Grizzlies and Lakers played an extra 1:06 of game time during Friday's game.
— Jonah Dylan (@TheJonahDylan) April 14, 2024
"The error was not noticed in real time by the teams, the referees, the game clock operator or the stats crew," an NBA spokesman said.
More⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/eFBSi6d1d8
Statement from NBA spokesperson Tim Frank on Friday’s LAL-MEM game provided to ESPN. First reported by The Commercial Appeal: pic.twitter.com/l3fg6Yc2le
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 14, 2024
I’d make fun of the Grizzlies for this more, but given their injury woes — they were missing 13 players on Friday night — it’s possible their normal timekeeper was suiting up for the team. I’d never heard of Jack White before and he played 14 minutes for Memphis, so maybe keeping time is normally his gig*?
It would also be easy to make fun of the Lakers and Grizzlies’ coaching staffs here too — especially L.A.’s, given how pivotal this game was for them — but I will also fully admit I was watching this game, and also didn’t notice. Stuff happens.
I mean, I’m making a lot less than Darvin Ham, but I’m sure he was just locked in on one of the many other details he’s shown such excellence in this seas—... oh wait.
Ah, well, nevertheless.
The funniest outcome here would have been that this actually affected the result of a semi-pivotal game and forced the Lakers to file a formal protest over a contest that they played much of while... appearing to be playing under protest.
But alas, as deserved as that would have been from the Basketball Gods due to Los Angeles’ (apparently) organization-wide unseriousness this season, GG Jackson, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Co. can only do so much, even with an extra minute or so in which to do it.
Instead, we are left with this amusing future trivia answer, featuring LeBron winning a game that featured 49 minutes of regulation time.
In fact, that just might settle the GOAT debate: After all, Jordan never did that, did he?
*this is a joke, Jack White has played in three games for the Grizzlies and is (presumably) not also the team’s scorekeeper. I mean, I’m not POSITIVE, but I’m pretty sure.
