The Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night was more difficult than it should have been, in more ways than one.

Memphis was as shorthanded as it gets, missing 13 players due to injuries and went into tank mode to end the season. Despite this, their two-way players and G Leaguers battled until the end, giving the Lakers a scare before LeBron James & Co. sealed the deal.

In addition to the scare in the game, the Lakers and Grizzlies appear to have played more minutes than necessary.

Toward the end of the third quarter, the Grizzlies fired two straight air balls to end their possession with 1:14 remaining, but the shot clock was accidentally reset after the second attempt.

After a third air ball, referee Scott Wall called the play dead and informed the scorer’s table of the shot clock violation, giving the Lakers possession. However, when the Lakers inbounded the ball, the shot clock was reset to 24 and the game clock was moved from 1:14 to 2:20. None of the referees or either team noticed, and the game continued from there.

During the 1:06 of extra time, the Lakers and Grizzlies each scored two points, with Anthony Davis and Jordan Goodwin taking jump shots. So, despite the fact that additional time was played, neither team appeared to benefit significantly.

A day later, however, the NBA claimed that they had committed an error that no one could detect.

“We have confirmed that the game clock was inaccurately set in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers-Memphis Grizzlies game last night at FedEx Forum,” league spokesperson Tim Frank said in a statement. 

“After a shot clock violation, the clock was set to 2:20 instead of 1:14. The errors were not detected in real time by the teams, referees, game clock operator, or stats crew. While sad, the effort was not detected in time to remedy the matter in-game.”

Fortunately, this did not cost the Lakers a game they needed to win to advance in the Western Conference standings.

While putting extra wear and strain on players like James and Davis is not ideal, the key thing is that the Lakers eventually won against an exceedingly shorthanded Grizzlies club.

Rui Hachimura accuses Lakers of’messing around’ vs Grizzlies.

With such a critical game, most people expected the Lakers to annihilate the Grizzlies on Friday, but that was not the case.

The Lakers had one of their worst games of the season, and while it did not cost them the win, Rui Hachimura chastised his team for’messing around’ and turning the ball over at an alarming pace to allow Memphis to stay in the game.