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The final score of an NBA game is usually the last word, a definitive fact etched into the record books moments after the final buzzer. But in a rare move that has basketball fans talking, the league itself has stepped in to rewrite a small piece of history from a game that already seemed finished. The NBA officially announced that a scoring error was made during the Cleveland Cavaliers’ dominant victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday night. The league stated, “With 8:15 remaining in the second quarter, Tre Johnson’s (WAS) first free throw attempt was incorrectly entered as a missed free throw, when in fact he made both.” This admission came more than twelve hours after the game concluded at Capital One Arena. Because of this mistake, the final score has been officially changed. The scoreboard originally showed a 148-114 win for the Cavaliers. The corrected and now official final score is Cleveland 148, Washington 115. This adjustment reduces the Cavaliers’ margin of victory by a single point. The league confirmed that all game statistics have been updated to reflect this change. This scoring correction is not just a trivial footnote. The game was part of the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament. In group stage play, point differential is a key tiebreaker used to decide which teams advance to the knockout rounds. A single point could theoretically make the difference between moving on and going home later in the tournament. The announcement sparked immediate reaction from fans online, with one expressing a sentiment shared by others, “If ya don’t start a lawsuit with the nba now, we will forever deal with this nonsense. We need 3rd party stat verifier. Tre Johnson having 18pts instead of 19 is just straight playing in our faces.” While the league relies on its own official scorers and the Elias Sports Bureau for verification, this incident highlights how high the stakes are perceived, especially with the NBA Cup’s tiebreaker rules. This is not the first time the NBA has had to issue a post-game stat correction. On October 25, 2024, a similar error occurred in a game between the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers. A free throw by De’Anthony Melton was misrecorded, leading to a one-point change in the final score the following day. Such corrections remain rare given the volume of data tracked each game. For the Cavaliers, the correction does not change their win, which improved their NBA Cup record to 1-1. Donovan Mitchell led the team with 24 points in the contest. The Wizards, who were led by CJ McCollum’s 25 points, fell to 0-1 in group play. The focus now shifts to whether that one point will have any bearing on the tight East Group A standings as the tournament progresses. Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports
