MURPHY’S LAW

Golden State Warriors Net ‘Weird’ Win as Announcer Stands in for Shot Clock

A 23-minute delay in the last 100 seconds of game time also made for an odd end to the matchup with the Lakers.

The Golden State Warriors clinched a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, but the finale seemed to last forever as a “bizarre” set of missteps and malfunctions stretched the last 2 minutes of game time into 23 minutes of agony. The Lakers were poised to overtake their Northern California rivals just under the two-minute mark in the second half when LeBron James sank a three-pointer that would have brought them neck-and-neck. But officials scratched that basket when they ruled James had stepped out of bounds, allowing the Warriors to increase their lead to seven points. Then, with 1:50 left in the game, the shot clock malfunctioned and several attempts to restart it failed, eventually forcing the announcer to step in and count down the remaining time every five seconds. “I’ve never seen that be called before like that—in that particular time,” James said after the game, according to ESPN. “That was kind of weird... It took some momentum away from us.” The final score was 128-121, a Warriors victory.