NEW ORLEANS -- Anyone else sense a theme here?

For the third straight time, the San Antonio Spurs took a small lead into halftime and looked poised to get the one road win they needed to take the series.

And for the third straight time, they laid a giant dinosaur egg in the third quarter, and the Hornets ended up rolling to an easy win. This time it was an 11-point stanza that did them in as the Hornets won 101-79 to take a 3-2 series lead and put the defending champs on the brink of elimination. New Orleans can make its first-ever trip to the conference finals with a win in Game 6 in San Antonio on Thursday.

For the series, the third quarters have been an ongoing theme regardless of the locale. In two games in San Antonio the Spurs held a 59-41 advantage, helping them even the series.

But it's the three games in the Big Easy where things have really been one-sided. In the first, second and fourth quarters in the three games in New Orleans, the score is relatively even, with New Orleans holding just a 12-point advantage

And in the third quarters? Would you believe Hornets 93, Spurs 46? No, that's not a misprint -- New Orleans has doubled up the defending champs after the break. It's as though a different Spurs team comes out in the third quarter, one that can't get out of its own way offensively but has no problem getting out of Chris Paul's way at the other end.

"What upsets me, and I think the whole team, is that we made the same mistake again," said Manu Ginobili. "Third quarter we were not ready, we stopped moving the ball, stopped attacking. Of course we give them credit, they were good. But there's no way we can do that again."

The Spurs actually got a wide-open dunk by Tim Duncan to start the quarter before going into a serious funk, netting only two points in the next seven minutes. For the period, they were 5-for-18 from the floor with four turnovers.

Of course, the Spurs weren't out there by themselves. One reason the Spurs keep hitting a wall in the third is because that's when Chris Paul goes into overdrive. This is the eighth time I've seen him in person this season, and all but one have had the same theme: Paul spends the first half getting everybody else involved and then looks for his own offense after the break.

"I definitely try to get my teammates going early," Paul said. "But at the same time, I try to take what the defense gives me. In the third quarter we got stops, and we're at our best in our transition."

That was the theme again Tuesday. Paul had only one basket in the first half, and even that came on a generous continuation call when it appeared he took at least three steps before releasing the shot. Then in the second half, he pushed the pace and turned up the scoring, and the "woo!"-fest got rolling once again. Paul outscored the Spurs by himself in that stanza, 12-11.

Additionally, New Orleans clamped down on defense and made some adjustments after one-sided defeats in Games 3 and 4 had tied the series at two. Mostly, they used a lot more single coverage on Tim Duncan, with both Tyson Chandler and David West registering spectacular blocks in one-on-one situations while holding the Spurs' big man to 5-of-18 shooting.

"I just felt we had to mix it up a little bit more," said Hornets coach Byron Scott. "We still came and doubled him at times, [but] there were times, especially in the third quarter, where Tyson only had two fouls and we felt we could play him one-on-one a little bit more and I thought Tyson did a great job."

The Hornets also blitzed the screen-and-roll much harder than in past games, helping limit Tony Parker to 18 points after he torched them in the two games in San Antonio.

And of course, West had a coming-of-age game, dominating at both ends with 38 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and five blocks. But both he and Chandler will need to rest up and get treatment for injuries that could lay them low in Game 6.

Chandler sprained his toe late in the contest after getting tangled up with Ime Udoka and sat out the final 8:47, while West had trouble all game with a stiff back. The good news for the Hornets is that they'll get three days off to recuperate if a Game 7 is needed.

As a result of West's inspired effort and the Spurs' uninspired third quarter, we had the fifth straight one-sided win by the home team in this series. So instead of late-game drama, we had to settle for the early-game fireworks between Greg Popovich and Joey Crawford.

Popovich was furious over a first-quarter delay of game violation -- yes, really -- that he felt was called in error, and let Crawford know about it in no uncertain terms. Crawford, as is his reputation, didn't back down, and replays seemed to show him poking a finger in Popovich's chest.

The scene ended with Pop getting one T and several players being needed to restrain him from picking up a second. Crawford also drew a lengthy, 'Sheed-like glare from Duncan after a late loose ball call right before the Spurs sent in the scrubs; it's probably fortunate for everyone that Crawford had his back turned.

Nonetheless, the Spurs' issues with this particular referee once again seem very much alive, and it seemed to spread to the other players -- San Antonio invested a lot of time lobbying for calls.

"I think we got worried about the refs way too much," said Ginobili. "We've just got to let Pop do that. That's his job."

Not that the Spurs need to worry about seeing Crawford again if they play like they did in the second half, as the upstart Hornets have two shots at knocking the defending champs out of the playoffs.

After beating them three times by a combined 59 points in Nawlins, delivering the knockout blow is the final test before their graduation into the league's elite.

John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. To e-mail him, click here.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Dwight Howard was sitting in the training room all slump shouldered and sad after the Orlando Magic were eliminated from the playoffs when a teammate mentioned how it often takes a team getting its heart broken in the postseason before it finally breaks through.

Howard certainly knows a thing or two about playoff pain, having been bounced out of the postseason each of the past two seasons by the Detroit Pistons. The Magic were embarrassingly swept last spring, so technically this year's 4-1 whipping at the hands of the Pistons reflected a small step of progress. In actuality, the series was much closer with three down-to-the-wire finishes.

To read the full column, click here.

NEW ORLEANS -- There was a dominant big man on the floor Tuesday, just not the one you expected. While Tim Duncan struggled to a 5-for-18 shooting night, Hornets forward David West was scintillating on both ends.

He needed to be. As the rest of the Hornets struggled to hit shots during a sloppy first half, West lit up the Spurs for 22 points to keep New Orleans in the ballgame. At the break his teammates were 5-for-23 from the field, but the Hornets were in the game because West was 10-for-14. Eventually the rest of the cavalry rode in, and the Hornets cruised to a 101-79 Game 5 win that has the champs on the brink of elimination.

But the outcome would have been very different if not for West's dominant effort. For the night, he finished with 38 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and two steals. He shot 16-of-25 from the floor, made 6-of-7 from the line, and only had two turnovers, even as the Spurs played musical big men trying to find somebody who could stop him.

"This was a big game for us, this was it," said West. "In our minds we couldn't go to San Antonio down. We just didn't want to go back to the locker room saying woulda, coulda, shoulda."

Hornet coach Byron Scott, who has coached West his entire pro career, said the fourth-year pro has never played better.

He's right. It's hard to come up with an adjective to properly describe how good he was at both ends, so let's describe a few plays instead. Like how he faced up on the right mid-post and went one-on-one against Tim Duncan for a baseline drive that ended in a sweet reverse off the board. Or how he took Duncan by himself on defense and made a spectacular block, one of his five on the night; another amazing swat came when a wide-open lay-up by Ime Udoka was erased when West swooped in.

There's more. Though having a career night, West responded maturely to double-teams that came his way in the second half, making kickouts that led to two Mo Peterson 3-pointers during the Hornets' back-breaking third quarter run. He even found Chris Paul for a layup in a rare reversal of the usual Hornets pattern. And of course, he knocked down one short-range jumper after another.

And he did it all on a back that was tightening up on him and giving him trouble -- presumably from carrying the Hornets on it the whole first half.

"He was pretty upset with the way he played in Game 4," said Scott. "We've been around D-West long enough to know he was going to come back and he was going to play a great game tonight, and he carried us, especially in the first half."

"He shot the ball. He shot more jumpers," said Kurt Thomas, who along with Fabricio Oberto took most of the abuse from West. "He came out very aggressive. We've got to help out and try to make somebody else beat us."

For the Hornets, the question immediately moves on to West's back and his status for Game 6 on Thursday. West said, "It got pretty stiff there in the second quarter," but that he'd be fine for Game 6 on Thursday. As with the Lakers' Kobe Bryant on Sunday, the fact that he was able to keep playing with it is a positive sign. The Hornets hope that rest and treatment will be enough to allow him to go again in 48 hours as the try to clinch the series.

"The good thing about them is they're both young," said Scott of West and teammate Tyson Chandler, who also was injured in the game. "Is it going to keep him out of Game 6? Probably not. We just need to make sure that we get some treatment on there, get some rest, and get ready for Thursday."

John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. To e-mail him, click here.