Spurs Win 110-99

No, the Spurs still don't have answer for Chris Paul.
Instead, they changed the equation. San Antonio scored so easily in Thursday's Game 3 that Paul's brilliance on the other end was irrelevant, as the defending champs kept their heads above water with a 110-99 win. The Spurs trail the series 2-1 with Game 4 on Sunday at the AT&T Center.
Playoff Schedule
WEST SEMIFINALS
New Orleans 2, San Antonio 1Game 4: Sun., 8 ET, at SAS
L.A. Lakers 2, Utah 0Game 3: Fri., 9 ET, at UTH
EAST SEMIFINALS
Detroit 2, Orlando 1Game 4: Sat., 5 ET, at ORL
Boston 2, Cleveland 0Game 3: Sat., 8 ET, at CLE
• The full playoff schedule This team is better known for winning games -- and championships -- with defense, but Thursday it was the offense that saved its bacon. And it was an old San Antonio stand-by -- moving Manu Ginobili from starter to bench or vice-versa -- that fueled it.
With Ginobili in the starting lineup, the Spurs got 31 points apiece from him and Tony Parker and avoided the second-half offensive lulls that have plagued them of late. Parker also chimed in with 11 assists, while San Antonio made 11-of-25 3-pointers en route to cracking the 110-point barrier in regulation for only the third time since the All-Star break.
They needed all those points, because Paul again was jaw-droppingly good. He scored 35 points on 15-of-25 shooting, handed out nine assists, and committed only one turnover. He also had the highlight of the night when he took contact from both Tony Parker and Tim Duncan on a drive to the hoop, spun in midair, and threw a blind shot over his head and in to get a foul-and-one. "I want my MVP vote back," yelled one scribe from courtside after that circus shot.
But two heads are better than one, and with Parker and Ginobili both scoring at will it was too much for New Orleans to overcome.
"We made shots, and we made better decisions. They only had [six] points off turnovers instead of the 22 they've been averaging," said Gregg Popovich. "We had 28 assists, which is great, so if you can get 28 assists and not make turnovers that makes your offense look a whole hell of a lot better."
That and a revved-up Parker provided the difference. San Antonio's point man matched Paul shot-for-shot even while guarding him most of the night.
"I probably got [Parker] all screwed up [in Games 1 and 2] trying to get him to make perfect decisions," said Popovich. "We know he's better when he's aggressive and trying to score. That's the approach he took tonight."
He wasn't the only one. With the Spurs' backs to the wall, they were the hungrier, more physical team for the first time this series, winning the rebound battle and blocking seven shots.
"Tonight was like a Game 7 for us," said Ginobili.
Popovich obviously understood the gravity of the situation too -- famous for limiting his top players' minutes to keep them fresh, he played each of his three stars at least 40 minutes (if you round up Manu's 39:37), as well as defensive ace Bruce Bowen.
Even with all that, New Orleans led by seven points in the final seconds of the first half before a key sequence at the end. Bruce Bowen hit a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left, and then Morris Peterson committed a backcourt violation trying to get a shot off before the buzzer. With a chance to score again, Ginobili came free on an inbounds play when David West and Julian Wright botched a switch; he made a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to cut the advantage to two.
That slim edge wouldn't hold for long, as for the third straight game in this series the team leading at halftime ended up losing by double figures.
"Our help-side defense on the weak side was terrible," said Hornets coach Byron Scott. "We didn't stop, we didn't rotate, we just didn't do the things that we had been doing the last couple of games."
Once again, the Hornets bent over backward to take Tim Duncan out of the game, which is one reason Parker and Ginobili were so huge. Duncan finished with only 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting, but it was his initial pass out of double-teams that led to several San Antonio triples.
"We've been moving the ball, I think we just hit more shots tonight," said Duncan. "So we're going to continue to move the ball, and if they want to double me and get the ball out of my hands, we'll make them pay in other ways."
San Antonio had the opposite strategy. The Spurs allowed New Orleans to get big games from Paul and West (23 points, 12 rebounds), but took the Hornets' secondary players out of the game. New Orleans made just two 3-pointers and only had 11 tries, partly as a result of Popovich's strategy of switching Bruce Bowen onto Peja Stojakovic. Only three Hornets scored in double figures.
What had the Hornets even more upset, however, was a stretch in the third quarter when they were in the bonus early but failed to take advantage and instead settled for jumpers.
"We had the advantage and we were in the bonus, and we lost our cool a little bit," said West. "We just can't let them dictate how [we] play, and we didn't do that in the first two games."
Scott also raised a few eyebrows by pulling his starters with the Hornets down 12 and 1:42 still left. While not quite as egregious a surrender as his infamous resignation in Game 4 of the 2002 Finals, teams have come back from such a deficit before.
Nonetheless, the big story Thursday was the defending champs responding with some urgency after getting pasted in the first two games in New Orleans. However, with Paul looking increasingly unstoppable and San Antonio's attack seeming equally resurgent, the series appears to be boiling down to a question of who can outscore whom.
It's an ironic twist for a dynasty built on ironclad defense, but in this case a necessary one. We'll find out on Sunday how well the defending champs have adjusted to this brave new world.