“Mistake” led to overtime in the Lakers’ win over the Grizzlies

NEW ORLEANS – More than a minute of additional playing time was added in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers' 123-120 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, an NBA spokesman confirmed to ESPN.

“We confirmed last night at the FedEx Forum that the game clock was set incorrectly in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers-Memphis Grizzlies game,” league spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement Saturday. “After a shot clock violation, the clock was set to 2:20 when it should have been 1:14. The error was not noticed in real time by the teams, the referees, the game clock operator or the statistics team. While.” Unfortunately, the efforts were not recognized in time to resolve the situation in the game.

The Grizzlies scored two consecutive air balls to end their possession with 1:14 left in the third quarter, but the shot clock was incorrectly reset after the second attempt.

While Memphis guard Timmy Allen held onto the ball and fired a third shot, which also resulted in an air ball, referee Scott Wall called the play dead and signaled the shot clock violation to the scorer's table, giving the Lakers possession Sideline was awarded. Allen's shot didn't count because it came after the shot clock was supposed to have expired. When the Lakers inbounded the ball, the shot clock was reset to 24, but the game clock was changed from 1:14 to 2:20.

In 1:06 of overtime, the Lakers and Grizzlies were tied 2-2, with Anthony Davis making a jump shot for LA and Jordan Goodwin making a jump shot for Memphis. The Lakers were able to beat the undermanned Grizzlies by three points, with LeBron James scoring six straight points in the final minute to give LA a five-point lead after trailing by 5.2 seconds left.

Memphis entered the night with 13 players on the injured list and relied on two-way players and 10-day contracts to supplement the active roster. While the additional minute of playing time did not have a significant impact on the competition, it did increase the total playing time of the two LA stars James (41 minutes) and Davis (43 minutes).

“Everyone knows what time it is,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said when asked about the tough minutes. “It’s that time of year, man. Whatever we need and however long it takes us to get the guys going, it just has to happen. And they all understand that.”

James, 39, shrugged off any concerns about the workload he faced in LA's regular-season finale against the New Orleans Pelicans.

“I’ll be ready for Sunday,” James said.

The NBA also released its Last Two Minute Report for the Lakers-Grizzlies game on Saturday. Three bad calls were identified, all of which worked in the Lakers' favor.

With 1:42 remaining and the Lakers leading 117-116, the league declared that James should have been assessed a traveling violation for switching his pivot foot after stopping his dribble midway through on the field of play above the 3-point line. That possession ended with a missed jump shot by Davis with 1:33 left.

With 47.7 seconds remaining and the Lakers trailing 118-117, the NBA concluded that James switched his pivot foot again after faking a pass to Rui Hachimura before scoring with 44.3 seconds left went to the basket to get the green light. And with 12.2 seconds left, the league's report concluded that Hachimura should have been assessed a shooting foul on the Grizzlies' GG Jackson because he made contact with his leg as Jackson attempted a shot near the basket.

The report said the technical foul awarded to Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins for failing to call Jackson 5.2 seconds before timeout was called was correct for “unsportsmanlike” conduct.