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.

Stinging Their Opponents . . . and Stung By Their Fans

The New Orleans Hornets are off to their best start ever, but that has not translated into high attendance at their games.

Apparently, they just can't get enough butts in the seats to watch their games against sorry and half way decent teams. They had their biggest attendance of the year at a San Antonio Spurs game with attendance of 15,297, which exceeded their opening night game by about 100 tickets, but they haven't had any sellouts. But when the Philadelphia 76ers came to town, only 8,302 people showed up. A sellout would be 18,000. And that's with the availability of $10 seats. Ouch.

These numbers are lower than they were even when they actually did suck. Well, New Orleans, these are the breaks when you have years of losing, especially when you move from another city where the team was not so great, either. You're just not going to get a good crowd unless you a) have some "NBA superstars"; b) play in a huge market; or c) are playing a team with "NBA superstars." Let me explain.

NBA superstars are ones that may or may not be tops in the league, but they are usually among the most well-known players; players that you're likely to see at the All-Star game.

Hornets' point guard Chris Paul may be one of the most underrated players in the entire NBA. He's averaging over 17 points and 10 assists per game - a double-double - and he's a lot of the reason why the Hornets are off to a 10-4 start.

But he's no Kobe Bryant. No Dwyane Wade. Not even Kevin Garnett. So he's not going to put Kobe or Wade numbers (i.e., fans) in the arena, not even on his home floor. But if the Hornets make a solid run this year, I expect that to change.

Also, New Orleans is just not a major market. Not only is New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, but the Hornets are still the relative new guys in town, having moved from Charlotte in 2002. They have also played away from home in Oklahoma City for the past two years because of Katrina.

Given the NBA superstar and market issues the Hornets face, it's no surprise that games against teams that also lack NBA superstars are going to be low-turnout affairs. With situations like these, the mini-packages, which include the not so popular games, are a great idea that almost all teams have developed to get attendance up at games against poor opponents. (Hopefully they've already exhausted the possibilities of tie-ins and giveaways.)

So, Hornets fans, take heart. I know you're not getting the attention of the Boston Celtics or the respect of the Spurs, and the truth is that you may never get that fanfare. But I say control what you can control. If the players do their part on the floor, the fans will come eventually.

Just keep being good. And if you take out the Celtics along the way . . . even better.