A stretcher was finally brought onto the court.
Manu Ginobili couldn't even stand up anymore.
Hansen was there talking to the referee.
"He pushed me before retreating, so I dove in a bit too aggressively, by the time I wanted to pull back, it was too late."
Why did Hansen's explanation sound so smooth? James did the same thing to him during the regular season when playing against the Heat.
If it was used by James, it must have been battle-tested.
Sure enough, the referee ended up giving Hansen a technical foul, the same penalty that had been issued to Ginobili earlier.
Such a ruling indicated that they both were considered unintentional, yet dangerous.
After the penalty was announced, Popovich appeared very agitated, yelling from the sidelines,
"He did it on purpose! He did it on purpose!"
He was one hundred percent certain, because Hansen had come over to him before Game 1 to talk about doing it intentionally.
