Spurs aren't any Hornet killers

For a second straight series, the New Orleans Hornets are matched up against a much more experienced Western Conference power.
For a second straight series, the pundits are forecasting their demise.
And for a second straight series, they overcame a shaky first half in Game 1 to roll to an easy opening win.
In the first round Dallas was the victim, after the Hornets turned a 12-point halftime deficit into a 12-point victory. Saturday it was San Antonio's turn, as New Orleans trailed by 11 in the first half but slammed the door on the four-time champions afterward to cruise to a 101-82 win. Game 2 is Monday in New Orleans.
"We let the Hornets get away from us in the third quarter," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "I thought in the second half they both outplayed us and outhustled us. They played hard on the board, on the floor, all the way around. They deserved to win the ballgame. That hustle and that decision-making they had kicked our butts."
Once again, the Spurs had all kinds of trouble guarding David West. West averaged 23.0 points and shot 58.3 percent in four meetings against San Antonio in the regular season, and had 30 on this night on 13-for-23 shooting from the floor.
The Spurs opted to single cover him with Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto and might need to rethink this strategy for Game 2; Oberto in particular seemed utterly unable to handle West by himself. With his mix of midrange jumpers and short flips with either hand around the basket, however, West is a tough cover for anyone.
"He's been playing great pretty much all season long, but he's taking his game to a different level right now," said Hornets coach Byron Scott.
The Hornets won despite a fairly quiet night from Chris Paul, who finished with 17 points, 13 assists and four steals. However, he did put some relish on the proceedings at the end when he spun Bruce Bowen silly and nearly completed a three-point play on a drive with 1:47 left. That ended up being a white-flag moment for San Antonio, as Popovich emptied the bench.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans fans chanted "MVP" for Paul with particular vigor, this being his first game since news leaked out that Kobe Bryant will win the award.
"He runs an 'organized playground,'" said Popovich. "Byron is going to call plays for certain guys to get certain looks and they do a great job with it, but a good portion of the time Chris takes control with the basketball and he makes a decision."
"He might dribble it 10 times, he might go through three or four screens, but he has an uncanny ability and spatial awareness to know where all his teammates are and how get the ball to them, and at the same time be a hell of a scorer. His decision making is tremendous and when he's got the individual skill that the he has to go with it, it just makes him impossible."
The Spurs went out to a 49-45 halftime lead thanks to some torrid 3-point shooting -- they were 9-for-17 from downtown on the half. Five of them came from Bruce Bowen, who had a game-high 17 points at the break while holding Paul to just four.
However, the well went dry after the break, when the Spurs only shot 3-of-14 from downtown. With Tim Duncan being shut down by the Hornets (more on that in Box 5), it left little for the Spurs to hang their hat on offensively. They scored a mere 33 points after the break, the latest in a series of second-half offensive meltdowns that have plagued them since the All-Star break.
"They are blitzing Tim in the low post," said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili. "He was really good kicking, we just couldn't hit them in the second half."
"They played harder than us and got a lot of loose balls," said Bowen. "There were a couple of plays that we didn't do things we're capable of doing."
The other item of business from tonight was the usual instance of chippy play that you might expect from a best-of-seven series between division rivals. Not surprisingly, Bowen was at the epicenter.
He was taken down by a flagrant foul by Bonzi Wells on a drive in the first half and stayed on the floor for a couple minutes holding his head. Then in the second half he got into a minor incident with Paul when their paths crossed at a timeout.
"We'll just let the league handle it," said Bowen. "I just want to be sure that the officials can see what's really going on. I don't want to get into it with Chris. I've already missed a game for something I allegedly did."
In preparing his team for the defending champs, Scott decided to bust out his three championship rings and show them to the players.
However, one other piece of Scott's preparation may have been more helpful. He had Tyson Chandler practicing free throws for an hour after practice on Friday in anticipation of a "Hack-a-Chandler" strategy by the Spurs, after seeing Popovich use the Hack-A-Shaq frequently in the Phoenix series.
Popovich tried it tonight to gain the last shot at the end of the first half, but Chandler -- who shot 59.3 percent from the line during the regular season -- made them pay by converting both free throws.
It's one of many strategies Popovich will need to revisit after the Hornets thoroughly outplayed the Spurs in Game 1. Nobody's ready to count the defending champs out yet, but after this one-sided opener it's become apparent that they to make some major adjustments come Monday.
"We definitely want to play for 48 minutes instead of 24," said Popovich. "That will be the main crux."