The hornets were chugging along keeping a small lead on the Spurs. Then the game got a little testy. The officials changed how they were calling the game (and in the process put two bad foul calls on Tyson Chandler). That caused a momentum swing to the Spurs. This happened with about 5-6 minutes left in the 3rd.

Don't worry, I've talked to the Basketball Gods and they are tired of the Spurs. NO in 7. They've just got to get Bonzi some more tick. He's a playoff assassin waiting to pounce.

No worries.

pants wrote:
The hornets were chugging along keeping a small lead on the Spurs. Then the game got a little testy. The officials changed how they were calling the game (and in the process put two bad foul calls on Tyson Chandler). That caused a momentum swing to the Spurs. This happened with about 5-6 minutes left in the 3rd.

The officials missed a lot of calls going both ways during this game. Don't turn it into a Spurs/Suns thing. What really changed the momentum of the game was the foul on Ginoboli's three that was indeed a foul on West. That game them a 5 point lead on a 4 point play. Ginoboli then went back and hit another three right away. That lead to the Spurs run.

mwithers wrote:
pants wrote:
The hornets were chugging along keeping a small lead on the Spurs. Then the game got a little testy. The officials changed how they were calling the game (and in the process put two bad foul calls on Tyson Chandler). That caused a momentum swing to the Spurs. This happened with about 5-6 minutes left in the 3rd.

The officials missed a lot of calls going both ways during this game. Don't turn it into a Spurs/Suns thing. What really changed the momentum of the game was the foul on Ginoboli's three that was indeed a foul on West. That game them a 5 point lead on a 4 point play. Ginoboli then went back and hit another three right away. That lead to the Spurs run.

I agree that they were missing calls both ways as a whole but I think it was the calls when NO was still up by a few with about 6 minutes left in the 3rd that changed the momentum. Ginoboli and Parker certainly played great to capitalize on the momentum shift. You could really see when it happened in David West's body language. He really let it get to him. I wish it hadn't been officiating that sparked the shift. (I also wasn't pleased by the .5 second the officials let Manu have before the clock started before the end of the half).

I actually thought they let them play. At one point midway throught the fourth, the Spurs just started making every single shot, and there's just nothing that the defense can do at that point. It didn't help that David West decided to miss all his free throws.

TheOldLogo wrote:
I actually thought they let them play. At one point midway throught the fourth, the Spurs just started making every single shot, and there's just nothing that the defense can do at that point. It didn't help that David West decided to miss all his free throws.

I agree.

I am somewhat reluctant to think that that shot with .8 seconds was really shot in time. I think that the clock was started late. But other than that I think the officiating was pretty even with what they let go and what they didn't.