Officials miss travel on Max Strus late in Game 2

The officials in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat missed a travel by Max Strus on Friday night.

Strus was inbounding the ball with his Heat leading 107-105 and 21.1 seconds left. He took a few steps to the right before passing the ball in to Gabe Vincent.

Strus illegally moves along the sideline during the inbound and the refs don't call it! #MIAvsBOS pic.twitter.com/VcC06kg9gq

— Rate the Refs App (@Rate_the_Refs) May 20, 2023

Vincent was fouled and sent to the free throw line, where he made both of his free throws to put the Heat up 109-105. They won the game 111-105 to go up 2-0 in the series.

Maybe officials don’t usually call that, but that was a violation by Strus that should have been called. It would have given Boston the ball down by two with 21 seconds left, which would have changed things.

Sure, blaming Grant Williams for mismanaging his interactions with Jimmy Butler is easy, but the Celtics were still very much in the game when that call was missed.