The Milwaukee Bucks picked up a critical victory on Monday over the Houston Rockets , but did so in controversial fashion. Entering the game with a 4-9 record, Milwaukee needs every win it can get, and with 3.2 seconds left on the clock, Damian Lillard delivered by making a driving layup that put the Bucks up 101-100 .
That wound up being the clincher as the Bucks won by that score. The problem? Milwaukee never should have had possession of the ball in the closing seconds. Let's turn back the clock.
With around 22 seconds remaining, Giannis Antetokounmpo blocked an Alperen Sengun shot that would have put Houston up by three. Brook Lopez secured the rebound and quickly passed the ball back to Antetokounmpo with Antetokounmpo's left foot still visibly on the baseline. If you freeze the video with exactly 20 seconds left on the clock, you'll not only see Antetokounmpo step out of bounds, but the official who is meant to be monitoring the baseline looking up court.
Sure enough, the Last Two Minute Report released by the NBA on Tuesday confirmed that Antetokounmpo should indeed have been called out of bounds, giving the ball back to Houston. GIANNIS BLOCK AND DAME FOR THE WIN!!! 🔥 pic.twitter.
com/Jin9TBcodS The game wouldn't have explicitly ended had the call been made correctly. Houston would have gotten the ball back with around 20 seconds remaining, and the game would have turned into a free-throw contest at that point. Instead, the ball was pushed ahead to Lillard for what .
