Perfect Shooting and Mulligans

Interesting past few days in the NBA.

First, the New Orleans Hornets' star Chris Paul shot perfectly from the field in the Hornets game against the Miami Heat on Friday night. Like, really, perfect, as in did not miss a shot. 7 for 7. And it was not just him, his teammates Bobby Jackson and Jannero Pargo were perfect, too, going 9 for 9 and and 4 for from the field, respectively. Jackson is not being promoted as a star like Paul, so that's why his 9 for 9 gets second-billing, although Jackson's performance was more impressive to me (7 for 7 from behind the 3 point line). And not one of them even attempted a free throw. Of course, this is minus Shaq, but even without him, only two starters had two fouls, while the rest of the team had about one foul apiece. That's great defense, Heat. If you don't believe me, check out the caption on ESPN for the above photo: "Looking on is Miami Heat guard Jason Williams."

This was in striking contrast to the Detroit Pistons shooting against the New York Knicks on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. Who won this game? If you said the league-terrible Knicks, then you would be correct. The Pistons shot about as awfully as they could have. How awful? Second worst scoring performance in the history of the franchise. That bad.

But, the Miami Heat can take solace in receiving the rarest of the rare kind of gift from the NBA. No, not a good team. No, they received the chance to re-play part of a game that they lost.

In a December 19 game against the Atlanta Hawks, the official scorers incorrectly reported that Shaq had fouled out of the game with 51.9 seconds remaining, when in fact he only had 5 fouls. Alas, Shaq "fouled out" and the Hawks won the game, 117-111.

The Heat protested the game's outcome because of the foul discrepancy, and Commissioner David Stern has decided they were right. So on March 8, the team will re-play the game with 51.9 seconds on the clock, when the Hawks were leading 114-111. From Stern's comments, the closeness of the game is the reason for the re-play. And the Heat lost an "L" in the loss column - although I don't think it would make much of a difference.

Not only that, but Stern fined the Hawks $50,000 for their "grossly negligent" conduct. Yes, Stern is still an attorney at heart.

If that sounds unusual, it's because it is. I can't recall ever hearing of anything even remotely like that. That's because nothing like this has happened since 1982, when the San Antonio Spurs benefited from a do-over against the Los Angeles Lakers (ironically, involving the same scores involved here, 117-114). I'm intrigued as to how this will be handled logistically. It appears that the end of this game will take place prior to the beginning of a regularly scheduled meeting between the two teams, so that the fans will get something of a doubleheader. I would be mad if I had tickets to the last outing, though, and couldn't witness the history in the making. I will be tuning in for this one, for sure . . . hmm, maybe that is the whole point? Stern is no dummy, folks.