The Boston Celtics narrowly lost Game 3 of their first-round playoff series by a final score of 95-93. The last two minutes were heated and extremely physical, leading to multiple moments of controversy from a refereeing perspective.
Many Celtics fans likely were waiting with anticipation for the NBA’s Last Two Minutes Report based on all the calls that seemed to go against the team, allowing the Magic to take control and win the game.
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On the report, one missed foul call was confirmed by the NBA in the last two minutes, but its likely not one fans were expecting to see.
The NBA’s Last Two Minutes report states that the only missed call from the final mins of Celtics-Magic was a missed foul call on Frank Wagner
Would have given Al Horford two free throws and a chance to tie the game pic.twitter.com/sQkq37PBYV
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) April 26, 2025
While the Last Two Minutes Report is interesting to read, it isn’t surprising the NBA is avoiding addressing the controversial calls that actually affected the outcome of the game.
The refs keeping the ball out-of-bounds off Derrick White with under a minute left, and them not adding more time than 0.3 seconds at the end of the game are the controversial calls that come to mind that should have been addressed.
Overall, it is still nice to see for Celtics fans that the NBA is addressing a missed foul call in what has been a physical series. However, it doesn’t have any impact on the outcome of the game, so it really doesn’t mean anything.
That is the biggest problem with these reports. They are supposed to provide accountability for the referees, but typically, they avoid addressing the calls the fans actually want closure on. The NBA doesn’t want to admit they blew a call that cost a team the game.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see if the referees continue to let the Magic play extremely physical. It seems they are at least somewhat trying to keep the game under control by calling a flagrant foul on the Magic in each of the three games.
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However, this report doesn’t suggest anything will change, so the Celtics will have to adjust for the rest of the series.
The team as a whole is banged up, which could impact the team beyond this series, but mentally, they need to find a way to overcome the way the Magic are playing and avoid playing right into their hands.
That is exactly what happened in the third quarter of this game, where the Celtics only managed 11 points.
Unfortunately for the Celtics and fans, the Last Two Minutes Report was as meaningless as usual, and probably will have no effect on refereeing the rest of the series.
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