It is a cliche to say that a sport can be a game of inches, but in some cases the slimmest differences really do matters. The Charlotte Hornets learned that lesson all too well on Tuesday night vs. the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center.
With the Blazers up 102-100 and a little more than three seconds on the clock, Hornets guard Gary Neal drove to his right around the defending Damian Lillard. Neal got to the rim and made what would have been an overtime-forcing shot over center Joel Freeland, but it was not initially clear if he got it off in time. Take a look:
Referees checked the replay monitors, which showed that Neal still had control of the ball at the buzzer. This photo shows the same from another angle:
It's not clear if Neal could have made the shot if he had released the ball a split-second earlier, but it surely won't please the Hornets to have lost so narrowly. Yet his poor timing was far from Charlotte's biggest issue in the game — the team blew leads of 23 points in the second quarter and 10 points at the start of the final period.
The Blazers deserve lots of credit for coming back from those deficits to take the 102-100 win, although they nearly gave away the victory with their own mistake in the final seconds. With 10 seconds remaining and the shot clock turned off, the Blazers needed to hold on to the ball and hit free throws to put the game out of reach. However, Damian Lillard fought through a trap and opted to take a shot with three seconds on the clock to give the Hornets another chance. In Lillard's defense, it looked as if he'd been fouled on the play — that's almost certainly what Charlotte was trying to do, after all. Nevertheless, his decision to shoot was baffling.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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