Milwaukee’s Freak got away with one at end
Turns out the referees missed a five-second call on Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo when he beat the buzzer and the Knicks on Wednesday.
But only because they didn’t have a stopwatch. So essentially, they made the right call.
The league, in its Last Two Minute Report of the game, noted the rarely enforced fivesecond rule against the Bucks star was “detectable with a stop watch,” explaining “Antetokounmpo (MIL) begins his dribble with his back to the basket at 7.8 seconds, at which point the 5-second count starts, and then gathers the ball and begins to turn towards the basket for the shot at 2.2 seconds, thus ending the count.”
The league clearly indicates plays that are “only observable with the help of a stop watch” or other hightech gear “are not deemed to be incorrectly officiated.”
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek made the obvious observation Thursday: “They’re never going to call that at the end of the game.”
The Knicks are hoping to have Kristaps Porzingis back against the Bucks on Friday, although he officially was listed as questionable. Porzingis has missed three straight games with a sore Achilles. He went through practice Thursday, although it was a light workout.
“It’s feeling much better. Much looser than it was before. I just have to get cleared by the doctor and hopefully I can play [Friday],” Porzingis said. “I hope that I’m good to go. But at the same time, I don’t want to force it too much. If I feel like it’s not there yet, then I’ve got to listen to the doctors. But for now, I feel like I should be ready for [Friday]. I’ve got to get cleared by the doctor.”
Hornacek finally saw Thursday morning what so many were talking about: the video aired by MSG showing him walking back to the bench after Anthony backs up and goes into an isolation play, shoots and misses against the Magic.
“It wasn’t necessarily [that I was] ticked just walking away going, ‘Okay, I know what it is,” Hornacek said. “A lot of times he isos but a lot of times he makes that shot.
“He was just waving the pick away. So the pick-and-roll is coming so he waved it away and I knew what was going to happen. He was going to get that shot at the end of the quarter. I’d done that before,” Hornacek said.
Anthony (189,817) was fifth among frontcourt Eastern Conference players in the first wave of All-Star votes released by the NBA. Porzingis (184,166) was seventh. Three frontcourt players get voted in: Kevin Love (250,347) was third behind LeBron James (595,288) and Antetokounmpo (500,663). Derrick Rose was fifth among Eastern guards. Warrior Zaza Pachulia was second among Western big men.