Friday, January 11, 2008

The longest minute of their lives

Not since the 1982-83 season have two NBA teams had to replay portions of a previous game, but on March 8, the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat will have to replay the last 51.9 seconds of their previous meeting, which was originally on December 19.

The reason for the replay is a foul that was erroneously attributed to Shaquille O'Neal with 3:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. The foul was supposed to be called on Udonis Haslem, but instead the scoring table gave it to O'Neal. The game eventually went to overtime, where Shaq picked up another foul, which the scoring table called his sixth. It should've only been his fifth.

The Hawks were leading 112-111 with 51.9 seconds left on the clock when the foul prompting O'Neal to exit the game was called. Atlanta went onto win 117-111. The replay will take place before the teams' next meeting on March 8.

In 1982, the San Antonio Spurs challenged their 137-132 double overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. The challenge was upheld, and San Antonio went on to win in the replay, 117-114.

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