NBA admits referees missed critical foul on Celtics' Jones in Kings loss Originally broadcast on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Kings stood on the receiving end of a brutal miscall at the end of Friday's heartbreaking 101-100 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
With Sacramento trailing by one point with five seconds left in the game, Kings guard De'Aaron Fox couldn't make a jump shot that could have been the winning goal, and guard Keegan Murray deflected it. They missed a second chance before rookie Colby Jones came on. Celtics guard/forward Svi Mykhailiuk was slapped in the face while attempting a putback.
According to the NBA's Last Two Minutes report released Saturday, Jones did receive a foul during the play, which resulted in an erroneous non-call by officials. The report states:
Comments: Mykhailiuk (BOS) follows through and initiates illegal contact to the face after Jones (SAC) tilts the ball.
Had the call been made correctly, Jones would have taken the free throw attempt and had a chance to tie or win the game.
After the game, Kings coach Mike Brown expressed to reporters his frustration at not being called.
“I don't know why I miss that game so much, but we have to move on and get ready for Brooklyn.”
Mike Brown laments the no-call as Colby Jones gets punched in the face on the final play of the night pic.twitter.com/YV0EYKwZ8C
— NBCS Kings (@NBCSKings) April 6, 2024
“Fox had a great look and Keegan had a good look on his follow-up, but then Colby took a 1.7 punch to the face.” [seconds] Let’s go,” Brown said. “And then you're yelling 'foul, foul' and then they say no one got hit. It was just physical, clean basketball. And when you see a player get hit in the face like that… , that's hard to swallow. It's painful.
“I don't know. Maybe we didn't deserve to win. I don't know. We definitely wanted to win. You just have to judge how the game is going. How could you miss that? I don't know. But we have to go ahead and get ready for Brooklyn.”
There's no guarantee the free throws will go, but it's hard to imagine a different outcome had a foul been called in Sacramento, especially for a Kings team that has shot an NBA-worst 74.2 percent from the line this season. That's difficult for him and his fans.
