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The Miami Heat suffered a tough overtime loss to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, despite giving their best to try and pull off a come-from-behind victory. They were down during the last minute of regulation but fought hard to send the game to a five-minute extension, where they ultimately lost.
However, it turns out they may have won on the night if only two calls were made correctly and went their way.
The NBA admitted that there was a missed foul when Kelly Olynyk attempted a putback after Dwyane Wade failed to convert on his shot with only 4.8 seconds remaining. According to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, assistant coach Tony Fiorentino also stressed on a five-second violation that was not called on the Wizards when they were about to inbound the ball with 12.2 seconds left on the game clock.
Turns out Heat actually won in Washingron. NBA says, as Tony Fiorentino stressed (good job, coach), Wizards should have been called for a five-second inbounding violation with 12.2 seconds to play and NBA says Olynyk fouled on putback attempt of Wade miss with 4.8 seconds left.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 8, 2018
League says no incorrect calls were made in Wizards' favor, but did also say that an incorrect call was made of a foul on Josh Richardson for a steal that did not involve a foul. So doesn't everyone feel better now? https://t.co/VUzp17eiWn
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 8, 2018
While it's not expected that the result of the game will be overturned, it may still prevent the Heat players from losing confidence, especially after seeing their two-game winning streak snapped. It will be important for them to keep on believing that they can win on the road against playoff-bound teams as they are in the dogfight for one of the last postseason berths in the Eastern Conference.
For now, they can move on from the loss on Tuesday and focus on their upcoming games instead. However, it still remains to be seen how crucial the missed calls will be, as there's a chance that it will prove very costly for them if they miss out on the playoffs by just a single game.
