Hornets Lose On Buzzer Beater

If you watched the ending of the Hornets vs. Pacers game Monday night than you saw NBA officials have to make a judgment call on the final basket of the game. The call did not favor the Hornets. According to former NBA player Gil McGregor, per NBA rules, if a ball is touching the rim, and then touched by a player, it is goaltending. That's not entirely accurate.  Here is how the official NBA rule reads: Touch the ball or the basket ring when the ball is using the basket ring as its lower base.  

Here is the AP coverage of the ending.

Mike Dunleavy's tip-in at the buzzer gave the Indiana Pacers a 94-93 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Monday night.The Hornets had taken the lead on a jumper by David West with 3.9 seconds left. Indiana's Danny Granger's long shot rattled around the rim, and Dunleavy was uncontested for the rebound under the hoop. The officials reviewed the play and the basket stood.

Granger led the Pacers with 27 points. Darren Collison scored 18 points and James Posey added 15 in their first game against the team that traded them in the offseason.

Emeka Okafor had 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Hornets, who lost their sixth straight road game. West scored 18 points and Chris Paul added 15.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301220011

For what it's worth, the play was extremely close. With all due respect to Gil, I do believe the officials got the call right. What should make Hornet fans sick isn't the buzzer beater, but James Posey's terrific shooting from the field. Where the hell was that for two seasons with the Hornets? New Orleans continues to struggle on the road, losing back to back games to bad Eastern Conference teams.