Al Horford admits to being as caught up as anyone in the post-game atmosphere of the Hawks' comeback win over Toronto on Wednesday.

When a team climbs out of a 17-point hole in 13 minutes, forces overtime with a huge 3-pointer with just 0.5 seconds to play and then wins 127-120 in overtime, it's hard not to get caught up in the moment.

But Horford insists that any clock-related controversy surrounding T.J. Ford's potential game-winning layup at the end of regulation is much ado about nothing.

"I was trying to time it and I was so caught up in the moment that it didn't register until this morning, but I touched that ball," Horford told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday. "I reached out and tried to swat [the inbounds pass] away, but it was a great pass and I was only able to get my fingertips on the ball."

Ford's basket, which would have won the game, was disallowed when replays showed he was still in contact with the ball at the buzzer. The game went into overtime tied 107-107.

Toronto officials, including head coach Sam Mitchell, contend that the game clock started early with 0.5 seconds to play. The Raptors indicated following the game that they intended to file a protest with the NBA.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league had received no paperwork from the Raptors at the end of business Thursday. League rules allow the Raptors 48 hours to file a formal protest.

"The referee made a judgment that the ball was tipped by Al Horford on the inbounds pass, and that's why he started the clock," Frank said.

If Horford indeed touched the ball, which was difficult to confirm by watching the replay, the game officials started the clock properly. And there certainly wouldn't have been enough time for Ford to catch the ball and then lay it in before the game clock expired.

"The officials made the ruling on it," said Hawks coach Mike Woodson, whose team puts its five-game win streak on the line tonight against Philadelphia at Philips Arena. "And really, everybody is reaching on this now. Listen, we played a great game. We won the game. Both teams made some great plays, but we made the plays at the end to win. And hey, stuff happens during a game that is out of the control of the players and coaches all the time, and you have to live with it."

Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo had a different take. He believes his team is being victimized for the second time at Philips Arena in the past year. Ford wasn't credited with a basket late in a loss to the Hawks last season that could have changed the course of that game.

"The clock clearly started before he [Ford] touched it," Colangelo told the Toronto Star. "The fact that this happened in Atlanta ... it's just absolutely inexcusable."

The Hawks have already been on the wrong side of an official protest this season. After an official scorer's error in a Dec. 19 win over Miami, the Hawks were forced to replay the final 51.9 seconds of that overtime win on March 8. They won the scoreless replay but the stigma attached to it —- the league hadn't seen a replay game since 1982 —- hasn't faded.

"At this point in the season you just don't want anything like this to cloud what we've got going," Marvin Williams said. "Nobody wants to see another replay game, man. Not again. What happened last time was so ridiculous. We won the game, period."

NEXT FOR HAWKS

> Who: vs. 76ers

> When: 7:30 p.m. today

> TV; radio: Fox Sports Net; 790 AM