The NBA said Lakers-Grizzlies went an extra minute due to clock error. It's an egregious mistake in 2024
Somebody is going to have to explain to me how in 2024 the NBA can’t get a simple 48-minute clock right. Or, to be exact, four 12-minute clocks.
That’s the amount of time it takes to play an NBA game, but for some reason the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies played an extra one minute and six seconds Friday due to what the league called an error. Someone — presumably the clock operator — incorrectly set the third-quarter game clock to 2:20 after a shot clock violation when it should have been set to 1:14. Nobody noticed.
“The error was not noticed in real time by the teams, the referees, the game clock operator or the stats crew,” NBA spokesperson Tim Frank said in a statement to The Commercial Appeal. “While unfortunate, the error was not identified in time to resolve the situation in-game.”
That’s appalling. Mistakes are to be expected, but how is there no protocol to catch something like that? It’s an absolutely unacceptable thing to happen in 2024, especially with the NBA under increased scrutiny for its close proximity to sports betting.
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
Gambling aside, this is a bad mistake. Unless a game is going to overtime, extra time should never be added to a clock — or removed for that matter. In a game where the Grizzlies took a one-point lead with exactly 1:06 to play in the fourth, that extra time may have been the difference in them winning or losing. The Lakers closed the game on a 6-2 run to win and take a step closer to locking up the eighth seed in the Western Conference. We can’t say for sure, but this could have actually impacted playoff standings.
Sports betting only puts something like this under a larger microscope. Not only were moneyline bets potentially flipped by the extra time, so were bets on the Lakers team total. LA scored four points over the time added, finishing the game with 123 to barely hit the over on a total of 121.5.
The NBA confirmed the Lakers and Grizzlies played an extra 1:06 yesterday due to a clock error.
The Lakers scored 4 points in that span and finished with 123 points. LA’s team total was 121.5 pic.twitter.com/Xq1sVvCrxj
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) April 14, 2024
If the NBA was hoping to convince the public its games are trustworthy in the wake of reports that Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter is being investigated for irregularities with his betting props, this isn’t helping. It only adds to the growing conspiracies and distrust, as even some within the NBA’s own ranks think betting is too close to the game and others question the results themselves.
The NBA can’t eliminate all the noise, but it can certainly quiet some of it by getting the simple things right — like clock management. If it can’t even do that, the noise will only grow louder.