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NBA admits to a mistake on the game-deciding Bulls-Hawks play

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated Dec 24, 2025 8:20 PM ET

The NBA is offering an “our bad” after Tuesday’s Chicago Bulls-Atlanta Hawks game.

Chicago defeated Atlanta by a final score of 126-123 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga. The deciding moment of the game came with just 1.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the score tied at 123 after a game-tying layup by Atlanta’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

On a Bulls inbounds play, Chicago guard Coby White fell down as he was trying to get open while being trailed by Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher. The referees then whistled Risacher for an away-from-the-play foul.

Because the foul was deemed to have occurred before the ball was inbounded, the Bulls received one shot as well as possession. They made the ensuing free throw and then hit two more to secure the win after Atlanta was forced to intentionally foul.

Here is the video of the full sequence.

Nickeli Alexander-Walker easily goes by Nikola Vucevic and scores the layup to tie the game, and Zaccharie Risacher with a really silly foul before the inbound pass, which resulted in the win for the Bulls (with replays) pic.twitter.com/z9MJsIFm1Q
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 24, 2025

On Wednesday, the NBA released the last-two-minute (L2M) report for the game. In the report, the league admitted that the foul call on Risacher was incorrect. The report stated that White fell to the ground on his own without any contact from Risacher.

Not that it changes anything, but the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report is out for last night’s game.

The headliner is that they acknowledge the game-swinging foul call against Zaccharie Risacher in the final seconds was incorrect. pic.twitter.com/I9Xr99zgiq
— Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) December 24, 2025

If the play had proceeded without a whistle, Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic would have to hit a tough turnaround jumper to win the game. Had Vucevic missed, Atlanta would have been able to force overtime carrying all the momentum on their home floor.

Last season, the NBA already admitted to multiple mistakes that directly swung the outcome of games. Though we had not seen too much of that up to this point of the season, it certainly seems like the Hawks had a legitimate gripe with how Tuesday’s game played out.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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