Hornets Trounce Spurs Again

They were much more aggressive at the glass, they did a much better job guarding D. West in the low post, who had one of his worst games of the season, Tim Duncan was more aggressive getting his share of the scoring, Ginobili and the bench did what they could, the result; pretty much the same as Saturday night, a 102-84 thumping of the defending Champs to push the Hornets to a 2-0 lead over San Antonio. D. West only racked up 10 points with the Spurs being more aggressive with him. So what do the Bees do? Give the ball to Peja who is very conveniently having the stroke on this particular calm D. West night, who hit 5 out of 7 three pointers and shot 8-13 from the field. The Hornets pin point shooting in the 3rd quarter made it difficult for the Spurs, who on a number of occasions tried to build a run, to come back and helped to keep that cushion over the Spurs. The series will now shift to San Antonio where the Hornets won one game and lost one in the regular season. The key is whether the energy level and shooting percentage can travel with the team.

Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
P.Stojakovic	F	40:12	8-13	5-7	4-4	+32	1	5	6	0	0	1	1	0	0	25
D.West	F	39:54	2-11	0-0	6-6	+14	1	9	10	5	3	0	4	0	2	10
T.Chandler	C	27:20	2-2	0-0	1-2	+35	2	9	11	1	5	1	0	2	0	5
M.Peterson	G	23:38	5-5	1-1	1-2	+26	0	3	3	1	0	1	0	0	0	12
C.Paul	G	40:52	11-20	1-2	7-8	+23	1	1	2	12	3	1	1	0	1	30
M.Ely		14:32	1-2	0-0	1-2	-10	1	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	3
B.Wells		13:33	1-6	0-0	0-0	-8	0	3	3	0	2	0	0	0	1	2
J.Pargo		20:28	2-6	0-1	0-0	-7	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	0	0	4
J.Wright		12:22	2-7	2-4	0-0	-6	0	3	3	1	2	1	1	0	0	6
R.Bowen		02:23	0-0	0-0	0-0	-3	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
M.James		02:23	2-3	1-2	0-0	-3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
H.Armstrong		02:23	0-0	0-0	0-0	-3	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

NEW ORLEANS, May 5 (AP) - Chris Paul’s surgical drive past the San Antonio defense ended with a high, razzle-dazzle dribble and a soft, floating shot off the glass as a packed crowd broke into a thunderous frenzy.

“These are some of the best moments, I think, of my life that we’re experiencing right now,” Paul said. “We’re just riding a wave right now.”

It’s a wave that wiped out the Dallas Mavericks and is now crashing hard on the defending champion Spurs.

Paul had 30 points and 12 assists, leading the New Orleans Hornets to a 102-84 victory Monday night and a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven, second-round series.

Peja Stojakovic made five 3-pointers and scored 25 points for the Hornets, who’ve won both games by wide margins in becoming the first team to put San Antonio in an 0-2 playoff hole since 2001, when the Spurs were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

“We’re definitely a little shocked,” Spurs forward Kurt Thomas said. “You can’t take anything away from them. They are playing extremely well. If one person’s not going, someone else is stepping up.”

Game 3 is Thursday in San Antonio.

After allowing David West to score a career playoff-high 30 points in the series opener, the Spurs held the All-Star power forward to 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting. But West remained active under the basket with 10 rebounds.

“We’re trying to make sure our defense is where we want to start. We don’t worry about what we’re doing on the offensive end,” West said. “We stuck to what we do.”

Tyson Chandler had 11 rebounds and all of his five points, including an alley-oop dunk of Paul’s lob, during a key stretch midway through the fourth quarter when the Hornets prevented San Antonio from getting within single digits.

Tim Duncan led San Antonio with 18 points and eight rebounds, far better than his miserable Game 1, when he tied a career playoff low with five points and three rebounds. But by the final minutes, Duncan was on the bench, resting his cheek on his hand with a dejected 100-yard stare.

“It’s just frustrating losing. That’s the biggest thing,” Duncan said. “They’ve obviously done an excellent job defensively, frustrating all of us with their double-teaming, with their shifting. … It seems like they come the other way and they’re not missing shots. That stacked on top of each other just makes the whole game very frustrating.”

“Paul Powers Hornets to Another Easy Win over Spurs.” NBA.com. May 6, 2008. “http://www.nba.com/games/20080505/SASNOH/recap.html”.

Hornets Turn Up The Intensity, Beat Spurs In Game 1

After trailing by 4 at halftime, which was encouraging to the Hornets after being down by as many as 11, they were able to turn up their intensity defensively and shut down Tim Duncan, a key big-man for the Spurs, in the second half. That was the biggest highlight of the game; the Hornets defensive job against Tim Duncan. He’s so good in the paint when he receives a pass from Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, or any of the other San Antonio shooters. He can really hit those key hook shots and muscle his way to the basket; much like a David West (pictured beasting on the left). However, he was limited to just 5 points, whereas the Hornets muscle-man tallied 30. The turnaround to the game was mostly because of Chris Paul running his “organized playground” (courtesy of Gregg Popovich, Spurs Head Coach) and transforming the game into a Hornets tempo game. He was able to find Peja for his step back 3and D. West, the 17-foot assassin, as CP3 likes to refer to him, for just that; 17 footers. New Orleans would pull away from there and San Antonio never threatened. The final was a convincing 101-82 win and the Hornets take a 1-0 lead back here Monday night for game 2.

Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
P.Stojakovic	F	37:35	9-15	2-4	2-2	+17	2	2	4	0	2	1	0	0	1	22
D.West	F	38:21	13-23	0-0	4-5	+10	1	8	9	2	0	2	4	1	2	30
T.Chandler	C	35:18	4-7	0-0	2-2	+13	6	9	15	0	2	0	1	3	0	10
M.Peterson	G	24:53	3-5	2-3	0-0	+15	1	3	4	2	3	1	0	0	0	8
C.Paul	G	41:00	7-16	0-1	3-6	+13	2	2	4	13	3	4	2	0	1	17
B.Wells		18:31	5-9	0-0	0-0	+1	1	3	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	10
M.Ely		12:42	0-2	0-0	0-0	+6	2	1	3	1	4	0	0	0	0	0
J.Pargo		20:35	1-6	0-1	0-0	+13	0	4	4	5	1	2	0	0	0	2
J.Wright		09:18	1-2	0-0	0-0	+3	1	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	2
R.Bowen		01:47	0-1	0-1	0-0	+4	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

NEW ORLEANS, May 3 (AP) — Hornets coach Byron Scott showed off the three championship rings he won as a player during his pregame speech.

The message? This is what the San Antonio Spurs have, and you want.

He certainly got through to All-Stars David West and Chris Paul.

West scored a career playoff-high 30 points to lead New Orleans to a 101-82 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Saturday night.

Paul added 17 points, 13 assists and four steals for New Orleans, which trailed by as much as 11 in the first half but stormed into the lead for good in the third quarter.

“It sort of gives you goose bumps,” Paul said of seeing Scott’s rings, won in the 1980s with the Los Angeles Lakers. “We understand right now we’re on that same journey and we feel like we can get there.”

One reason they’re off to such a good start against San Antonio is the way they played defense on Spurs center Tim Duncan.

Duncan had what he considered one of the worst games of his stellar career, going 1-of-9 from the field for a career playoff-low five points and only three rebounds.

“Things just didn’t go my way,” said Duncan, who offered only a few terse comments in the locker room. “They did a great job. … I played badly, so credit to them.”

Tyson Chandler was Duncan’s primary defender, but the Hornets also swarmed Duncan with double teams throughout the game, forcing San Antonio to look for points from outside.

The Spurs hit 12 3-pointers in the game, but also missed 19.

The Hornets dominated the inside, outrebounding San Antonio 50-34 and outscoring the Spurs 46-26 in the paint. The Hornets also shot 50 percent, while the Spurs finished at 40.8 percent.

Chandler had 10 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots for New Orleans. Peja Stojakovic added 22 points for the Hornets on 9-of-15 shooting, while reserve Bonzi Wells added 10 points, all but two in the fourth quarter.

Tony Parker led the Spurs with 23 points and Manu Ginobili had 19. Bruce Bowen added 17 points and Michael Finley 13, but San Antonio needed more help inside from Duncan and Kurt Thomas, who had only two points and two rebounds.

“They took away our inside game. Timmy had a rough night,” Parker said. “We need to do a better job to get him the ball and try to get him some shots, basically. Tonight, New Orleans did a good job to take that away from us. That’s not Timmy.”

After trailing most of the first half, the Hornets surged into the lead for good with a 13-0 run in the third quarter that opened with Chandler’s driving layup and ended with Stojakovic’s second 3-pointer of the game, giving New Orleans a 61-54 lead.

West scored four points during the run and 11 in the quarter, often hitting midrange jumpers, sometimes while fading away from a defender in his face.

“David West is the one that really, really hurt us tonight,” Parker said. “He made outside shots, and once he made his outside shots he was having the drive, so we can’t all focus on Chris Paul.”

The Hornets led 74-66 heading into the fourth quarter.

Jacque Vaughn’s driving layup got the Spurs as close as 76-71 early in the period, but the Hornets, despite being in the playoffs for the first time in four years, were not rattled.

They pushed the lead back up to double digits before turning it into a blowout during the last 5 minutes, with Paul scoring seemingly at will.

“We’ve been in that position where everyone is kind of waiting for the wheels to fall off of this thing, feeling like we are overachieving,” West said. “But we’re a hungry group of guys, we’re going to go out and compete.”

“West, Hornets Sting Spurs In Game 1″. NBA.com. May 4, 2008. “http://www.nba.com/games/20080503/SASNOH/recap.html”.