Depending on your perspective, Saturday night in Atlanta will feature either the longest or shortest game in NBA history. It will also become the first game of a doubleheader.

It’s either two months, two weeks and four days long, or has just 51.9 seconds left to play before the full game begins.

Granted, it doesn’t make sense … but this is the NBA.

You see on Dec. 19, the Hawks had apparently defeated the Heat 117-111 in overtime until Heat coach Pat Riley saw in the official boxscore that center Shaquille O’Neal had been erroneously fouled out with 51.9 seconds to go in overtime with only one problem … it was only his fifth foul.

Riley protested the game, incredibly enough the NBA office agreed with him, so they will resume the game with just less than 52 seconds remaining in the first overtime period with the Hawks leading 114-111 as the first game prior to the regularly scheduled game between the two teams Saturday night.

So they’re on, and of course that includes weirdness … a lot of weirdness.

O’Neal is no longer on the team, dealt to Phoenix for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, who are eligible to play in the game. And his backup center at the time, Alonzo Mourning, already having announced this season would be his last before retirement, tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during the Dec. 19 game and his career apparently is unofficially over.

That translates into two guys from the game are no longer with the Heat, but two new guys who weren’t on the team will play.

The Hawks, too, have made their changes. They completed a five-player deal that brought point guard Mike Bibby from Sacramento in exchange for Lorenzen Wright, Shelden Williams, Tyronn Lue and Anthony Johnson. Plus, the Hawks now have Jeremy Richardson on the active roster. The well-traveled swingman has been in Memphis, San Antonio and the D-League this season. Wright, Williams and Johnson played in the game, but Lue and Richardson did not.

A little basic math tells us that that’s a transition of 10 players between the two teams form the first game. Moreover, with six of theplayers no longer available for this game, there is a little accounting to do that adds up to 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists they contributed to a game in which they can no longer compete.

How’s that for keeping it real?

Even more interesting about it is the Hawks, now 11 games below .500 and 10th in the conference, with coach Mike Woodson and general manager Billy Knight under fire, were rolling at the time and in the thick of the playoff race at one game above .500. After the game, during which Anthony Johnson had 19 points, 9 assists and a steal including the presumed final basket with 14 seconds left in overtime, Woodson was prompted to say this about his now departed veteran point guard in part, "A.J. has been phenomenal. He’s running our ballclub, getting the ball where is has to go. He’s defending for us and scoring. He’s doing everything a point guard is supposed to do. It’s beautiful to see."

Evidently it wasn’t that beautiful since he was shipped out two months later.

Furthermore, the Hawks' talented young forward Josh Smith won’t be able to finish the game for a basketball reason … he really did foul out in December with 1:43 left in regulation. On the flip side there is Hawks guard Salim Stoudamire. He didn’t play in the Dec. 19th version of the game, but is eligible to be a part of the final 51.9 seconds or more, if it requires another overtime period. The same goes for Heat guard Jason Williams, who sat out Dec. 19 with swelling in his knee but has had no problem playing in recent weeks.

Just to fill you in on what has already happened, Heat star Dwyane Wade is the leading scorer in the game with 36 points and also leads both teams with 10 assists, while Ricky Davis had 16 points and 4 assists. O’Neal also had 16 points and 7 rebounds that will be part of the post-game numbers. Marvin Williams leads the Hawks with 26 points and 9 rebounds, with Joe Johnson already having accumulated 25 points and 9 assists.

Just to tighten up the viewership and understand the circumstances when the game re-starts, both teams are in the penalty. The Hawks have one timeout left and two, 20-second timeouts. The Heat has just one 20-second call left.

Fifteen minutes after that game ends, they will have pre-game shooting for the second game. Of course, there will be inactive list announcements before the partial game, then shortly after the partial game has ended, the inactive list for the second game of this twin bill will be announced.

The curious thing will be the feel of the game for everyone from the players and coaches to the officials and the fans. Everyone will prepare the same as a normal game, except there is a less than a minute left on the clock, the Hawks are already winning by three points, and the Heat are in-bounding the ball on the baseline in front of the Atlanta bench.

How can this be normal? Although the Heat (11-47) have the worst record in the NBA and have long since been out of the playoff picture, the Hawks (24-35) are only a game out of the eighth seed in the Leastern Conference postseason race. So it does matter. If the Heat were having a normal season, it would matter even more and draw even more cynicism.

But what makes it even more intriguing is what happens to the emotions after the short burst o####ame has come to end. How do the players respond from that game, and leading into another?

Nobody can know that since it is unprecedented for any of these guys in their NBA careers. It’s a sad commentary on game logistics. But there is one real positive, and that’s for the fans. In one of those rare moments when everybody gets a break in price, they get two games for the price of one … even if the first one will take two months, two weeks and four days to be completed.

Christmas Day in the NBA … seeing the Los Angeles Lakers every year doesn’t quite have the same allure as the NFL tradition on Thanksgiving Day, but at least it allowed for one game out of three to live up to it’s billing. And with the way the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns 122-115, it certainly makes the race in the West a lot more interesting.

 

But that was the middle game -- and unless you already knew better, that meant you had to survive the first game, leaving almost no possibility of staying awake through boredom and a second day of turkey to see the nightcap.

 

Oh, we did manage not to nod out before seeing the upstart Portland Trail Blazers extend their NBA-best winning streak to 11 games in an ugly 89-79 win against the Seattle Sonics Tuesday night. It wasn’t supposed to be about the rivalry in the Pacific Northwest, though. It was scheduled in July to have provided enough time for the highly publicized top two picks of the 2007 draft -- Greg Oden and Kevin Durant -- to get their feet on the ground and excite everyone with a glimpse of the NBA’s future superstars.

 

As we’ve learned ad nauseum, Oden is out for the year never to play a game this season after microfracture knee surgery. And Durant continues to show flashes of his superlative scoring skills amid the other immature aspects of his game on a bad team. The best part of the Blazers is still seeing how 2006 rookie of the year Brandon Roy has blossomed into the floor leader that coach Nate McMillan had dreamed about (even if Sergio Rodriguez did show sparks of spectacular ballhandling and passing skills). Maybe that lock of another lottery pick in the wake of Oden’s absence won’t happen after all, and the Blazers slip into the playoffs. That would be one of the great stories of the season if they can sustain … but they are so young.

 

The first game was in Cleveland, with the underachieving Cavs hosting the pathetic Miami Heat. Of course all eyes were on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.  But all the Heat had in them was one good quarter, and it’s hard to imagine Wade making it through this season healthy after offseason surgery on his shoulder and knee from which he certainly returned too soon. It’s one thing to carry his teammates with Shaquille O’Neal. It’s quite another for Shaq to be jumping on his back. At least coach Pat Riley showed Shaq enough respect to yank him after he had just picked up his fifth foul with just less than seven minutes left. It saved him from tying the all-time record of six consecutive games of fouling out, but didn’t prevent everyone from witnessing just how unproductive he has become. At 8-20, they are astonishingly bad and Wade didn’t even score in the second half until there were eight minutes left in the game.

 

The Cavs, carrying the moniker of Defending Eastern Conference champs, were made to look like chumps on Saturday night by the wacko New York Knicks. For the first time, James stormed out of the arena without a word. And things looked pretty bleak Tuesday when they went dead in the second half. But they did bounce back and manhandled the Heat in the second half, led by James’ 25 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds for an easy 96-82 win. The key for the Cavs though, was what happened around James, with Andy Varejao coming around quickly from his late contract signing – averaging 11 points, 11 rebounds and 2.8 steals in the past three games. And Drew Gooden is still very capable of a double-double on any given night. The key is in the backcourt, where Larry Hughes didn’t put up numbers, but ran the offense and had four steals, while Daniel Gibson was deadly from the perimeter. All of this was predicated by getting back to their defensive roots that had seemingly vanished. The good news for them is after the Celtics and Pistons, and the rapidly tumbling Magic, everybody else is lingering around .500 for the fourth seed. And the Magic have played their way back to the field losing 8-of-12 after their great start.

 

Nonetheless, the Lakers' win over the Suns lived up to its billing and more. Even though Kobe Bryant scored 26 of his 38 points in the second half, it wasn’t about him for the most part.. It was about Andrew Bynum, the precocious young center with his tutor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar looking on.  The seven-point win wasn’t the story as much as Bynum was just too much for the Suns All-Star center Amare Stoudemire to handle, making 11-of-13 shots to finish with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists. We have yet to see a skyhook out of the 20-year-old Bynum, but you have to figure at some point in time, with the touch he is already showing, that it’s coming.

 

The other eye-catcher for the Lakers was Trevor Ariza, earning a start in the wake of Luke Walton’s ankle sprain. Ariza, acquired from Orlando for mechanical Brian Cook and erratic Maurice Evans, gives them much needed athleticism and defense on the perimeter. And Tuesday, he added eye-popping dunks like he had at UCLA. It’s no wonder coach Phil Jackson signed a two-year extension, you can tell he’s having fun – bow-ties and all.

 

Despite continued great play from Steve Nash, the Suns just couldn’t keep up and they’re looking more vulnerable every day. Not only do the Lakers now have more speed and depth, but with Bynum and Lamar Odom, they now have two players the Suns can’t control inside – thus the Lakers 2-0 record with them this season. Even more to the point, although the Suns (19-10) still hold a one-game lead over the Lakers (18-11) for the top spot in the Pacific Division, the Suns built that record playing teams in the East. They are a surprising 7-7 against the West this season, and that’s got to be a huge red flag for coach Mike D’Antoni and new general manager Steve Kerr. They are asking more of Nash, who turns 34 the first week of February, than ever before. And teams like the Lakers, Blazers and Golden State Warriors now are showing the ability to run with them … or even outrun them.

 

And that’s why the middle game was interesting Tuesday. No longer are we hearing a peep out of Bryant about wanting to be traded. The Lakers look eminently capable of at least a top five finish in the West and maybe leapfrogging the Suns to get a second seed. All of a sudden, it’s the Suns that are beginning to look like a team that needs to make a move … which means those Shawn Marion rumors are bound to start bubbling up again.