Heat, Hawks to replay final minute of Dec. 19 game later this year

[Warhawk]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3192421

ATLANTA -- For the first time since 1982, the NBA is sending two teams back to the court for a do-over.
The Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat must replay the final 51.9 seconds of their game last month because the official scorer ruled incorrectly that Shaquille O'Neal fouled out, the league said Friday.
The Hawks won 117-111 at home in overtime Dec. 19, but strike that one from the books. For now, playoff-contending Atlanta has one less win, while the Heat have one less loss on their miserable record.
The NBA said the replay will be held before the teams' next scheduled game: March 8 in Atlanta. Play will start from the time after O'Neal's disputed sixth foul, with the Hawks leading 114-111.
The Hawks were leading 112-111 in overtime when O'Neal was called for a foul. The official scorers said it was the Miami center's sixth foul, when actually it was only his fifth.

The mistake stemmed from a foul with 3:24 remaining in the fourth quarter that was called on Udonis Haslem but was mistakenly credited to O'Neal at the scoring table.


more....

 

[Entity]

So I guess injury's don't matter. If O'neal is unavailable because of injury then I guess the result should be the same.

 

[VF21]

Oh, geez. This is just silly. There's no way replaying the final 52 seconds is going to correct the error.

 

[Glenn]

So I guess injury's don't matter. If O'neal is unavailable because of injury then I guess the result should be the same.

If Shaq isn't healthy March 8 he's got more problems than a hip bursitis. That type of injury requires rest and two months should be more than adequate.

 

[stevetaebo]

So... does this mean that game 7 of the 2002 WCF will be replayed?

 

[Entity]

If Shaq isn't healthy March 8 he's got more problems than a hip bursitis. That type of injury requires rest and two months should be more than adequate.

i wasn't going by his injury status now. Knowing Shaq it will be something else by then. Probably his big toe.

 

[Glenn]

i wasn't going by his injury status now. Knowing Shaq it will be something else by then. Probably his big toe.

True dat! There are prices to being that large.

 

[Superman]

Oh, geez. This is just silly. There's no way replaying the final 52 seconds is going to correct the error.

Right. This is stupid.

 

[uolj]

Why is it stupid? What other remedy is there? It was the Hawks supplied scorer that made the error, so you can't just let it go.

 

[VF21]

Sometimes there is no remedy. This is one of those times, IMHO. I would think SOMEONE on the Miami bench would have also been keeping track of fouls. They could easily have double-checked during the break between the end of regulation and the start of the overtime. They could have discussed it with the officials AND the official scorer, asking him to go back and count Shaq's fouls. It's NOT that hard and it certainly wouldn't be the first time a scorer made a mistake. Once the mistake was discovered, at that point it would have been easy to rectify the error...or at least mitigate the effect. Once the game is over, it's over. I reiterate that replaying less than a minute of a game is just silly.

 

[Alacron]

The big question is, will the audience in attendance at the game be admitted to see the final 51 seconds?
~~

 

[chrisnu]

I didn't realize that the home team provides the personnel at the scoring table. I always assumed that a league official was present. I think changing that would be a good idea.

 

[Glenn]

I didn't realize that the home team provides the personnel at the scoring table. I always assumed that a league official was present. I think changing that would be a good idea.

Yup. Home team controls when the clock starts and stops, etc. NOBODY could stay neutral in that situation.

 

[kennadog]

Sometimes there is no remedy. This is one of those times, IMHO. I would think SOMEONE on the Miami bench would have also been keeping track of fouls. They could easily have double-checked during the break between the end of regulation and the start of the overtime. They could have discussed it with the officials AND the official scorer, asking him to go back and count Shaq's fouls. It's NOT that hard and it certainly wouldn't be the first time a scorer made a mistake. Once the mistake was discovered, at that point it would have been easy to rectify the error...or at least mitigate the effect. Once the game is over, it's over. I reiterate that replaying less than a minute of a game is just silly.

My understanding is that Miami DID immediately protest the 6th foul at the time. Since Atlanta's scorers attributed one of Haslem's fouls to Shaq by mistake, it wouldn't have helped much to count Shaq's fouls, because they had recorded six fouls, in error.

 

[twocents]

well, they are replaying an uleb game (second tier european wide cup) because of a ruled-out 3 pointer that would have won the game (final score was 60-62).

if there is a rule violation, the game is either replayed from start to finish or one team is awarded a win which in this case seems the more suitable approach.

a similar problem occurred in the magic-rockets game in which a last second shot which would have taken the game to overtime was not called either way. the refs then checked out the replay for a few minutes and decided that the ball was still touching the player's finger tips when the red light was on. but the interesting thing is from a different angle, the ball is not touching the player at all right before the red light goes off. and what happened? the nba, as usual, backing up its untouchable refs, concluded that there was nothing to be done.