With the Indiana Pacers clawing back into the game and being down only six with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Hawks needed a big basket to put some safe distance between their score and the Pacers' score. Jeff Teague took the ball from Pero Antic, drove down the left sideline, and threw up a crazy 3-point runner over an outstretched Luis Scola.
And he knocked it down cold. It was the separation the Hawks needed to feel good about the rest of the game and close it out successfully to take a 2-1 series lead over the top seeded Pacers. On the replay from the baseline angle, we saw that Teague stepped on the sideline before he took the shot, meaning it shouldn't have counted. And the referees did review it on instant replay.
Since it happened before the final two minutes of the quarter, the refs could only check to make sure he was behind the 3-point line and couldn't review whether or not he was inbounds. Well, he was so far behind the 3-point line that he wasn't even legally on the court. It's a horrendous stipulation for replay rules, and a very unnecessary one, that makes this a tough situation to swallow for the Pacers.
It's not the reason they lost this game, but it possibly helped prevent a completed comeback. Regardless, it was a cool shot.
