DETROIT — In a highly physical Game 4 between the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistonsin which seemingly so many contact-filled plays weren’t resulting in fouls, officials acknowledged after the fact that one huge one was missed on the final play.
With the Knicks leading by one, Detroit’s Tim Hardaway Jr. drew contact from New York’s Josh Hart as Hardaway went up for the potential winning shot with 0.3 seconds remaining. The 3-point attempt misfired, and the sold-out crowd awaited a foul call.
It never came, incensing the Pistons bench and fans. The Knicks, meanwhile, escaped with a 94-93 victory and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.
After the contest, crew chief David Guthrie told pool reporters that officials should have called a foul on Hart.
“During live play, it was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play,” Guthrie said. “After postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr., and a foul should have been called.”
Had the foul been called, Hardaway would have gone to the foul line for three free throws that could have given Detroit the lead. Instead, the Knicks held on to win after rallying from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter and can close out the series at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening.
Guthrie’s admission affirmed what Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff and the rest of the Pistons said after the game.
“There was contact on Tim Hardaway’s jump shot. [Hart] left his feet,” said Bickerstaff, who chased down officials on the court to plead his case as the Knicks celebrated the no-call.
Said Hardaway: “You all saw it. It was blatant.”
“Did I make contact with [Tim Hardaway Jr.]? Yeah, I made contact with him. Was it legal? I don’t know.”
Knicks defender Josh Hart on the final play of Sunday’s game vs. the Pistons.
Hart acknowledged bumping Hardaway on the play in question.
“Did I make contact with him? Yeah, I made contact with him,” Hart said. “Was it legal? I don’t know. We’ll see in the Last Two Minute Report.”
The NBA releases a review of all calls in the final two minutes of games decided by three points or fewer, with those reports issued the day after the game. But in this case, with a pool report requested, the NBA had Guthrie explain what happened.
The vast majority of Pistons fans stayed in their seats for minutes after the game ended. The outcome, however, was sealed, and the Knicks — who rallied late on the strength of their two best players — had won Game 4.
The way they got there, that final play aside, was an adventure.
After a fast start and a solid first half, New York looked in danger of losing early in the fourth. After a furious run by Cade Cunningham and the Pistons, who finally started connecting from deep, the Knicks trailed 84-74, and Jalen Brunson had just left the game because of an apparent ankle injury.
He initially crawled toward the Knicks bench before getting helped up by Karl-Anthony Towns. Almost immediately after, Brunson crumpled to the floor again. Once he was back up, he left the court to get checked out.
When he came back, Brunson, the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, was excellent, scoring 15 points in 10 fourth-quarter minutes. He made four straight baskets for New York, keeping the Knicks afloat before Towns, a 7-foot center, got the team’s final two scores — a tough, high-arching shot from the right corner and a huge 3-pointer from 27 feet over Jal to give the Knicks the lead with 46.6 seconds remaining.
Brunson (32 points, 11 assists) and Towns (27 points, 9 rebounds) outscored the Pistons 23-22 in the final quarter, and they combined for the Knicks’ final seven buckets.
Their efforts were just enough to outshine the brilliance of Cunningham, who logged 25 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. However, he missed two shots and turned the ball over in the final 1:07.
“He’s been playing great,” Brunson said of Cunningham, who is playing in the first playoff series of his career. “Just the effect he has on his teammates. They follow their leader. He’s been an incredible leader all year, and I respect him for that.”
Cunningham had a chance to potentially win it for the Pistons. He fired a free throw line jumper over And Anunoby with about eight seconds left that was slightly long, prompting a mad dash for the ball that eventually ended up in Hardaway’s hands seconds later.
“What do you want me to say?” a smiling Towns said when asked about the officials’ conclusion that a foul should have been called on Hardaway’s final attempt. “We’re going back to Madison Square Garden. We got a win.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
