The Basketball Diaries

New Orleans Hornets 102 San Antonio Spurs 84 (Hornets lead 2-0)

After the first game of this series, Spurs coach Greg Popovich wasn't very happy with his team's performance on defense against New Orleans' David West. So on Monday night he came up with a gameplan to help minimize West's contributions. The good news was that it worked, as West was held to 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting. The bad news is the Spurs were so worried about West that Chris Paul and Peja Stojakovic ran wild on them. CP3 finished with 30 points and 12 assists while Peja had 25 thanks to his 5-of-7 shooting behind the arc. Now, over the next few days you're going to hear a lot about how the Spurs are old and washed up, and just can't hang with the Hornets. Don't buy it. These teams have played 6 times now this season, and the home team has won each game. With all of the Hornets wins coming in the blowout variety. Don't be shocked if this series flips on it's head when they get back to San Antonio.

Detroit Pistons 100 Orlando Magic 93 (Pistons lead series 2-0)

This game turned on a pretty controversial play at the end of the 3rd quarter. After the Magic caught fire from the three-point line to get back into the game, Detroit had the ball with 5.1 left in the quarter. As they inbounded the ball, the clock stopped at 4.8 seconds, and the game kept playing as nobody noticed and Chauncey Billups hit a three. For some reason, it counted. A closer, TIMED, look showed that Billups didn't get the shot off until after 5.2 seconds, so it wouldn't have counted had the clock actually not "malfunctioned." Now, I know the Pistons won by 7, so if you took those three points away, they'd still win, but it doesn't work that way. This was a two-point game in the final minutes that only grew to seven thanks to the free throws at the end of the game. Take away those three points from the Pistons at the end of the third, and it's Orlando protecting a lead in the final minutes, not Detroit.