The New York Knicks nearly got hurt by human error during Game 3 of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons trailed the Knicks 117-113 with just 3.2 seconds left inside Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich. After Tobias Harris drained a corner three to cut the deficit to one, Knicks star Jalen Brunson was fouled and sent to the free throw line with half a second left on the clock.
Brunson drained the first foul shot and got orders from the Knicks’ bench to intentionally miss the second one to eat up the remaining clock. Brunson successfully clanked the shot off the rim, but the arena clock operator pressed the buzzer before any player touched the ball.
Tobias Harris makes the clutch corner 3, and the Buzzer goes off early after Brunson's intentionally missed free throwpic.twitter.com/s6TLaBLnCi
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) April 25, 2025
After reviewing the play, the referees awarded the Pistons a sideline inbound and kept the clock at 0.5 seconds. Fortunately for the Knicks, center Jalen Duren threw the ball out of bounds. New York was able to escape Detroit with a 118-116 win.
Jalen Duren had one job 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/CdyIpUg3FT
— Big Knick Energy (@BigKnickEnergy_) April 25, 2025
Despite taking back the series lead, several Knicks fans called for either the league to investigate the situation or for the game clock operator to be fired.
Pistons clock operator obviously did that on purpose.
— Dylan Burd (@Dylan_Burd) April 25, 2025
They get a TO and somehow all the time gets put back on. How is that even possible?
Bam them from working games @nba
Shot clock operator needs to be fired. Absolutely unacceptable
— Emilio J Delgado (@BigDaddyMiels) April 25, 2025
Knicks swingman Josh Hart was asked about the play. The veteran called it an “example” of homecourt advantage.
“We’re in Detroit, bro. What do you expect?” said Hart. “They had the home court advantage. That’s Example A of homecourt advantage.”
"We're in Detroit, what do you expect? They had the home court advantage. That's example A of home court advantage"
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) April 25, 2025
– Josh Hart on the "clock malfunction" with 0.5 seconds left after Jalen Brunson's intentionally missed free throw in Game 3 pic.twitter.com/CEx6Tn5hi3
While Knicks fans were understandably at what felt like a serving of home cooking, the NBA sends neutral game clock operators to handle playoff games. But neutral or not, the clock operator truly could have impacted Thursday’s final result.
