Cavaliers Rock the Party Hats for LeBron’s Birthday
December 31, 2009Braylon Edwards Harnesses His Inner Broadway Joe
December 31, 2009*unless of course they don’t, because there just may be some league intervention because of that shot clock incident. More on that in a minute…
This one smelled like a let-down game from 245 miles away. (I caught wind of it in Northern Kentucky around noon.)
First, you have the older Cavs playing against the younger Hawks on a back-to-back. Factor in the Cavs’ recent travel schedule, and potentially some over-confidence after dominating Atlanta recently. Throw in an LBJ birthday game (something the Cavs always seem flat for) and this one was easy to spot.
The Hawks came out early on a mission to prove me right. They out-hustled the Cavs en route to a 64 (!) point first half and a 12-point halftime lead.
That lead would get pushed to 17 early in the third quarter. Cleveland cut it to a mere two points in the period, with great energy and aggressiveness, but lost the momentum and fell behind again by 10. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t think the Cavs had the legs to come back from another double-digit deficit.
But come back they did, time and time again. They cut it to 2 again just 3 minutes into the fourth, and then found themselves down five a few more times before they finally found the lead.
There will be two things Cleveland fans will no doubt be talking about after this one. The first is Andy Varejao’s three-pointer with just seconds to go in the game. Yes, you read that right. Varejao’s three. The first of his NBA career. It was a bail-out shot at the end of the 24 second clock, after Mo lost the handle and had to give it up to the open man, which just happened to be Andy. LeBron called the shot his birthday present, and it certainly propelled the Cavs to the win.
But there is something else that we’ll be talking about. Certainly something that Hawks fans will be talking about as well. After a Mo Williams drive to the basket was thwarted (I don’t even want to start the discussion about fouls not being called near the basket in this one.) the Hawks moved the ball over the time line and started to set up their possession. Problem is that the shot clock never reset, and Mike Bibby quickly found himself with the ball and a seven second shot clock. Now, had Bibby stopped and pointed out the faulty time right there we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I know, that isn’t his job. True, but instead he passed the ball inside to a Hawk who lost the handle on the ball and the Cavs started a break which ended up with a Varejao basket (no, not the three). Of course the Hawks bench pointed out the error, but it was determined by the refs that the mistake didn’t cause the Hawks to lose the possession, after all the ball was lost before the shot clock expired.
So the situation is this- we wait and see if the Hawks file an official protest. If they do, they will contend that the game should be restarted with just under two minutes to go, Atlanta ball with a one point lead. The Cavaliers will counter that there was a turnover and not a 24-second violation. The officials at the game conferred and things went Cleveland’s way. We’ll see if the league decides to award the Hawks another shot.
According to Brian Windhorst’s tweets, there has been one protest upheld in the last 26 years. That protest was recently however, and coincidentally involved the Hawks and Shaq. It was the Heat/Hawks game in which Shaq was fouled out, even though he only had five fouls. The error was seen to be important enough that the league made the two teams finish the game again from the point Shaq had been disqualified.
Aside from simply removing the win from the books, a protest that is upheld would also wipe out Andy’s game winner and only three-point shot in his career. What can you say? Hopefully the league sides with the Cavs.
18 Comments
@14, you’ve obviously never listened to White Sox announcers… different league, of course
I doubt anything comes from the protest. Fouling out a starter impacts the game much more than a shortened possession that resulted in a turnover that might have happened anyway.
Agreed – had the Hawks been whistled for a 24-second violation, that’s different. They turned the ball over within that seven second period. Plus, the Hawks ownership is a disaster – what are the odds that they can all agree on spending the $10K to get this going?
2 quick things:
1) the heat/hawks game that was replayed was really funny, because when the game was replayed, Shaq was already on the suns and the end result of the game was the same.
2) the hawks have the worst clock operators in the league. hoopinion.com references it in their most recent post. maybe it was karma?
They weren’t rushing, simply lost the ball in under seven seconds.
I actually fell asleep and woke up right when Andy hit that three. Sweet victory.
It would beyond ridiculous if the Cavs had to replay that game because the Hawks panicked and coughed the ball up due to a clock malfunction. They lost that game on their own stupid play not because of the clock malfunction. There was still like three full possessions each at that point.
The Hawks blew a 17 point lead. Last time I checked, incompetence like that takes more than one possession.
Bibby lies. He never even looks at the clock. Watch the replay. This is the sign of a young, immature team and a coach who is not helping the situation. How are you supposed to get to Josh Smith to stop barking when you are constantly huffing and puffing and made excuses?
Best quote re: the game is Mike Bibby’s: “I think we should have won this game, and I think they know that, too.”
The shot clock thing was a screw up, plain and simple, but the Hawks choked away this game. Up 17 with 6 minutes and change in the 3rd quarter, a team needs to close that thing out. The Hawks are a team lacking in maturity and that showed up again big time last night.
I can’t see the league overturning this one – the error cost them ten seconds, and it was not altogether clear that the shot clock even prompted the turnover. I think Mike Woodson is to blame in part – a more centered coach would have just told his team to shake it off and focus on the task at hand. Instead he kept freaking out about it and set a bad tone for his team for the remainder of the game.
I think this one stands.
If the league wants to review the game, they can also review Josh Smith’s body block on Anthony Parker’s reverse lay up late in the game. Smith crushed him to prevent the shot and it resulted in a … no call.
From what I’ve read today, David Stern’s only previous ruling to replay portion of a game due to an official error was when a game official gave Shaq an extra foul, and Stern deemed this “gross negligence.” This was because the mistake could have been corrected during multiple subsequent stoppages in play, never was, and caused Shaq to foul out close to the end of a close game. So if the failure to correct something blatant over an extended period of game time is the league standard for a replay, we should be safe.
I don’t understand why this is a discretionary issue for the league brass. I would think that a rule would be in place for just that situation, such that they could properly handle it in-game.
This type of stuff is why the NFL will remain the biggest of the three major sports… Now if we can just get a better NFL franchise…
@ Scott – true, but the players in the NFL (mainly QB) would throw a hissy fit if the play clock was off, and make it known. Not saying it’s better or worse, that’s just what they’d do.
Also why bowling continues to be as huge as it is. No clock or referees.
I was forced to watch the Hawks telecast and their announcers (Dominique Wilkins and some other guy) were having a hissy-fit (It’s not just the players and coaches, it’s the whole organization) about the shot clock call and then the Andy 3-pt call (even though the replays clearly showed he was behind the line). They even went as far as to blame the loss on the shot clock failure and not on the fact that they blew a 17 pt lead.
Can’t decide which announcers were the bigger homers: Atlanta or Miami. Wish I could have hear AC and Fred’s call live.
They’ve got a legitimate beef about the clock, but I don’t think anything will come of it.
The turnover wasn’t caused by the clock. Look at the passes and the pacing in the backcourt on that drive. That was not a team feeling rushed.
@ Scott: This type of stuff is why the NFL will remain the biggest of the three major sports… Now if we can just get a better NFL franchise…
I have no idea what you mean by that…because the NFL does not have shot clocks it will remain the biggest of the three major sports? Your statement seems to make no sense. Thanks!
[…] Via a press release from the NBA, David Stern has denied the Atlanta Hawks’ request to replay the final two minutes of the game which took place on December 30th. […]