The Orlando Magic were hanging on for dear life as the clock wound down on their game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Leading by three points, the Lakers worked in transition for a three-pointer from Austin Reaves. He missed, but Deandre Ayton grabbed the long rebound. As the Magic tried to get to the ball, Tristan da Silva was called for a foul on the Lakers' center (more on that in a minute).
With 5.5 seconds left and a timeout in hand, the Magic clearly expected the Lakers to make both free throws and for them to play the foul game.
Instead, Ayton flung the ball hard off the rim on his second attempt to try to miss it intentionally and help the Lakers get a rebound and a chance to tie or win the game.
Wendell Carter grabbed the rebound, seemingly securing the win if the Magic could hold onto the ball and get a foul. Except that is not what happened.
The officials stopped the play and signaled for a timeout. It was an odd decision. One that was generating some debate in the locker room among players even after the game.
It was a decision that lands on coach Jamahl Mosley and turned into one of the big mistakes in the game. Orlando failed to inbound the ball after the timeout, leading to the Lakers gaining possession and eventually two cracks at winning the game with a three.
Luke Kennard took that second chance, burying the go-ahead basket with 0.6 seconds left for a 105-104 victory.
It is a scenario and a moment the Magic have been reliving over and over again during the last two days leading into Monday's game against the Indiana Pacers.
Mosley explains the timeout decision
What happened?
It was certainly an odd situation. And it perhaps reflects on Jamahl Mosley that he was not prepared for the Los Angeles Lakers to intentionally miss the free throw at that moment. Or on Mosley not to communicate his wishes clearly to the officials.
What is clear is the Magic were prepared to call a timeout after two makes or getting the rebound. And that timeout was granted.
"At the end of the day, usually in those situations, you don't think they are going to miss the shot because they have enough time to foul you and play the free-throw game," Mosley explained before Monday's game. "We put a big in the game [Goga Bitadze] to make sure we get the rebound. Now he goes for the miss, and you don't expect it, so everyone was a little surprised.
"In those situations you go to the referee prior to and as soon as you get the rebound, we're calling a timeout. Marc [Davis] calls the timeout because we had told him ahead of time we are getting the timeout. No confusion, Marc called the timeout."
Ultimately, the Magic asked for the timeout prior to the play and were granted it. Holding onto the ball and taking a foul would have likely allowed them to seal the game up two at the foul line with Carter or someone else on the foul line.
That is not what happened.
Instead, the Magic were uanble to inbound the ball and left the door open for the Lakers to steal the win. It was a miscue that proved costly for the team.
One they clearly regret and will change the next time they are in that scenario.
"Knowing that now, looking back with hindsight and seeing how confused they were and everyone was, I would have told Wendell to hold the basketball," Mosley said Monday. "At the end of the day, in that situation, you want to make sure you secure the rebound, get the ball advanced so you are not in the backcourt. You want to take care of that first."
Three missed calls
The Orlando Magic are trying to move on from that collapse. After all, they have a game in about an hour as I am writing this. They are already thinking about the next game and the final 12 games ahead.
But the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers stings not only because of the opportunity the Orlando Magic let slip through their fingers in those final five seconds with the moves that did not work out.
It stings now too because the NBA admitted several critical calls went against them.
In the Last Two Minute Report released Sunday for the game, the NBA admitted three incorrect calls or non-calls that disadvantaged the Magic in the final two minutes.
The league reported Deandre Ayton should have been called for a defensive three-second violation on two separate occasions in the final two minutes, giving the Magic a technical free throw and the ball on each call.
The first came with 1:22 to play and the Magic up by one point. The play ended with Wendell Carter making a jumper to restore a three-point lead.
The second came with 25.6 seconds left when Deandre Ayton was trying to provide backside help to prevent a post-entry pass to Paolo Banchero. The Magic had to break off the play and got a desperation shot from Desmond Bane in the corner that fell no good.
That led to the sequence where Ayton got fouled.
The irony of all of this is that the NBA says Ayton was not even fouled on the play that sent him to the line with 5.5 seconds left.
The report states Tristan da Silva got the ball and knocked it away from him when he was called for the foul. With three Magic players surrounding him they were sure to recover the ball.
The whole controversy and frustration from Saturday theoretically should have been completely avoided.
All the Magic can do now is move forward and hope this is not what costs them Playoff positioning in the end.
"One game at a time, take care of home and make sure we keep focusing on us," Mosley said Monday. "What we're fighting for and how we're trying to play a style of basketball that we need to keep getting better and better. Dropping four straight, that is one thing, but you can only take care of it one game at a time."
The reality is that the loss on Saturday could have huge ramifications.
The Orlando Magic enter Monday's game 1.5 games behidn the Toronto Raptors for fifth in the East and a half-game behind the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers for sixth and seventh. They hold a half-game lead over the Miami Heat in eighth and lead the 10th-place Charlotte Hornets by 1.5 games.
It is going to be tight all the way to the end of the season. And every game and every moment is going to count.