The Atlanta Hawks versus Miami Heat game in the 2007-08 season was one of the strangest games in NBA history.
During their matchup on December 19, 2007, 17 years ago today, the Hawks defeated Miami with 117-111. But, the game’s scorer wrongly credited a Udonis Haslem foul to Shaquille O’Neal with 3:24 remaining in the fourth quarter. Then later, Shaq picked up another foul with 51.9 seconds left on the clock in overtime. What would have been his 5th, was recorded as his sixth, resulting in his disqualification.
After an official review by the NBA, the league ruled that the two teams had to replay the final 51.9 seconds of the game, because the official scorer ruled incorrectly that Shaquille O’Neal fouled out.
So these final 51.9 seconds then were replayed before the teams’ next game against each other on March 8, 2008. It was in the first NBA “do-over” game in a quarter-century. Interestingly, it ended in anti-climactic fashion, as neither team was able to score. The Hawks therefore ended up winning the game without even scoring.
What was funny though, despite being the main reason for the redo, Shaq did end up not playing in the game, because he had been traded to the Phoenix Suns in the meantime.
