NBA looks foolish allowing three illegal game-winners in 48 hours

Randle's situation was even worse. The L2M ruled that the Timberwolves forward traveled at the 2.7-second mark and then committed an offensive foul at the 1.2-second mark before hitting his game-winner against the Suns on Sunday. 

If the latter call was made on the court, the Suns would have been awarded two free throws since they were in the bonus. The game was tied at 117 when Randle made the three.

That's not all — LaMelo Ball was sent to the free-throw line to ice the game for the Hornets when officials wrongly called a foul on Giannis Antetokounmpo this past Saturday.

As part of a pool report conducted by the Charlotte Observer's Rod Boone, referee Curtis Blair admitted that Antetokounmpo should not have been called for a foul, sending Ball to the charity stripe to win the game. The foul was called when Milwaukee was up a point with 7.3 seconds left. Ball made both free throws to win the game for Charlotte.

"During live play we called illegal leg to leg to contact. During postgame review when we looked at the play there was no illegal contact on the play," Blair said. 

The foul on Antetokounmpo triggered a lot of anger from Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, who slammed the referees, for which he was fined $25,000. Rivers said that Ball "slipped on his own" and purposely initiated contact with the "Greek Freak" to sway the referees.

After the NBA admitted to the gaffe, Rivers laughed off the fine for ripping the blown call. 

"You're put in a tough spot," Rivers said on Monday, via ESPN. "I was laughing with someone that it's [like] that rare case when your girlfriend comes down with a bad outfit and she asks you, 'What do you think?' And if you answer correctly, you're going to get in a lot of trouble. That's how I felt with the fine. Everybody understands what I'm saying, right?"

While one school of thought is that the NBA brings transparency with the L2M reports, the league only shoots itself in the foot by admitting to blown calls on a nightly basis. 

Former NBA player Mark Jackson once called the L2M reports "a beautiful luxury" for the league to admit to an error without consequences for the referees on the wrong end of those calls. He cited the reports as the reason he has no interest in returning to broadcasting to call games. 

"What I don’t need, and I’m tired of — and probably one of the reasons I’m not calling games anymore — the Last Two Minute Report," Jackson said earlier this year, via Awful Announcing. "I don’t need a Philadelphia-Knicks series that you come out and say, 'Three or four mistakes were made by referees.' I hold players accountable for mistakes, I hold coaches accountable for mistakes, I'm gonna hold referees accountable for mistakes."

Some analysts have proposed a solution that would see referees reviewing every call in the last two minutes in real-time, regardless of a coach challenging a call. However, this route could significantly slow down proceedings. The NBA is definitely in a tricky spot.