Magic feel 'cheated' after clock error, obscure rule help seal win for Lakers

Tom Gatto

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Magic feel 'cheated' after clock error, obscure rule help seal win for Lakers image

A clock error and a little-used rule combined to cost the Magic a chance at beating the Lakers on Wednesday. Both things left the Magic salty.

Quick setup: Orlando was down a point with sixth-tenths of a second to play after Brook Lopez made two free throws. After a timeout, the Magic attempted an inbounds lob to Aaron Gordon. While the ball was still in the air, the clock started and ran out, and the horn sounded.

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After a review by the replay center in New Jersey, it was ruled there would be a jump ball at midcourt with six-tenths remaining. The Magic didn't even bother to contest the toss, and the game ended.

"We feel cheated," Gordon told reporters postgame, per the Orlando Sentinel. 

"It was just a terrible end of a game of basketball," Gordon added. "It didn't even give us a chance to win, and that's the last time we see 'em [the Lakers]. We wait a year to play 'em again. They've got to change that rule and I think they will."

"It doesn’t make any sense," center Nikola Vucevic said, per the Sentinel.

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"I would think that you give the ball back to the team that had it," coach Frank Vogel said, per the Sentinel.

Lead official Bill Spooner tried to make sense when speaking with a pool reporter:

The one good thing (maybe) for the NBA: This game involved a lottery team (Orlando) and a likely lottery team (LA), so there's little chance of the playoff races being affected.Then again, the Magic (20-45) "gained" a game in the lottery standings, so the teams around them might not be too happy.

Gordon, Vucevic, Vogel and the rest of the Magic don't care about ping-pong balls. They just know they had an opportunity to win, and then they didn't, for a seemingly dumb reason.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.