The Celtics shockingly dropped the ball in Game 3 against the Orlando Magic after winning the first 2 games in the series. Safe to say, no one was expecting the Celtics to lose after securing the win in Game 2 despite not having Jayson Tatum on the team. But this loss, shocking as it is, hasn’t been the real topic of discussion following Game 3. No, anyone who watched the matchup is pondering the same controversial error, including HC Joe Mazzulla. And, it’s an issue that’s plagued Boston before.

It seems there was a time-keeping error at the very end of the third game in this series between the Celtics and the Magic. Coach Joe Mazzulla brought this up post-game. He said that he did think there’d be an error as far as the clock was concerned. “I do think you can go back, you should go back and review the certain time. I think it was more time than point three on the clock, but, you know, what are you gonna do?” said Mazzulla about the game tonight.

With the game being so close, the Celtics were practically robbed of a chance to push the game into overtime by this error. Derrick White did throw up a prayer with the paltry amount of time left. And Joe Mazzulla saying, “You can probably get a catch-and-shoot off of it,” may sway you. Realistically, though, he was never making that shot.

Regardless, the Boston Celtics’ head coach found a lot of supporters after he brought up this issue. But it wasn’t just fans agreeing to what he said. No, even respected journalists like ESPN’s Tim Bontemps’ thoughts aligned with Mazzulla’s on this issue. “I would agree. I was very surprised it wasn’t reviewed,” said the veteran journalist. Tim and Joe found another renowned journalist, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith, agreeing with them.

Keith opined that there were more than 0.3 seconds left on the clock before the timeout. “I’m going to be interested to see if there’s a pool report on why the clock wasn’t reviewed at the end of Celtics-Magic. Timeout was definitely called with more than 0.3 on the clock,” he wrote on X. And he may be right. Looking at the Pool Report for this game might give us some more insight into the apparent error with the clock.

Nonetheless, the Boston Celtics would hate for this to become a recurring problem for them. You see, Boston faced a similar issue with time-keeping back in 2023 during a game against the Charlotte Hornets.

Joe Mazzulla dealt with a similar issue in his first year as Celtics coach

Back in November 2023, when Joe Mazzulla wasn’t even a year into being the head coach, he lost a game in overtime to the Charlotte Hornets.  But an officiating issue overshadowed this loss, much like Game 3 against the Magic.

With 5 seconds left in overtime, Gordon Hayward fouled Jayson Tatum on a 3-point attempt. Tatum drained the first two free throws. But he missed the final free throw.  A scramble followed, and Mark Williams came up with the ball, and Boston ended up fouling him with around 3.1 seconds left on the clock. However, the clock ran down all the way to 1.7 seconds after the call before it stopped.

Despite protests from Boston, the officials allowed the Hornets to inbound the ball almost immediately. With a foul left to give, the Celtics fouled Hayward with 0.8 seconds remaining. The Hornets’ forward hit both of his free throw attempts. Following that, Jrue Holiday had his inbound pass picked off. That sealed the Celtics’ fate.

The game ended 121-118 with the Hornets picking up the narrow lead. Much like tonight’s loss, things could’ve ended differently for the Celtics. However, with the issues in officiating, we shall never know. Nonetheless, the incident in 2023 happened during a regular-season game. The same issue rearing its head in the postseason is something that the Celtics simply cannot afford. Let’s hope the NBA recognizes the issue and does something to fix it immediately. No one wants high-stakes  Playoff games marred by issues with timekeeping after all!