The “magic box” always tells the truth, or so the saying goes among NBA players and coaches. When watching film the day after a game, the Thunder coaching staff will sometimes see a blown defensive assignment and wonder what coverage was actually called out by the players on the floor.
Maybe one teammate didn’t yell a defensive call in time, maybe his teammate didn’t hear it or reacted to it incorrectly. Either way, the magic box actually can’t always get to the whole truth.
In NBA games, particularly in the playoffs, the reason it’s impossible for the coaches to really uncover the source of the mistakes is because the crowd noise drowns out the chatter before it reaches the bench.