Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports
Donovan Mitchell needed every minute of overtime to score 71 points. But the NBA admits it shouldn’t have gone there.
Donovan Mitchell played the game of his life Monday night, hitting 71 in a thrilling overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls. Mitchell needed every minute of overtime to get to 71 and the Cavs needed every one of those points to win.
But according to a recent NBA Minutes report, the umpires missed two crucial calls that would have ended the game in regulation, giving the Bulls the win and keeping Mitchell away from his staggering total.
What calls did the NBA referees miss to help Donovan Mitchell get 71 points?
The first error was an unexplained travel on Jarrett Allen who took a pass from Mitchell, swept down the lane and made a hook shot to cut the Bulls’ lead to 1.
The second foul was an unexplained lane foul on Mitchell’s free throw with 4.6 left. Mitchell intentionally missed the shot, got the rebound and made a layup to force overtime.
If the Mitchell lane violation was called correctly, the Bulls could potentially avoid overtime and finish with 56 points. If Allen’s hook hit was called traveling, we don’t know exactly how many points he finished with, but the Bulls would have held a five-point lead with eight seconds to go, almost certainly avoiding overtime and keeping Mitchell well below where he finished. .
71 points is still 71 points, but Bulls fans can go ahead and throw an asterisk next to the point if they want to.
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