Game 6 is done, the Spurs held serve at home, and now we wait for Game 7 on Monday. Lots to get to today with Hornets-Spurs being the only game last night and everyone in the world wanting to weigh in on a certain incident that occurred in the fourth quarter. Buckle up. This might take a while...

So, Horry's hit on David West. Was it an intentional, dirty play? At first I didn't think so but now I'm not so sure anymore. But hey, judge for yourself. Thanks to Page 3, we've got a picture of the precise moment of impact...

And we've got moving pictures, too...

That animated pic was found over at the SpursTalk.com message board. A lot of the San An fans over there thought the hit was clean, but didn't appreciate the fans chanting Horry's name while West was on the ground in pain. Here's the thoughts of one poster over there...

• I just wanted to apologize to the Hornets fans on this board who have been respectful for the classless fans at the SBC center who chanted "Horry" when West went down.
  
  I love hard basketball, and hard fouls are fine. But when someone gets hurt, that's never something to cheer for. Not everyone in SA is like that, and it was embarrassing to me as someone who always points to the Spurs and my city as having a level of class I'm proud to be associated with. That sucked on the part of our fans.

Matt Moore echoes similar sentiments over at FanHouse...

• Last night, after Robert Horry's "completely clean, incidental, and admirably 'playoff-level'" whack to the injured back of David West, which sent the New Orleans star to the locker room and may affect his appearance in Game 7, a funny little sound started to come from the arena. Slowly it grew louder and louder.
  
  "Horry! Horry! Horry!"
  
  That's right. After a player delivered a forearm that knocked an opponent out of the game with what was obviously a pretty painful back injury, the San Antonio fans decided to chant Cheap Shot Bob's name.
  
  Now that's class.

At The Hive...

• I believe it was totally 100% intentional. I believe it was a malicious play. I don't care that Mark Jackson called it a "playoff foul." Answer me this- what reason did Horry have to push West in the back as he was backpedalling? One, West was totally out of position, stumbling backwards. Two, Horry had the inside offensive possession to the hoop. Three, there was no way he was setting a screen, because the guard had already gotten past his defender and Horry and West were a good distance from the play. Spurs fans have been calling the Hornets "classless." Tell your "7 time NBA Champion" to exhibit some class before ever speaking on the subject again. Horry knew about West's severe back pain. He knew West was totally out of the play defensively. After this game, I know that Robert Horry is a classless individual.
  

Basketbawful...

• Horry measured West and gave him a shot right in the lower back. Horry knew West's back was injured. Everybody knew West's back was injured. It was a textbook example of a cheap shot. Look, I've played a lot of basketball over the years, both organized and not-so-organized. Stuff like that doesn't happen by accident. It just doesn't. And if you think otherwise, then you're fooling yourself. Horry measured West and gave him a really hard -- and clearly illegal, since it resulted in an offensive foul -- shot into a part of West's body that was known to be injured. Did Horry intend to take West out of the game, or even incapacitate him for Game 7? Probably not. But that barely makes the act any less senseless. And whether he meant for it to happen or not, there's a pretty good likelihood that West will be far from 100 percent for Game 7. Which is a pretty good tradeoff for a simple offensive foul, isn't it? And for those of you who are inevitably going to defend Mr. Cheap Shot, go ahead and answer this question in your defense: How would you react if you were playing pickup basketball and somebody purposely took a shot at your injured back/knee/ankle/whatever? Would you laugh it off as just a good, hard basketball play? Or would you want to strangle the guy?

Hardwood Paroxysm...

• If it looks like a rat, smells like a rat, and sounds like a rat, then you don't need to make excuses about it acting like a tough hedgehog, or whatever else Mark Jackson wants to say. It's a rat. Call it that.

Buck Harvey tackles the subject in the San Antonio Express-News, comparing the incident to Horry's hit on Steve Nash a year ago...

• Tyson Chandler summed up the mood of the locker room when asked if Horry's blow had been intended for someone already with a bad back. Chandler admitted to not seeing the play, but Horry's presence confirmed the worst. "I wouldn't doubt it," Chandler said.
  
  They were angrier when the crowd chanted Horry's name about that time, with West on the ground and in pain, and the Hornets had every reason to be angry. Horry deserved to have his name chanted at some point, considering Thursday could have been his last game in San Antonio. But not then.
  
  For Horry, all of it added to his reputation. But just as it's unlikely to think he knew he could persuade a few Suns to walk off the bench and into suspensions, isn't it as implausible to believe he targeted West at his medical weakness and tried to injure him?
  
  No one will give him this benefit of the doubt. There's the connection, after all.
  

Jim Eichenhofer addresses the incident in the comments of his game recap over at Hornets.com...

• What in the world were the ESPN guys trying to say when they broke down what happened on that Horry/West play?
  
  I really like Jeff Van Gundy's commentary - partly because he makes random references to upstate New York, where he played college ball at "legendary" Nazareth College - but he responded to that Horry incident by saying that Horry "makes winning plays" and "does the little things."
  
  Huh? What do winning plays and the little things have to do with drilling someone from behind like that? Not to mention the fact that if you watch the play, there was no legitimate basketball reason to set a pick there. How many times does a defensive player get blindside picked in that area of the floor?
  

Mike Monroe gives us the reactions from West and Coach Scott...

• "I haven't seen it (film of the play)," West said. "I'll wait until I see it. I don't know if it was a blind screen or whatever, but I just took a good shot in the back."
  
  Said Hornets coach Byron Scott, "He took a good shot in the back. It's a good thing Game 7 is on Monday. It gives him a good chance to get well."
  

Also from that last link...

• Before Game 6 [Scott] visited the trophy case at the AT&T Center where the Spurs' four Larry O'Brien trophies are displayed.
  
  The Spurs, he said, are the team of the decade.
  
  "Since I've been here, that was the one team I looked at," he said, "the one organization that I looked and said, 'This is what we're trying to emulate and trying to get to.'
  
  "Every year you try to get closer and closer, obviously, and so, yeah, I admire what Pop has done with this team and the way Tim Duncan is, on and off the court, and the other pieces that they've brought in here to complement those guys and to develop a championship type team and that's what we're trying to do."
  

Back to the Horry hit, and Adrian Wojnarowski has fresh reactions over at Yahoo! Sports...

• "I'm not real OK with it," Scott told Yahoo! Sports. "But if I didn't know Robert on a personal level, I'd say that was a dirty shot. Yeah, if I didn't know him the way I know him, I'd say it was a cheap shot."
  
  Yes, he always liked Horry, but no one could convince Scott that West wasn’t a victim of a desperate shot by a desperate champion. The Hornets had been destroyed 99-80 in Game 6 on Thursday night, and still Scott and his players seethed over the blindsided screen Horry had leveled on West and his bad back.
  
  "I also think he understood what he was doing," Scott said.
  
  
• No one was angrier than Paul, who asked a Hornets official in the locker room: Did you hear that? As Paul walked down the corridors late Thursday, the crowd's voice promised to stay on his mind. "When David got hurt, you're going to chant for Robert Horry like he did a good thing?"
  
  
• "I'll just say he caught me with a good shot," West said.
  
  If Horry was trying to knock you out of Monday night, did it work?
  
  "No... no," West assured. "It wasn't that good of a shot."
  

From the game recap over at 48 Minutes of Hell...

• I don't know how to react to this game. Traditionally, if the Spurs were to blow a team out by 20 in a do-or-die game 6, I'd be ecstatic. I'd be praising our tenacity on the offensive glass. I'd brag about the hailstorm of 3-pointers that just poured on the Hornets. I'd make some dubious claims about "momentum." But this series has just been too schizophrenic to display that level of confidence. Yes, obviously I'm excited. Obviously I think, despite the lopsided victories every home team has recorded this series, that the Spurs can go into New Orleans and take game 7. But I sat there this evening watching this game with a look of passivity and bemusement, rather than exuberance, because, to be honest, I don't know what to expect. How could anyone? This series does not make sense.
  

Via Tom Planchet: Some dude by the name of Gregg Doyel from CBSCports.com blasts the Hornets Game 6 performance...

• It was the Hornets who swallowed their own tongue.
  
  New Orleans point guard Chris Paul, the playoff MVP entering Thursday night, played with a bizarre chip on his shoulder -- mouthing off to various Spurs, forcing contact all over the court and then flopping like a boated fish. The officials caved in at first, protecting him like he was Michael Jordan or LeBron James, but by the third quarter, Paul was on his own.
  

Today's must-read comes from Henry Abbot over at TrueHoop, who had a lengthy article yesterday discussing Chris Paul's defense...

• Paul really never bothers Parker's shots. Even when he can close the massive gap, he's sometimes still so far from the ball that he doesn't even bother to put his arms up.
  
  
• He just doesn't get out there to bother shots, even against great shooters.
  
  The Spurs have obliged by missing a ton of wide open looks in many of their games. But the open three-pointers are there, and they are there in large part because of a combination of a clog-the-paint defensive philosophy, and Paul's lack of size.
  
  Here he surely hurts his team.
  

Elias says...

• [This is] the first series in NBA playoff history in which the home team has won each of the first six games by margins of 10-or-more points.
  

Great analysis as usual from X's and O's, as they break down the Spurs pick-and-roll traps last night (complete with video)...

• They hadn't really trapped Paul all series, and all of a sudden in the 3rd quarter in Game 6 they decide to trap Paul on the PNR and it got the Hornets out of sync. Paul passed out of the trap and his teammates were often dumbfounded as to what to do. The indecision of the other players really hurt the Hornets in that fateful 3rd quarter.

In the Express-News, Mike Monroe notes the significant contributions by Ime Udoka at both ends of the floor last night...

• Udoka's ability to hold Stojakovic in check in the second half allowed Bowen to spent more time defending Hornets point guard Chris Paul. Indeed, Udoka's ability to handle bigger forwards was the biggest reason the Spurs signed him as a free agent last summer.
  
  What nobody expected was that Udoka would become the Spurs' most consistent scorer off the bench in this series after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich put Manu Ginobili back in the starting lineup after Game 2.
  

In the Times-Picayune, John Reid gives us words from Byron Scott...

• "Tonight wasn't pretty," Coach Byron Scott said. "You have to give them a lot of credit. If I could figure it out how homecourt has helped so much, because the thing is if I could bottle it up and sell it to every team in the league."
  

John Schuhmann was live blogging again, and found the Hornets lineup to be a little strange at the start of the fourth quarter...

• Interesting decision from Byron Scott: After Chris Paul played all but three seconds of the first three quarters, he began the fourth on the bench, with Mike James on the floor. It was almost as if Scott was giving up when his team was down 15 with 12 minutes to go.
  

From Marc Stein's recap over at ESPN.com...

• With memories of West's 38-point, 14-rebound, five-block masterpiece in Game 5 still fresh, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made a concession he had hoped to avoid by starting Fabricio Oberto over Kurt Thomas and installing Duncan as his primary West defender. The result: West never looked comfortable, even in the first two quarters, while Duncan amassed 20 points, 15 boards and a team-best six assists to highlight San Antonio's superior ball sharing and complement the nine triples pumped in by Ginobili (25 points) and Ime Udoka (13).
  
  Said Popovich: "Things went our way tonight, that's for sure."
  

In the Times-Picayune, Jeff Duncan also has reservations about Coach Scott...

• You've got to love Scott's cool demeanor, but it wouldn't have hurt him to take a "T" for the team during the third-quarter meltdown, when the Hornets were the victims of several questionable calls. His young team clearly lost its cool during that critical stretch, and Scott needed to do something -- anything -- to shake his players out of it.
  

Also in today's T-P, here's Dan McCarney's words regarding Tim Duncan's defensive job on David West...

• It was simple, fundamental defense that did the job. When West tried to isolate, Duncan moved his feet and kept West from driving to the basket. When West pulled up for a mid-range jumper, Duncan got a hand in his face.
  
  No highlight-reel blocks, no flashy steals. In other words, typical Duncan.
  
  "He played great," Spurs guard Tony Parker said. "We did a much better job guarding him, not giving him anything easy."
  
  
• "Timmy did a good job defensively," Popovich said. "David didn't shoot it very well tonight. Sometimes that happens. It was a combination of that and Timmy playing well."

Dime magazine on the ESPN coverage of Game 6...

• At one point Jeff Van Gundy said what most people in America seem to think: that Chris Paul is making Tyson Chandler's career. That's such a misconception that needs to be cleared up. Does Chandler get the vast majority of his 8 to 10 points every night via CP setting him up? Definitely, and you can give Paul all the credit in the world for that. But Tyson doesn't make his money by scoring, he makes it by rebounding and playing D. Chris Paul isn't helping Chandler grab 10-12 rebounds a night, nor is he playing any part in Chandler's stellar defense. It's like saying Isiah Thomas or Michael Jordan made Dennis Rodman, when those two weren't directly responsible for any of Worm's mastery on the glass or aggravating defense

In the Express-News, Mike Finger points out that these Spurs have bundles of Game 7 experience and these Hornets have none. He also writes about the foul calls in the third quarter...

• It was no surprise that on Thursday, when things started getting chippy and the season hung in the balance, it was the Spurs who looked like they'd been there before. West would say later that he thought the New Orleans Hornets "lost our cool," and he was including himself in that summation. After he was charged with three fouls in the span of a minute, he reacted like Gregg Popovich getting a delay-of-game warning.
  
  Popovich, for his part, was cooler on this night, and watching his team get a few calls probably helped. But even before the game, he appeared as relaxed as he had all series, and that was at least partly because he knew the pressure of an elimination game was something his team was almost certain to thrive on.

David Gladlow's thoughts at NOLA.com...

• Blame the refs all you want (and a series of awful calls in the third quarter DID seem to change the momentum of the game), but the game of basketball is won by shooting, passing, and defending, and the Hornets did none of the three particularly well in Game 6. The Hornets shot just .413 from the field, surrendered .494 shooting to the Spurs (including .524 from three-point range) and lost the assist battle in a big way, 28-13. You can't win doing that. Period.

David Schexnaydre Jr. also has game notes over at NOLA.com. Here's his take...

• While the loss didn't surprise me, there were a few things that did. I certainly didn't expect the see the worst 4 minute stretch of the season to start the 3rd quarter. I also didn't think I'd see David West let his emotions get the best of him. And while I knew that our players had a penchant for talking to the officials a bit too much, I didn't think I'd see them complaining to the point that I wouldn't have been surprised to see Dirk Nowitzki sitting behind the bench, smiling in admiration. If ever the Hornets youth and inexperience was ever relevent, it was last night.

Quotes from Duncan and Popovich, courtesy of Jeff McDonald...

• "We're happy to go back to their gym, and we think we’re a pretty good road team," Duncan said. "We're going to do our best to make a better game of it."
  
  Popovich, who won his 99th postseason game to match Red Auerbach for fourth on the NBA's all-time list, has known this kind of pressure before.
  
  On the golf course.
  
  "I can visibly see my hands shake when I'm trying to make a two-footer for a Budweiser," Popovich cracked.
  

Bits and pieces from Elizabeth White's article in the Shreveport Times...

• The aging defending champions and the injured Hornets now get three days of rest before playing Game 7.
  
  "I have confidence," Parker said. "We've won a lot of big games on the road."
  
  Despite the closeness of the series, Game 6, like the five before it, was won by double digits. It was also won, like those before it, in the third quarter, when the Spurs outscored the Hornets 20-12.
  
  "I don't know what to say," Paul said. "That third quarter was ugly."
  
  
• "Thank God we get to go back to New Orleans for Game 7," Paul said.

Chris Colston's article in USA Today reveals how the players are feeling about Game 7...

• Duncan pooh-poohed his team's playoff experience advantage.
  
  "I'm not giving any credit to it," he said. "We haven't won in their house. We've gotten blown out every time.
  
  "But we believe we're a good road team. We hope to make a game of it."
  
  Point guard Tony Parker agreed. "So far (our experience) hasn't helped us that much," he said. "The games have all been blowouts... If we can't keep it close, our experience can't help us. If we can keep it close, it will help us."
  
  
• "We'll definitely get some rest," Paul said. "But coming from our locker room, we wish the game was tomorrow.
  
  "We're not going to stress out the next three or four days. We'll watch the Lakers-Jazz game and just sit patiently and wait till Monday."
  
  
• "The fans know it's 3-3, and they'll be ready," Paul said. "The city will be ready. I'm excited. This is what the NBA is all about. Everybody will be tuned in."
  

John DeShazier looks ahead to Monday's deciding game...

• The Hornets already have made a name for themselves in this series, now deadlocked at three games each. They already have pushed San Antonio farther than most thought the Spurs could be pushed by a team that has less playoff experience as a unit than the Spurs had last season in their title run.
  
  But Monday night's game is an opportunity for the Hornets to etch their name even deeper in New Orleans basketball lore. The Hornets, who have advanced farther into the postseason than any NBA team in New Orleans, have an excellent chance to top what they've done. So far during the playoffs, they've been unbeatable at home.

Let's finish it out with the usual flurry...

• Video: Stephen A. Smith thinks the Hornets will win game 7.
  
  
• the Blowtorch: Inside the mind of Jannero Pargo.
  
  
• George Shinn celebrated his birthday on Monday by visiting some newborns and leaving gifts at a couple of hospitals in New Orleans. I felt a little bad for forgetting Georgie's big day, but then I remembered that he's never once called me on my birthday. Lousy BFF he turned out to be.
  
  
• BallHype: Video of the "questionable" foul calls that killed the Hornets in the third quarter.
  
  
• At The Hive poll: Was Horry's foul intentional?
  
  
• Hornets Hype: Horry on a stick and a bitching thread.
  
  
• Hat tip to TrueHoop and Ball Don't Lie for a bunch of these links today.

That'll do it. Let's all go outside and play.

Game 7 it is then.

As has been the story all series, the home team came away with the blow out victory tonight. After a great, competitive first half, the third quarter was again the difference as the Spurs outscored our Hornets 20-12 and built up a 15-point lead. Manu Ginobili dropped a couple of threes to open the fourth and pretty much seal the deal, but perhaps the biggest blow came a few seconds later when David West jumped into a blind pick by Robert Horry and re-aggravated that back injury. He collapsed to the floor in pain and had to be helped to the locker room. With the deciding Game 7 not until Monday, here's hoping he'll get the needed rest and be ready for the close out.

Diving into some notes...

• Final score was 99-80. Linkage: recap | box score
  
  
• Three main things cost us the game tonight. First was San Antonio's three-point shooting. They were 11-of-21 from deep, with Manu Ginobili connecting on 6-of-9. The majority of those makes were wide open looks, and that was mostly due to excessive double teams on Duncan. I thought we established in Game 5 that Tyson can do a pretty good job guarding Timmy one-on-one, but for whatever reason the Hornets didn't believe in that strategy tonight, and guys like Ginobili and Udoka took advantage of the extra space to line up and knock down the long bombs.
  
  
• Next, we had the fouls. I thought we started off the third quarter really well, playing excellent defense, forcing the Spurs into tough shots and coming up with some steals. We trailed by only five points after Chris Paul hit a runner at the 10:23 mark. Then, in less than two minutes, Chris picked up two fouls and West got three of his own and a technical. The officials got all those calls right save for the one where West was fighting through a pick on the defensive end.
  
  Anyways, those fouls pretty much killed our defensive intensity. I thought we showed good poise afterwards, with Paul gathering everyone together in a huddle and doing his best to postpone the collapse. But then the Spurs just kept hitting threes and we couldn't convert at the other end.
  
  
• The big reason why we couldn't score at the end of the third quarter were the high and aggressive traps on CP. That was the third key tonight. Well, not so much the traps, because Chris was able to pass the ball out of them pretty good. What killed us was our inability to hit the open shot out of those traps. David West just couldn't drop them, Jannero Pargo was still slumping, and I'm not sure what the hell Peja's excuse was because Bruce Bowen was busy guarding Paul for that stretch.
  
  
• I'm proud of the effort tonight though. The Spurs were hitting everything in that first half but our guys absorbed the punch and were within striking distance at the half. If not for those few dumb fouls we made, it could have been a much different ball game.
  
  
• Aside from those two offensive fouls, Chris was killing the Spurs out there. He was going all out for the win tonight, chasing after rebounds, attacking the basket, and setting up Tyson Chandler beautifully a number of times. I loved that we had him posting up whenever Tony Parker was guarding him. The Spurs had no choice but to send a double team at that, and Chris was able to make them pay with some nice passes out of there
  
  Chris finished with 21 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 turnovers in 39 minutes. It was also nice to see him up off the bench and advising the reserves during a late timeout in the fourth quarter. Looked like he was already preparing for Game 7.
  
  
• West was definitely limited by that back injury tonight. It was as if the basketball gods were balancing out his immortal performance in Game 5. Gotta give Tim Duncan credit for the defensive job on West tonight though, too. Timmy didn't allow him much room to get the jumper off, then bodied up well on the drives. West ended up forcing quite a few shots, and finished just 4-of-14 from the field, scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 boards in 38 minutes.
  
  
• And about the hit from Horry that put West on the floor and ended his night's work: A lot of you were calling it a dirty play in the comments of the game day thread, but I really don't think it was intentional. In the replay, Horry looks to be already setting that pick before West jumps back up and into him. I wouldn't put such a trick past Horry -- we all saw what he did to Steve Nash a year ago after all -- but he'd have to be some kind of speedy diabolical genius to see that opportunity to hurt West and be able to act on it so fast and efficiently.
  
  
• Peja was looking good in the first half. He was using the picks really well and throwing some nice misdirection cuts at Bruce Bowen. He got freed up for some shots that way, but also wasn't shy about taking it right at Bowen when they were squared up one-on-one. All that led to 9 points for Peja in the game's first six minutes. He played 30 minutes beyond that, only managing two more points on free throws. I'm still not sure exactly what happened there, especially since Bowen spent a lot of time guarding CP tonight.
  
  
• The bench is killing us in this series. Pargo was 1-of-6 from the field tonight, his only bucket coming in garbage time. Lately he hasn't been making up for his shooting woes with much else either, although his efforts to draw two charges in the first quarter tonight were admirable. Pity the calls went the other way.
  
  As for Bonzi, his only contributions tonight were three missed shots and two fouls. For a guy who's pretty good at attacking the rim and not known for his jump shoot, he's been staying out of the paint and settling for way too many J's in this series. I expected much more from him given his reputation against the Spurs in the playoffs and his impending free agency.
  
  
• The Spurs kill us when we front Duncan in the post. All through the series, tonight being no exception, they'd run their other big (usually Oberto and his flowing locks) up to the free throw line, have him catch the pass from the wing and deliver it to Duncan at the rim with Chandler now on his back. It's impressive how fast they read that defense and exploit it.
  
  
• Tyson looked pretty good out there considering he had to be helped off the floor with that toe injury on Tuesday. He only finished with 6 rebounds (some of which can be attributed to the Spurs shooting a ridiculous percentage), but he did score 14 points, including a couple of awkward looking hook shots that looked significantly less ugly after they found the bottom of the net. Those 14 points were also the most Tyson has scored in these playoffs.
  
  
• At least now we know that the Hornets can lose even when Ryan isn't on recap duty.

Okay, so back to New Orleans we go for Game 7 on Monday, where our Hornets have dominated the Spurs in this series. Hopefully that trend will continue and we can keep the fun bus rolling into the Conference Finals.

Get well, D-West. We'll need you healthy to get this done.

Alright, so we've got Game 6 in San Antonio tonight. The Spurs need the win to stay alive and force a deciding Game 7 on Monday. Victory for the Hornets would put us in the Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. Tyson Chandler and David West are apparently healthy enough to lace 'em up and give us good minutes, so hopefully we'll put an end to the road woes and advance to the happy times tonight.

Stuff to know...

Game Time: 8:00pm Central.

TV: ESPN nationwide.

Radio: KMEZ 102.9 FM in New Orleans and the super-fantastic WIBR 1300-AM in Baton Rouge.

Linkage:

• Ryan Schwan: Explaining the blowouts and what to watch for in Game 6
  
• Our latest news wrap
• What's more distracting than a cutout of Eva Longoria? How about this?
• Spurs blogs: 48 Minutes of Hell | Pounding the Rock | Project Spurs

I'm feeling strangely confident ahead of this one, and methinks I've finally figured out why. You see, pretty much nobody expects the Hornets to win tonight, just like nobody expected us to win the Southwest division, nobody expected David West to be an All-Star, nobody expected Chris Paul to be an MVP candidate, nobody expected Byron Scott to be Coach of the Year, and nobody expected the Hornets to knock off the Mavericks in the first round.

So expect the unexpected, and know that we got this.

[UPDATE] Or maybe we don't got this. Another blow out win for the home team, as the Hornets fall, 99-80. Game 7 is in New Orleans on Monday.

Linkage: recap | box score 

Game 6 goes down this evening in San Antonio, with the Spurs needing a win to avoid elimination at the hands of our Hornets. Here's the usual bunch of notes, quotes and anecdotes from around the web...

Let's start it off with updates on the injuries to Tyson Chandler and David West. Here's words from Tyson himself, who blogged his ass off on NBA.com yesterday...

• I'm feeling good. I had turf toe. I iced it, but it's gonna be alright. It was sore last night and it was hard for me to put pressure on it. But had it happened in the third quarter or even a couple of minutes earlier in the fourth, I would have been able to come back in. The pain started easing up, but at that point, we had a comfortable lead.
  
  
• It's really sore right now, but it will be fine for tomorrow. I went in and got treatment for it this morning.
  
  
• David's back was bothering him last night. He went in for treatment today too and got his back worked on. He's feeling better. He's a soldier. He's gonna gut it out. He did that last night and obviously, putting up 38, 14, five and five with a sore back ... It's obvious he's focused and he's not gonna let anything stop him.

In the San Antonio Express-News, Mike Finger writes about Tyson's teammates ripping on him at practice yesterday...

• To his right, Peja Stojakovic was doing a brand-new Chandler impersonation, complete with loud moans and an exaggerated look of agony on his face. To his left, other members of the Hornets were laughing and carrying on about Chandler's catastrophic-looking fall the night before.
  
  "The way you were acting," Hornets assistant coach Darrell Walker said, "I thought you tore up your knee."
  

Also from Finger's article...

• Chandler said he could have come back to play in Game 5 if he was needed and said he expects to be ready for Game 6.
  
  David West, who suffered from back spasms on Tuesday, also should be ready to play tonight, Scott said.
  
  So with everyone healthy and set to go, Scott was asked if there was anything he could take from the game tapes from earlier in the series to use tonight.
  
  "Yeah," Scott said. "We can take the tape and throw it away."
  

Chandler sat out practice yesterday, but John Reid of the Times-Picayune tells us that David West was out there balling...

• West, whose injury appears less serious, participated in the workout that involved only shooting.
  
  "My back is still tight but it's loosening up," West said. "I will have to get more treatment once we get to San Antonio, and I'll get more treatment (this) morning, and it should be good then."
  

Moving on, here's quotes from Byron Scott and Chris Paul courtesy of Chris Colston in USA Today...

• "We're going to do what we do," Scott said. "If you start making drastic changes now, it sends out the wrong message. It's not what we're doing. It's how we're doing it."
  
  
• "We can't count on coming back (to New Orleans) and having home-court advantage," Paul said. "We need to close it out in Game 6."
  
  
• Said Scott: "The best opportunity for us is really (tonight). We've got to look at it that way. We've got a chance to close out the defending champions. Obviously we know it's going to be a very, very tough game to do that, especially in San Antonio."
  

Teddy Kider's got a bunch of notes in the Times-Picayune, with the lead in about Peja's contributions in Game 5...

• "You may look at the box score or something and say his production is limited, but with Peja out there on the floor, if they're staying glued to him, that's how David West gets 38 points," Hornets point guard Chris Paul said. "It's all about winning right now, so Peja's out there on the court. Whether he takes a lot of shots or misses or whatever, as long as he's out there, it creates mismatches."
  
  Stojakovic has also been a key figure on defense, where he recently has been guarding Spurs guard Manu Ginobili. And in Game 5 he had 11 rebounds, his highest total in this year's postseason.
  
  "We know how to win even when he's not scoring big points, but also he had 11 rebounds," Hornets Coach Byron Scott said. "He did a pretty good job on Ginobili as well. So his all-around game was pretty good last night."

Also at the above link is a brief piece about Jeff Bower finishing third in NBA Executive of the Year voting...

• Hornets General Manager Jeff Bower finished third in Sporting News' NBA Executive of the Year race. Danny Ainge of the Boston Celtics finished first with 18 of a possible 47 votes, while Mitch Kupchak of the Los Angeles Lakers received 14 votes and Bower 12.
  

After their team lost on Tuesday, the fans in San Antonio were pretty depressed. The following from Richard Oliver in the Express-News...

• The impact of it was felt in more than playoff brackets and headlines. Stung Spurs fans were left with an unfamiliar angst, balancing stubborn faith with lingering doubt.
  
  At Fatso's Sports Garden on Henderson Pass, server Luan Farino didn't have time to watch the game unfold on any of the facility's numerous television screens late Tuesday. But she knew exactly what was happening.
  
  "You could sense the somber mood the last few minutes," Farino said. "It kind of got really quiet. When it came down to the Spurs trying to catch up, hope was gone. People just started to leave."
  

Over at Fox Sports, Randy Hill lists a few ways the Spurs can survive tonight and force a Game 7. He also has thoughts on the battle between Duncan and Chandler in the series...

• Checking the results of the first five games of this series, it should be noted that Duncan has averaged 11 points per game in the three road defeats and 19 in the two home victories. To their credit, the Spurs did attempt to get Timmy involved during Game 5 in New Orleans, but his series-high 18 field-goal attempts resulted in only five makes and 10 points.
  
  The main reason for Duncan's struggles -- and the Spurs' difficulty in getting their role players quality opportunities from 3-point range -- is 7-foot-1 Hornets center Tyson Chandler. Chandler, the former No. 2 overall pick straight out of Dominguez High in Compton, has been able to guard Duncan with only occasional double-team assistance. That's pretty rare and fairly damning; without a second defender arriving in Tim's work space, the Hornets have no reason to rotate over and enable the Spurs to make the extra pass that leads to a wide-open three.
  

Over at Hornets.com, Jim Eichenhofer has key questions ahead of Game 6...

• I'm curious to see what effect Game 5 will have on the Hornets. I wonder if by responding the way they did Tuesday, they cleared a mental hurdle against the Spurs. Nearly everyone was again questioning the legitimacy of New Orleans after losses in Game 3 and 4, but the Hornets showed that there is little reason for them to be intimidated by the Spurs. I think the best approach tonight would for them to use this as a way to play more relaxed and not overreact to mistakes or if they get behind on the scoreboard early in Game 6.

At long last, Julian Wright updates his playoff blog over at Hornets.com...

• When we go back to San Antonio for game 6, we need to make sure we are more focused. I think they really worked at getting into our heads with some of their defensive tactics and different things they through at us. We have to make sure we don't get rattled by those things and need to expect them more than we did in games 3 and 4.
  

Jim Eichenhofer gives us Byron Scott's post-practice Q&A yesterday. Here's a slice...

• Q: Has it gotten frustrating for Peja Stojakovic, to not have been as productive over the past three games as he normally is?
  
  Scott: Well, it's always frustrating when you've got a (defender) hanging all over you, grabbing, holding and not allowing you to run or do what you're capable of doing. But (Bruce) Bowen does that to most of the guys he guards. Peja's been in this league a long time, and he understands that we're up 3-2, and that's the most important thing.
  

Hornets Hype be loving them some Mo Pete...

• Since B. Scott is a big proponent of going with the guys who are playing well, Mo-Pete has steadily got more and more time in the playoffs, and is almost always on the floor in crunch time. Always considered a good defender, Peterson has been outright vicious this series, locking down on Ginobili and aggressively rebounding.
  

In the Express-News, Mike Monroe tells us the NBA's ruling after reviewing the double delay of game call that got Gregg Popovich all worked up in Game 5...

• An NBA spokesperson said executive vice-president for basketball operations Stu Jackson confirmed that Popovich's interpretation of the rule about foul line access was correct, but that [referee Joey] Crawford was within his rights to make a judgment call that players from both teams had contributed to the delay of the game.
  

Pop did of course get a technical for arguing that call, and according to Manu Ginobili, the Spurs were a little too focused on the officiating for the rest of the game...

• "We talked too much," Ginobili said. "We've just got to let Pop do that. We know he's going to get a technical. He's going to get upset. He's going to talk to them. But it's his job. We've just got to be more focused on playing, not say a word, and keep fighting."
  
  Popovich agreed with his erstwhile sixth man about the players' occasional preoccupation with the referees, but put the focus on the Hornets' stellar defense and the onus on his team to respond more appropriately.
  
  "That game had to do with New Orleans' defense in the third quarter," Popovich said, while agreeing the Spurs wasted too much emotion on perceived injustice. "I know everybody wants to try and make it something different, or pick at this that. But they deserve credit for that. They did it very well."

That was nice and diplomatic of Pop, but as Buck Harvey notes in today's Express-News, that wasn't all the Spurs head coach had to say...

• Popovich did enough talking for all of them in New Orleans, and that's nothing new. He has worked the refs during games for a decade.
  
  But then came Wednesday. Composed and sarcastic-free in front of a media group, Popovich sounded as he never has.
  
  "You know, Timmy took 18 shots and shot one free throw," he said. "They (the Hornets) shot 13 free throws in the third quarter, and we shot zero. I thought we were at the rim as much as they were. So we have got to figure out how to get to the line."

Some Spurs fans aren't blaming the officiating for Tuesday's loss. They're blaming unlit candles...

• At Papa Jim's Botanica, prayer candles are sold to help you lose weight, to stop your man from fooling around, to get money, and even you help the Spurs win.
  
  Staff says they work.
  
  "Yesterday, we didn't turn on our candles, and we feel guilty for that,” Gomez said.

From Jeff McDonald in the Express-News...

• This represents somewhat unfamiliar terrain for the Spurs, who have faced 10 elimination games since Tim Duncan arrived in 1997. They are 4-6 in those games.
  
  Last year, on the way to a fourth NBA title, the Spurs never flirted with elimination. The last time the Spurs played a game that could have knocked them from the postseason was Game 7 of the 2006 Western Conference semifinals against Dallas, a game the Mavericks won in overtime.
  
  "The bottom line is the better team wins in a seven-game series," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I've always said that. Whoever wins this series, it will be because they are the better team."
  

Sheldon Mickles has words from Morris Peterson ahead of tonight's Game 6...

• "I think if we go in and play like it's a Game 7, we'll be all right," said Peterson. "We all know that we have a chance to do something real special.
  
  "Everyone in this locker room knows what we have to do (tonight). It's just a matter of responding to the challenge.

From the Project Spurs blog...

• Should Spurs fans feel confident going into game 6? F%*K NO!
  

Matt Moore has five things to keep an eye on over at FanHouse. Here's the last of those things...

• The Spurs aren't going to panic. Not for a second, not for a heartbeat, not for a half a moment. They're at home, they've proven they can not just defeat, but manhandle this team at home. They have Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. They have Robert Horry, they have Bruce Bowen, they have Greg Popovich. So I would expect a focused, determined Spurs team tonight. On the other side, I doubt the Hornets will come in with as much lofty headed swagger as last time. They've seen how dangerous the Spurs are at home, and they'll be ready to go full speed to go for the kill. This one might end up being one for the ages. Or it could be a Spurs blowout. They are at home after all, and it would appear that no other analysis is needed in these playoffs.
  

David Thorpe has the usual lengthy game preview over at ESPN, and he's expecting a Spurs win tonight...

• This season New Orleans has been terrific when the pressure's on to win, but will the Hornets sense the incredible opportunity they have in Game 6 to take advantage of the older and slower team after just one day of rest? CP3 may be the biggest competitor (other than Kobe) left in these playoffs, so my guess is yes, they'll be ready. But so will the Spurs.

Fuzzy bullets for the big finish...

• Ray Nagin had no idea the Hornets were in the playoffs.
  
  
• Video via the HR boards: The PTI guys argue about Spurs-Hornets.
  
  
• Hornets Asylum: a must-see photoshop job on Tim Duncan.
  
  
• Mucho thanks to John Schuhmann for sending along this Chris Paul video which matches up some of CP's moves with those of Tiny, Zeke and KJ. Good stuff.
  
  
• At The Hive: A closer look at the Spurs' performances in close-out games.
  
  

Alright, I'm done for now. Tip tonight is 8p.m. Central. Game is on ESPN. Back later with a game thread.

So far, everyone appears to be stumped as to why the Hornets-Spurs series has been an excercise in blowouts.  Greg Popovich certainly has no answer for it according to his post-game comments from game 5.

Being prone to thinking about the Hornets, especially when I'm feeling amped after a big win and still wandering my house with a silly grin on my face at 1:30 am, I pondered the question, and there only seems to be one answer I managed to dredge up:  Discipline.

Other than maybe Detroit, you're not going to find a set of more disciplined teams in the NBA than the Hornets and Spurs.  On the defensive side of the ball, these teams will rotate with a will, close out, attack the screens and generally work like dogs to throw out the best team defense they can muster.  On offense, they run their plays, spread the floor and play unselfish basketball, passing freely but intelligently. Neither team makes mistakes often, with the Hornets turning the ball over less often than any other team in the playoffs.   The Spurs have also proven to take care of the ball and cough it up rarely. 

Since mistakes are so rare in these games, all it takes is one flurry of turnovers and/or bad shots and the team is done because the other team isn't going to make their own series of mistakes to let them get back in.  Here are a listing of the biggest flurries of mistakes in the series:

• Game 1, fourth quarter,  8:38 to go.  Biggest lead so far has been Hornets up by 8 for one posession in the first quarter:  Duncan turnover, David West Block, Oberto Foul, Paul steal, Duncan misses 2 free throws,  Finley scores, Ginboili scores, Peja steal, Paul steal, Pargo steal.  That's 10 posessions and 2 scores.  The lead grows from 5 to 14.
• Game 2, start of third quarter, Biggest lead so far has been Spurs up 7 for two posessions of the 2nd quarter:  Finley 20 footer missed, Tyson blocks, Paul Steals, Duncan turnover, Thomas score, Parker score, Ginobili misses 26 footer, Duncan misses layup, Manu Layup, Ginobili misses 25 footer,  Parker misses 25 footer.  11 posessions - 3 scores, lots of long shots, Hornets go from down 1 to up 14.
• Game 3, 4th quarter, 9:17 left. Biggest lead so far has been Hornets by 8 for 4 posessions of the 1st quarter: West misses, Paul misses, Bonzi misses, Duncan blocks, Wells turnover, Paul misses, Thomas blocks, Morris misses.  8 posessions - no scores, lots of long misses, Spurs go from up 4 to up 13.
• Game 4, 2nd Quarter, 10:22 to go.  Biggest lead so far has been Spurs by 5 for one posession:  Wells turnover, Pargo miss, West scores, Ginobili blocks, West turnover, Pargo miss, Duncan block, Wright travel, Peja scores, Peja miss, Wright miss. 11 posessions, 2 scores, Spurs go from up 3 to up 15.  Hornets never get closer than within 12 again.
• Game  5, 3rd quarter, 8:44 to go, biggest lead so far has been Spurs by 6 two different times for five total posessions:  West steals, Chandler block, Chandler steal, Parker miss, West steals, West blocks, Spurs clock violation, Ginobili misses, Ginobili scores, Duncan miss, West block, Parker miss.  12 posessions, 1 score,   Hornets go from 1 down to up 14.  Spurs never get closer than 8 again.

That's it.  You'll find that other than those five spots(and a small surge in game 4 with the scrubs in) there aren't any extended sets of errors by either team - and all of these have been the deciding collection of plays.  This is a series that demands excellent basketball, because one set of mistakes buries you.  No wonder it's so compelling.

Some things to look for in Game 6

1) Unfortunately, West is due
Due for a bad game, that is.  If he stays true to form against the Spurs he will follow his career game with a poor one.  I can hope he breaks the cycle, but being in San Antonio with a gimpy back may make that difficult.

2) Can the transition defense continue?
A majorly overlooked part of the Game 5 win was the adjustment the Hornets made against the running game.  The Spurs had put pressure on the Hornets in Games 3 and 4 by sending their guards running after a shot went up and relying on their bigs to rebound and outlet quickly.  That allowed Parker to drive the ball down the Hornets throats in early offense, where he is nearly impossible to stop.  In game 5, the Hornets diligently tracked the Spurs guards and ran with them, blocking the outlets and keeping Parker to only two transition buckets.  If the Hornets can do that again, Parker will probably remain neutralized.

3) Duncan ain't missing those shots again
Duncan had about 5 shots this game that will usually go in for him.  They just rolled out or dribbled over in New Orleans.  It's unlikely that happens again, so expect Timmy to be back to his usual 10-18 or 9-15 shooting self.  That makes stopping Parker even more vital

4) Any Wings wanna be on fire again?
Mo Pete was smokin' in Game 5 - and playing great on defense.  As always, we need one of our wings to produce.  Just one.  Who is it going to be?  Peja? Peterson? Pargo? Wright? Wells?  Just one of you.

Like the game last night, for some reason I have a good feeling about tonight's game . . . and Ron is recapping it.   See what Mr. Hitley does for all of you?  No sleep for him!