You can't say New Orleanians aren't creative.

Spurs guard Tony Parker is married to TV star and attractive woman Eva Longoria. And one of the brilliant New Orleans fans brought in a life-sized poster of her to the game. When Parker shot free throws, Eva danced.

He missed both.

And when San Antonio called timeout, the Hornets' Hilton Armstrong gave the fans five.

And then officials took her away. But it was good while it lasted.

------

Sayeth Scott Cody:

We felt like they were waiting for that run and they finally got it. Byron talks about energy and intensity all the time and the lack therof in games 3 or 4. It's just like chipping away and eventually the Spurs cracked. like they did in games 1 and 2, the Spurs finally crumbled.

It's good to see Mo Pete get hot because he only averages 8 points a game in the season. but when he gets hot, it's just extra lagniappe the team never accounts for.

FYI, Mo Pete has 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting. Key.

Also, Hugo the Hornet is riling up the fans with an air raid siren. I feel like I'm in my second grade english class for a random bad weather siren.

------

Morris Peterson is 4 of 6 from beyond the arc, and that's a big reason New Orleans is on a tear 24-9 run to begin the third quarter ( and I use begin loosely. There's 1:49 to play in the quarter).

The defense has been tremendous in the quarter. The fans are in the game. And Mo Pete is igniting the Arena in ways Peja use to back in the day (think Games 1 and 2).

Can the Hornets keep this up? You tell me.

-------

Scott Cody and I were expecting it. We just weren't sure when.

In fact, Scott turned to me in between the first and second and said what San Antonio is doing best is keeping the Hornets from going on a run.

It started with 4:25 to play in the second and has carried over into the third quarter. New Orleans ended the half outscoring the Spurs 14-10. To open the third, New Orleans is on a 13-4 run.

That's big. The fans are into the game. This is why it's hard to play on the road. As Scott just said to me, it's so hard to make these runs on the road and so hard to stop them from happening.

--------

Both teams are shooting 40.5 percent from the floor, not exactly spectacular.

What stands out is this: This is easily the most physical game of the playoffs for New Orleans yet. Both teams are playing with an intensity you would expect for the postseason.

However, with the officiating being as spotty as it is, both teams are going to have to be careful. New Orleans has three players with three fouls - Bonzi Wells, Melvin Ely and Morris Peterson. San Antonio has Kurt Thomas with three fouls and Robert Horry has four.

San Antonio is 6 of 9 from 3-point range. Not spectacular, but enough to keep the Spurs ahead by three at the break.

New Orleans has held Tim Duncan in check, the first time since the Game 2 it can say that. He has an unimpressive four points on 2-for-11 shooting and 11 boards. But Bruce Bowen and Tony Parker have 10 points and and Manu Ginobili has 15.

Meanwhile, David West is single-handedly keeping the Hornets in the game. He has 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting. Chris Paul, meanwhile, is sitting on eight assists, but only six points. He's not the one I'd be worried about if I'm a Hornets fan. He can get himself going.

I said this earlier - Where's Peja? Stojakovic has only six points and has put up only four shots. New Orleans needs Stojakovic to get going in the second half.

That said, I like - mostly - how New Orleans is playing defense. They're rotating well. Rarely is San Antonio getting open shots. The Hornets just need to get out and defend the 3 a little better.

(Fifth celebrity sighting: Trombone Shorty. OK. This one probably shouldn't count. He's the halftime entertainment. Let me say this about Mr. Trombone, he's amazing. One helluva live show. If you get a chance to check him out - GO! He plays a mean trombone, as you can imagine. But he's excellent on the trumpet. And he can hit the drums fairly well, too.)

----

I've got a problem with the way the NBA calls some fouls, mainly offensive initiated fouls, such as the one called on Mo Pete a second ago.

Manu Ginobili initiates the contact when he dips his shoulder and guards the ball close to his body. He's running into Peterson, yet Peterson is the one getting called.

That, to me, is as sad as diving in soccer. The foul should not be rewarded. Instead, it should be an offensive foul.

It's just not basketball.

Am I alone here? Do you agree?

----

I feel like we could play Where's Waldo? with Peja Stojakovic.

The Spurs' Bruce Bowen has done a fantastic job guarding him for three games now.

The question is this: Why hasn't anything been done to get Peja more touches? Why hasn't Peja posted Bowen up in an attempt to get him in foul trouble?

Anybody have any suggestions? I can try to get them to the locker room at halftime.

(Celebrity sighting No. 4: Saints quarterback Drew Brees. I know who he is. Also, he threw a signed football into the upper deck. Saints fans can only hope the NFL injury report doesn't come out reading: Saints, New Orleans - Drew Brees right shoulder)

----

I like how New Orleans has come out aggressive. I like the energy of the team. But the way these officials are calling the game, this aggression could back to bite the Hornets in the backside.

With 8:17 to play in the second, Tyson Chandler has two fouls, Bonzi Wells as two fouls and Melvin Ely has two fouls.

What do you think about the officiating so far?

(Celebriry sighting No. 3: Bow Wow. He's a rapper I'm told.)

--------

As I said, Scott is sitting next to me. He had this to say about the first quarter:

"I think the Hornets are playing exactly how they want to on defense (I'm no expert) but they turned the Spurs into a jump shooting team. i think that's exactly what they wanted.

But they're still down two. The spurs were able to hit some 3's. and while they don't hit a high percentage of 3's, they hit timely 3's.

But if they keep this up, they should win.

And I can't believe (Spurs head coach Gregg) Popovich is still in the game. it took four games to hold him back. If a player did that, he'd be thrown out. Why not the coach?"

----

I'm just going to say this once - Tony Parker's Mack Trucking of Chris Paul at the 2:41 mark in the first is, well, likely one of the worst non-calls of the night, if not this round of the playoffs.

And that's not an overstatement.

(Celebrity sighting No. 2: Emeril Lagasse, he's a famous chef I think)

----

It's early, but it appears New Orleans is playing with more energy tonight than it has in the past five quarters.

Scott Cody, you may know him as a Channel 4 sports anchor, is sitting to my left and he agrees.

There's something about playing at home. Maybe it's the crowd booing every time San Antonio touches the ball, but that's not completely it.

The other thing we've noticed up here in the press seats - the officiating has already been horrible tonight. Some bad calls and some bad non-calls.

We'll see if that hurts the Hornets.

Key stat of the first half of the first quarter - New Orleans is shooting 60-plus percent. San Antonio is getting only 20 percent of its shots to fall.

Are you seeing the same thing?

(First celebrity of the night: the Miami Heats Dwyane Wade)

----

The announcer at the Arena is introducing the San Antonio Spurs to the music of Darth Vader. And on the jumobotron/video screen, they showed Darth Vader's helmet.

Pretty nice.

----

Byron Scott had some big news prior to tip-off tonight: He's starting Jannero Pargo in place of Chris Paul.

He was kidding, of course, and answering a question that regarded the Spurs inserting Manu Ginobili into the starting lineup.

Scott's main point about an hour and a half before tipoff was this - the Hornets won 56 games this season for a reason. They're not going to start changing things now because of one really poor performance in the playoffs.

And at least he was funny about how he did it.

-----

Peja Stojakovic scored 22 and 25 points in the two game in New Orleans in this series. But when the games moved to San Antonio, he was shut down, scoring 8 and 6, and he only got off four combined 3-pointers.

So, how will Peja get more choice 3-point shots?

"I don't think it's up to Peja," Scott said. "It's up to us. We've got to get away from random offense and get more into our sets. We have to run more set offense to get some screens and get him open."

-------

Julian Wright is in his first season in the NBA and it's finally come to his attention what this postseason is all about. It's nothing like March Madness when he was in college at Kansas.

"Everybody is constantly making adjustments - players, coaches," Wright said. "But we don't want to get caught doing too much."

--------

All right, it's fan interaction time. What adjustments would you make? How would you get Peja open from Bruce Bowen? How do you take care of the three-headed monster of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker?