The Atlanta Hawks were even closer to beating CHI than it seemed

No one in the Atlanta Hawks (28-31) locker room is likely dwelling on the 112-108 loss they suffered at the hands of the Chicago Bulls on Thursday. Not when they have an equally daunting task ahead in the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. And not when they simultaneously sit just one game from being the nine-seed or out of even the play-in tournament.

The Hawks have had about as much success against Toronto as they have had against Chicago going 0-2 against the Raptors this season.

But the NBA just let us all know how close the Hawks came to snapping their 0-5 streak against the two teams on Thursday when they released their infamous last two minute report that details missed calls that occurred in the final two minutes of a given contest.

If you felt the refs missed a couple of things, you’re right.

The NBA admits to two missed calls that could have turned the tide for the Hawks against the Bulls

Bulls beat reporter K.C. Johnson shared the report which stated that Zach LaVine should have been called for fouling Trae Young with 1:09 on the clock. The report goes on to say Bogdan Bogdanovic did not foul DeMar DeRozan on what wound up being the game-winning shot. That free throw, which DeRozan sunk, put the Bulls up two points with just 15.1 seconds to go.

There are a couple of things about this, though. For starters, DeRozan was on Young with one minute to go, not LaVine. And, while DeRozan does seem to extend his hand in Young’s direction any contact that there might have been seemed inconsequential.

LaVine did make contact with Young with 26 seconds to go as the latter slipped on the court before passing to Bogi who missed a tough step-back three.

There looked as though there was contact made on Young and Bogi but still no calls.

As for Bodanovic’s call at the end. There was contact, sure, but it was not Bogi who committed the transgression. That was Kevin Huerter who came over to help stop DeRozan who had a game-high 37 points. Huerter finished with four fouls on the night and just nine points in what was, hopefully, a set-up for a bounceback against the Raptors.

The call seemed ticky-tack and DeRozan certainly sold it some but this was a less egregious miss than the double no-call on Young’s slip. But the reality is the Hawks should have never been in a position to have the officiating impact the game in that fashion.

They led by three points with 58 seconds when that call was missed and Bogi was forced to put up a three that resulted in a shot-clock violation.

Still, it is hard not to think of what could have been even with just the Young call let alone letting DeRozan’s shot stand on its own. Perhaps then the Hawks don’t run the particular play that resulted in another tough step-back from Bogi to effectively end the game. Bogdanovic finished with a team-high 27 points and has been on a tear so it’s hard to hold this one against him.

Atlanta has been the beneficiary of the New York Knicks and Washington Wizards being dumpster fires right now negating some of their missteps.

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets haven’t gotten the full band of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons on the floor together just yet. But, if the Hawks are going to take advantage of that, they can’t keep dropping winnable games.,