Jayson Tatum had a big moment on Saturday night against the Toronto Raptors, but apparently that moment should never have even happened.
The Boston Celtics star Tatum hit an incredible game-winning three at the buzzer to lift his team to the 126-123 victory over Toronto in overtime. The shot gave Tatum 24 points for the game and improved the Celtics to 11-3 on the year.
JAYSON TATUM HITS THE GAME WINNING BUZZER BEATER pic.twitter.com/GvTqgAgsUE
— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 17, 2024
However, an alternate angle of the play uncovered something notable. It appeared that Tatum got away with a clear travel when he shuffled his feet while making his initial move on Raptors defender Ochai Agbaji before the shot. Check out the video.
Jayson Tatum may have gotten away with the craziest travel we’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/m1Bt2pu8df
— Mark Jackson’s Burner (@casualtakeking) November 17, 2024
The NBA confirmed as much in their last two-minute report for the game which they released on Sunday. The report stated that Tatum “[slid] his pivot foot before releasing his dribble” and should have been called for a travel on the play, which the officials missed.
That was a major whiff by the refs at a crucial moment, especially when one of them (No. 24, Kevin Scott) was looking right at the play. Had the travel been correctly called, the Raptors would have gotten the ball back with just over three seconds remaining and could have done no worse than going into double overtime. But instead, the Celtics got a walk-off winner by Tatum (no pun intended).
That said, travels are usually called very unevenly in the NBA these days, if at all. Especially if it is a star player that is doing the traveling, officials will often look the other way, even at a crucial moment like with Tatum’s shot.
