On Friday they filed a formal protest with the NBA office requesting a review of the Cavaliers' 106-101 victory Wednesday night, a league spokesman confirmed. The Hawks want the final 1:56 of the game re-played because they believe a shot clock error limited a key late-game possession.
On the play, guard Mo Williams missed a jumper off the side of the backboard and the Hawks got the rebound and started a possession but the shot clock did not re-start to 24 seconds as it should have. The Hawks instead had about 14 seconds to shoot. With five seconds left, LeBron James stripped Josh Smith for a steal.
Getting a protest upheld is extremely rare in the NBA. Two years ago, the NBA upheld one for the first time since 1982, ironically involving the Hawks and current Cavs center Shaquille O'Neal. The final 51 seconds of a Hawks-Heat game was re-played after O'Neal had been incorrectly disqualified.
The Cavs now have five business days to reply to the protest and then the league will rule.
The Cavs' defense likely will be the Hawks' possession resulted in a turnover and was not impacted by the shot clock. In fact, on the play the Hawks didn't even seem to be in a hurry though later coach Mike Woodson said it caused his team to hurry.
The burden would be on the Hawks to prove the mistake caused irreparable harm.
As long as the league is looking at the fourth quarter, the Cavs may want a review of a Daniel Gibson jumper with 9:40 left. Gibson was credited with two points on the play but replays indicated Gibson may have been behind the 3-point line.
The NBA is already reviewing a protest filed by Dallas Mavericks in a game against the Houston Rockets last month. That protest, like the Hawks', both seem unlikely to be upheld based on how the league has handled such matters.
Net results: Count coach Mike Brown among those surprised to see the Nets with the worst record in the league at 3-29.
"They have some talent," Brown said. "A lot of it is young talent. When you get into a cycle of losing, it can be hard to overcome. You can play a whale of a game for 45 minutes, but if you've lost enough, now it becomes a psychological thing towards the end of ball games.
"People will laugh at me when I say this, but they're a good team. They have some pretty good talents -- Devin Harris and Courtney Lee and [Brook] Lopez to start, and they have some veterans to help out. ... They're going to have a chance. They just have to get over the hurdle of not letting losses affect them late in ball games.
"Hopefully, they don't get to that point quite late. I hope they wait a couple days."
All-Star update: James is the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference after the latest returns of All-Star balloting announced on Thursday. James had 1,579,530 votes.
Kobe Bryant, a three-time All-Star MVP who shared the award with Shaquille O'Neal last year, is the overall leader with 1,606,032 votes.
O'Neal ranks second among the Eastern Conference centers, with 536,681 votes compared to 1,479,625 for Orlando's Dwight Howard.
The 2010 NBA All-Star Game will be played Feb. 14 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Paper balloting will continue through Jan. 10, while wireless balloting and voting on NBA.com will conclude Jan. 18.
Updated results will be issued regularly leading up to the announcement of the All-Star starters on Jan. 21. After the starters are determined, the head coaches in each conference will vote to determine the remaining All-Stars in their respective conferences. The reserves will be announced Jan. 28.
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