NBA Cup Scoring Shock: Cavaliers’ Victory Margin Slashed by One Point in Stunning Twist!

Well, if you’re clutching your Wizards jersey a little tighter after Friday’s showdown with the Cavaliers, I get it — a 33-point loss stings. But guess what? It turns out, Washington’s defeat was actually just a tad less severe than initially thought. The NBA itself stepped in postgame to fix a curious scoring blip: rookie Tre Johnson sank two free throws in the second quarter, but somehow, one of those points slipped under the radar, wrongly recorded as a miss. This minor mix-up shifted the final tally, nudging the Wizards’ deficit slightly closer and giving Johnson a deserved bump in his scoring night. Mistakes like this may seem odd given the professional stage, but hey, even the sharpest eyes can blink — especially amid the whirlwind of NBA action. And in a tournament where every point can matter, that correction’s more than just a footnote. For all the gritty details and what this means in the grand scheme, LEARN MORE.

Don’t worry, Washington Wizards fans. Your team actually lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers by only 33 points on Friday.

The NBA announced the day after the game that a scoring error had been made in the Cavaliers-Wizards NBA Cup game. In the second quarter, Wizards rookie Tre Johnson made a pair of free throws, but the scorekeeper incorrectly marked him down as having missed the first attempt. The NBA has corrected the error.

The new final score: Cavaliers 148, Wizards 115.

The fateful play:

The Cavaliers duly noted the correction.

The extra point also bumped Johnson up to 19 points on the night, continuing a decent start for the sixth overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft.

This kind of thing isn’t unprecedented. NBA games have a lot of plays and scorekeepers are human, even if their job seems as simple as watching a game of basketball and writing down what happens. Still, it’s quite something for a free throw to just not be counted and have seemingly no one notice it in the moment among the Wizards, officials or broadcast.

This was also one of the few games in which the margin of victory actually could be important. The NBA Cup uses score differential as a tiebreaker in group play, and it’s quite possible that will come up considering the Cavaliers are now 1-1 with a +22 differential in the East’s Group A. The Toronto Raptors are ahead of them at 2-0 and +23, with the Atlanta Hawks behind them at 1-1 and +8.

More NBA news

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra grateful for absolutely remarkable support after home burns down

The Wizards, meanwhile, sit in last place at 0-1 and -33. But we can clearly say it could have been worse. Washington is also 1-8 for the season overall, tied with the Brooklyn Nets for the worst record in the NBA. The Cavaliers are tied for third in the East at 6-3.