MVN - Most Valuable Network

Game 6 collapse won’t cripple the Hornets

The Hornets lost Game 6. 

Okay, that’s to be expected—logically speaking at least.  It was in San Antonio, against the defending champs whose backs were pressed firmly against the wall.  It’s only natural that the Spurs find a way to defend home court and force a Game 7, right?

Right, that would make sense.  It’s a logical assumption.  It’s what’s supposed to happen in a seven-game series between two Western Conference powerhouses. 

So why was I so confident that the Hornets would close out Thursday night?  Why was I throwing any semblance of logic out the window and picking New Orleans to win and advance to their first Conference finals ever? 

Because it felt right.  Because it was going to be the next impossible task that the upstart Hornets proved possible. 

A win in Game 6 to eliminate the defending champs was going to represent another notch in a Hornets belt that has been steadily receiving marks all season.

And it looked like they would fulfill that prophecy early in the third quarter Thursday night.  Despite an egregious turnover on the inbounds pass to start the quarter, the Hornets settled down a bit and started to put together what looked like one of their patented third-quarter rallies.  They had cut the lead to six and it finally seemed like the Spurs were cooling down after burning up the nets in the first half.

Then the wheels fell off. 

In the span of about a minute Chris Paul and David West accumulated five fouls—four of them offensive.  Paul picked up his fouls with push offs on two fast breaks—plays that should have cut the lead and energized the team.  West was called for a bogus positioning foul on the insufferable Manu Ginobili which frustrated him into committing two legitimate fouls on Tim Duncan—one defensive, one offensive. 

At that point, the Hornets were done.  Though down only 10 with a quarter and a half to play, I knew they were toast.  They had lost their composure and forfeited their chance to make a run and get back in the game.  That type of breakdown kills a team’s momentum and breaths fresh life into the lungs of the opponents.  And no team in the league feeds on that type of momentum swing better than San Antonio.   In only a minute’s time, New Orleans had blown its chance to close out the defending champs in six games.  It happened that fast.

Luckily, the Hornets get a chance to redeem themselves.  Game 7 is Monday night in the Big Easy.  Chris Paul and Co. are now on the biggest stage of their career.  A win earns them universal respect and a trip to the conference finals.  A loss would signal the final chapter of a fairytale season. 

Either way, the season was a success. 

But if this series continues to follow the path of logic and reason, I have a feeling (wink, wink) that Monday night won’t be the last time this season the hive comes alive.    

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Swarming the Ball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.