Game One: New Orleans vs San Antonio

New Orleans have homecourt in this series, they hold the tiebreaker. Manu Ginobili has been struggling with a re-aggraveted injury (ankle injury) so let’s see what he’s able to do today, hopefully he’ll be unhibited out there. San Antonio just came out of an extremely tough first round series, I expect them to come out hard in game one. New Orleans weren’t nearly as tested by Dallas so let’s see where their intensisty and execution is at, it’ll be good but will it be as good as San Antonio’s?

• The Finals MVP against the man likely to finish second for the MVP this season. Tony Parker vs Chris Paul. Excellent matchup
• Reggie’s keys for the Hornets = Tempo, Bench Mob, PG battle
• Some video of Scott’s pregame speech. He’s standing behind a table with his three championship rings saying San Antonio’s got these and they’re in the way of us getting one.
• The whole of the crowd is standing. Incredible. Everyone is standing, chanting and wearing yellow.
• First Quarter
• David West tries to post up Kurt Thomas, gets a decent look but misses. Duncan doesn’t boz out well, Chandler gets the tap.
• Inside into Duncan, he’s doubled, gives it up, Finley misses the three.
• Defensive rebound Parker, he tries to push it, Paul slows him down. Parker resets gets it into Duncan. Duncan kicks it out, repost, gets it back, runner in the lane, misses. Good shot, just missed.
• Chandler with another offensive rebound. West tries to post Kurt Thomas again, goes nowhere. Gives it up. Chandler with another offensive rebound. Peja in the post against Finley, gives it up, Mo Peterson with the three pointer out of the corner from Paul’s pentration.
• Bruce Bowen has started the game defending Chris Paul. Tony Parker is on Mo Pete.
• Hornets leading 5-0
• Bowen turnover, Paul has it, leads the break, kicks it out to the trailer, Peja laces up a three. Timeout Popovich.
• They get it Duncan down in the left block, double again, kicked to Finley again, missed three again
• Lob to Chandler, Parker stops him from dunking, Chandler msises, gets the offensive board, kicks it out. Another miss, David West gets this offensive rebound. Paul to Peja, he’s open, hesitates, not open anymore, gives it to West, West tries the lob pass, deflection, Parker has it. Tony sprints the other way, gets to the rim, draws the foul on Paul. hits both at the line.
• Mo Pete comes off a screen, curls towards the elbow, knocks down the jumper. Not a good sign for San Antonio. A great sign for New Orleans. Two early jumpers for Mo Pete now.
• Bowen hits a three from the corner
• Ginobili dribbling up on the right wing, he’s just in, Manu comes in towards the middle, shows some quickness, gets into the lane, gets the layup off the glass
• Tim Duncan steal, he’s slowly leading the break on the left wing against Chandler, looking for the pass to the right hand side of the lane, nope, passes up the pass, goes left for the layup, Chandler blocking foul. Duncan hits the first, misses the second
• Ginobili with the board, fast break, lead pass to Tony, oh acrobatic finish under the rim from Parker
• Bowen misses an open three from the right corner, same spot as before
• Peja comes back and hits a three. Lead back to New Orleans. 12-10. 6 point swing there.
• Parker takes the 18 footer off the dribble, doesn’t get the bounce, offensive rebound, no off Duncan, out of play.
• West in the post against Oberto, Oberto goes for the fake, West blows by him, gets the bump and the runner. Three point play.
• Parker lost his balance on the penetration, gets control again, into the paint, kicks it out to Bowen for a three from the right corner, hits it.
• Into Duncan on the left block again, he loses control, maybe passed, straight to Oberto, Oberto misses the layup, rebound West.
• Tony Parker in the open court, fouled, on the floor, by Mo Pete. Bonzi Wells come on. Jacque Vaughn comes in for San Antonio. Bowen is probably going to switch onto Bonzi
• Ginobili for three. Same left block with Duncan, this time Ginobili is there for the kickout instead of Finley. Big difference. 16-15 Spurs. Little under four minutes remaining.
• David West dribbles all around the world from the right wing, to the left wing, to the drive into the paint, and gets the layup over Horry
• Ginobili hits another three
• Bonzi beats up Manu in the post, gets the turnaround, misses. Great look, great shot, just missed.
• Ginobili drives baseline, falls over, regains himself, bounce pass from off the baseline to the cutting Duncan (from the FT line) for the dunk.
• David West gets another. Manu hits another three pointer. Manu has 11.
• Spurs lead 24-19
• Vaughn with the steal, tries to get the layup, out of control, throws it away
• David West with the drive and teardrop along the baseline. He’s 4-9 from the field for 9 points.
• Kick ball Hornets, Spurs get a new clock
• Hornets miss a dunk
• Tony Parker holds for the final shot, gives it up to Bowen on the left corner, he hits the three.
• Chris Paul dribbles the length of the court, gets the layup at the buzzer. he had like 2-3 seconds to get that one. Great play.
• Spurs lead 27-23
• Second Quarter
• Haha, oh my, the Ring Of Fire didn’t extinguish. They had to have 6 people run out on the floor with fire extinguishers, now the floor is all wet and slippy. They’re clearing off the floor with big brooms. Marv and Reggie are venting in a huge way, they hate this Ring of Fire and thinks it’s bound to cause an accident one of these days.
• Marv and Reggie thinks it hurts the Spurs more, they were in great shooting rhythm.
• Still sweeping with the brooms. About 6-8 people with brooms walking up and down the court sweeping up the leftover residue
• Well Manu looked pretty good to start the game. Let’s see if he gets tight during this stoppage or as the game goes on. But very good so far, no effect on him.
• It’s been 10-15 minutes since the stunt, we’re still not playing
• Huge the mascot, in his first year there, will never try this stunt again. This was his first and last time.
• 20 minutes into this. Both teams are warming up again. They’re doing layup lines and taking some shots. Get warm again.
• Bonzi posts up Finley, kicks it out, Julian Wright with a hard drive on Manu, gets into the lane and misses the 9 footer
• Official delay was 19 minutes Marv says
• Duncan misses a 17 footer from the right wing
• West drives on Thomas, goes nowhere, throws it back out, stolen by Parker, fastbreak the other way, Parker drives on Pargo, gets the layup
• Pargo’s pass through the hands of West, turnover. It went out of bounds. 2 straight turnovers.
• Probably not a great time to have your second unit out there. Scott went with his, Pop went with his starters. The game has no rhythm, you want your best players there to do that. Bowen comes in for Manu as I say that, two minutes into the second.
• Parker on the screen and roll and hits the teardrop in the lane over three Hornets
• Spurs defending that high screen and roll between Pargo and Ely extremely well, force the 20 footer. Miss.
• Parker stumbles, falls over, turnover. Fastbreka the other way. Parker just fell there. Reggie Miller thinks the floor might still be damp. Peja got fouled on the fastbreak layup, he hit both FTs.
• Great defense by Julian Wright. Ely was fronting Duncan, the Spurs reversed it, threw it over the top, Julian Wright sprinted in from the weak side, knocked the ball high in the air, outjumped Duncan, got the steal.
• Peja hits another jump shot
• Timeout Spurs
• Spurs lead 31-27
• Peja loses it in the lane, Wright scraps for it, gets it, hits the layup. Nice play.
• Duncan kicks it out to Finley, he hits the 21 footer from the top of the key
• Hornets tried to run some cross screens, but Duncan just stood in Ely’s way who gave a half hearted attempt.
• Bonzi with a hard drive along the baseline, takes the hit from Duncan, doesn’t get the call, does make the reverse layup
• Parker slips on the floor again and smacks his head off the floor hard. Refs bringing the clean up crew back on to clear some more at centre court. Tim Duncan fell over at halfcourt on the way up.
• Bonzi Wells blocks Duncan’s runner from behind.
• Peja posts up Bowen, runs him over, gets the runner off the glass. Tough play from Peja. We’ve seen that a lot from Peja so far. Hard play.
• Bonzi with a hard foul. Let’s see a replay. Bowen goes baseline. Bonzi swings loosely at the ball, hits Bowen on the face/chin. Bowen is holding his nose. Think he might be bleeding. Spurs trainers are out on the floor looking at Bruce. He looks alright now. A little flustered. A little play acting? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Refs looking at the play and are deciding what the call should be. Flagrant. He hits one of two at the line. Spurs are up 34-33. Spurs retain possession.
• Parker/Manu/Bowen/Finley/Duncan against Pargo/Paul/Wright/Peja/Chandler
• Paul and Chandler get their lob on. Hornets take the lead.
• Reggie says that Pop wants Paul to be a scorer and not a distributor
• Manu misses a three
• Great play by Manu cutting off the passing lanes on Paul’s drive and stealing the ball from Paul
• Bowen hits the three from the left corner
• Manu on the break, leads it for Bowen for the three on the left wing, Bowen not set up, draws the defender, kicks it to Finley who is set for the J, Finley hits the three. That’s 8 three pointers for the Spurs. Bowen has 4, Manu has 3, Finley 1.
• David West blocked by Kurt Thomas
• Kurt takes the 17 footer, misses, tapped out by Oberto, Spurs reset, Manu hits Bowen in the left corner, three pointer and the foul. Bowen has 16 points now. 5 three pointers. Another FT on the way, he hits it. Spurs up 44-35.
• Tony Parker with an 18 footer
• Chris Paul takes the midrange J off the dribble, missing.
• Kurt Thomas with an out of control drive, manages to avoid turning it over, bounce pass behind his back to Bowen, miss.
• Manu and Kurt on the pick and pop, Kurt hits the 17 footer
• Peja Stojakovic has 13 now for the Hornets after getting on the offensive boards and tapping home the miss
• San Antonio lead 48-39
• David West knocks down the 16 footer on the left wing
• Tony Parker takes Chris Paul down into the post and draws the third foul of the game on Chris Paul. He’ll come out. He started walking to the bench before Byron Scott even told Pargo to get up. It’s a wierd sight seeing Tony Parker down on the block, I just can’t get used to it. He’s not particularly effective down there either, not a great move for San Antonio most of the time.
• David West crosses over Oberto, runs from the left wing throuhg the paint, throws up the running right handed hook. He got it to go. Carbon copy of the three point earlier. Oberto hasn’t defended him well, I thought Oberto would do better against West than he has.
• The Hornets are canceling their half time acrobatic entertainment because of the floor. Yet the players are playing? We do realize who the talent is don’t we? Who we all pay to see right? Hornets will likely spend halftime sweeping the floors just to make sure they’re safe. That’s probably it.
• Oberto with a silly foul off the ball going for the offensive rebound on th FT
• There’s 26 seconds on the clock
• Hack-a-Chandler. Hack-A-Tsyon. Pop has Tyson hacked off the ball. There’s 23 seconds left in the half. Tyson hits the first, and the second. Appearantly he’s been working on these over the past few days in anticipation of this Pop strategy.
• Manu runs over to Pop and they decide the play. Spurs lead 49-45.
• Tony Parker has the ball, Manu comes up top and collects it, high screen and roll, Manu into the paint to Bowen in the left corner for a three, miss.
• Halftime
• Team stats – New Orleans are pounding the Spurs on the glass 27-18, 8-4 on the offensive glass. Spurs have 14-9 assist edge, have fewer turnovers at 4 to 6. Blocks and steals, 6-5 Spurs. Spurs shooting 45% from the floor, 53% from three (9-17) and have shot 6-11 from the line. The Hornets have shot 45% from the floor, 2-3 from the field, 5-5 from the floor. Hornets had only 7 personal fouls (3 on Paul), Spurs only 5.
• The Spurs rank second in the league for fewest fouls per 100 field goal attempts. The Hornets rank first. Probably won’t be a lot of FTs in this series.
• Dwight Howard has a bruised thumb
• Chris Paul played 17 minutes, scoring 4 points and handing out 7 assists.
• Peja and West have 13 apiece
• Tim Duncan has only 3 points. Typical box score from a Byron Scott opposition team, he does not want his team to allow their best player to beat them. He wants the supporting cast to do so. Bowen leads the charge with 17, Manu 11, Tony 10, Finley 5. Nobody else has more than two points. The Spurs have shot the ball fantastically but this won’t last a whole series and probably not a whole game, they have to find a way to get some other types of baskets. They need more from Timmy also, he needs to find a way to score and his team needs to find a way to give him enough spacing to go to work.
• The rest of the Hornets are all below 2 points except for Chandler and Mo who have 6 and 5 points respectively.
• Marv giving Pop some credit after that early timeout. When New Orleans scored 8 straight points to start the game, then his team roared back and took the lead 27-23 at the end of the quarter.
• Second Half
• The Spurs lead 49-45
• Eddie Rush called Stu Jackson at halftime to check on whether protocol has been correct. The floor has been cleared as perfect. Hugo will return for the third quarter but no stunts, probably just walk around and throw stuff into the crowd.
• Kurt Thomas picks up a loose ball foul trying to keep West off San Antonto’s backboards
• Kurt Thomas picks up a foul hacking West on his drive from above the right elbow
• Robert Horry comes in. Pop mustn’t have much confidence in Oberto, he’s usually the first call when Kurt comes out. Oberto hasn’t defended West well tonight. Horry hasn’t either, let’s see what he brings here.
• Duncan in the post again, spins baseline away from the double, goes up through Chandler and draws the foul. Should have stayed tall Tyson, bad reach. Duncan hits both. Tyson is a lot longer than Duncan, you really notice it when Timmy is trying to shoot over him.
• Chris Paul into the lane, Spurs knock it loose, Paul dives on the floor and keeps possession. Some ticky tack foul called on Bruce, not sure what he did there.
• Peja with a lovely shot off the dribble from 21 feet. Finley ran right past him expecting Peja to shoot on the catch
• Parker hits the three to beat the shot clock
• Spurs lead 54-48
• Bruce Bowen trips up Chris Paul, foul.
• Tyson Chandler goes off the dribble and hits the running bank shot
• Manu Ginobili comes in. There’s 8:41 coming in. Michael Finley comes out.
• Hornets still doubling Duncan hard on every catch
• Horry doesn’t go for either of West’s two pump fakes. Horry picks up a soft foul on West. That’s the Spurs in the penalty with 8+ minutes to go. West hits both. Hornets are going to try and draw some fouls here. These fouls have been nonsense, the refs are calling this game way too close, it’s the playoffs, let them play. That last one Horry shouldn’t have been a foul.
• Duncan throws a bad pass out of the post, Parker regains the ball, drives into the lane, Chandler comes from behind and slaps the ball out of play.
• Duncan off the post up, spins baseline for that right jump hook off the glass that he likes, misses, David West rebounds, slapped out of play from behind. Hornets ball. Tim is 1-7.
• Chris Paul sets up David West for the dunk. Game tied at 54. 8-0 run Hornets. Peja hits a turnaround J off the post where Peja had Tony. Hornets lead. 9th assist for Chris Paul.
• Turnover, steal by Paul, fastbreak, Paul runs the length of the floor and gets the layup
• That’s a 12-0 run by New Orleans
• Timeout Popovich. Pop waited a long time for that timeout. He normally jumps at the first sight of a run during a playoff game.
• You could see this run coming back in the first half when San Antonio weren’t creating anything in the halfcourt, they were just hitting their shots. That was going to catch up with them, those shots were going to stop falling, their inability to create high percentage shots was going to create a scoring drought and make them vulnerable to a run. Well here it is. Now it’s all about how the Spurs respond.
• Hornets were down 11 at one point
• Ginobili turns it over, he jumped in the air with nowhere to go
• Peja open 4 feet behind the three point line at the top of the key, Paul get him the ball, he shoots it from there, what a shot. Wow.
• Ginobili drives, pump fakes, gets Peterson off his feet, draws the foul.
• Peja misses the forced fallaway J from the left wing from 20 feet to beat the clock
• Parker on the break, gets the layup, Paul didn’t want to challenge him
• Peterson runs along the whole baseline and tracks down the offensive rebound, brings it out, shoots a three, hits the three
• Manu Ginobili catches on the right wing, fakes right, goes left, goes right down the middle, gets fouled, hits the runner and the FT.
• Hornets lead 64-60
• Paul misses the quick jumper. He’s 3-8 from the field
• Duncan passes out of the post to Bowen in the corner for three, miss.
• Chris Paul on the break, flies by Parker, splits the help, draws the foul and he’ll go to the line. He hits the second after missing the first. 5 point lead with just under 5 minutes to play in the third
• Into Duncan on the left post, double by Paul, Duncan moves the other way, Paul leaves him, Duncan goes baseline, flips it up, misses.
• Parker on the break hitting the layup over Peja
• Paul into West in the post, he backs down Horry, backs down Horry more, then takes the baseline left handed hook shot. Nice move. Great basekt. Horry can’t stop him down low.
• Peja has Tony on him again. They clear out the right side of the floor, Peja cuts to the hoop, they throw it up there, Peja with the catch and the layup, miss, Chandler from the opposite side with the putback dunk
• Chris Paul runs the break, beating three Spurs, and getting fouled
• Bruce Bowen and Paul just did something. Paul flopped. Little hip check. Let’s see what the refs do. I think they’re letting it go. Good.
• Paul hits the first, misses the second
• Tony Parker beats Paul down, gets his back to basket from 12 feet, spins baseline, gets the layup
• Hornets up 70-64
• West pump fakes the jumper from 18 feet off the baseline, drives left, takes the left handed hook in the middle of the paint from 7 feet, knocks it down.
• Chandler throws away the outlet pass. Parker has it.
• Ely comes back in for Chandler
• Tony Parker drives in on Paul again, beats Paul again, ball falls out of play, turnover.
• Melvin Ely has been giving Scott and Chandler tips on defending Tim Duncan. He was with San An for the second half of last season.
• West hits another out of the post. He has 24 points on 10-18 shooting
• Ginobili drives left from the top of the key, gets to the rim and hits the banker
• West misses the 17 footer from the right elbow after hesitating
• Ginobili takes the quick three, misses
• Hornets will hold onto the ball for a final possession of the quarter. Paul dribbles down the clock, high screen and roll, he forces inside, maneuvers left to right to left in mid air to avoid Parker blocking his shot, gets it up but misses. Great defense by Parker.
• Fourth Quarter
• 74-66 Hornets
• Hornets are playing much better than San Antonio. Their offensive execution has been excellent. David West has been on fire. Peja has been brilliant. They’re getting nice contibutions from Mo Pete, Paul, Wright, Bonzi, Ely. They’re dominating San Antonio on the glass 39-28 (11-6 offensive). Tyson Chandler has 14 of those rebounds. West has 7 more. Nobody on San Antonio has more than 5.
• The Spurs haven’t been able to get anything going outside of clear outs and letting Manu or Tony go one-on-one. that’s probably the only way they win this game. Bowen hasn’t scored in the second half. Duncan has only 5. Finley, Kurt, Oberto haven’t scored in the second half. Manu has 17 now, Parker 19. I think all their third quarter points came from Parker and Manu except for two which was by Duncan.
• Spurs only 4-15 shooting in the fourth
• Michael Finley opens up the quarter with a three. Pargo answers right back
• Reggie likes the set play by San Antonio to get the open three for Finley. Brush screen from a big to get the open three on the other side of the court
• Vaughn muscles his way into the hoop and gets the layup. Lucky boy getting that one as the buzzer expires.
• Pargo misses a jumper off the dribble, he was dribbling for 6-8 second there
• Manu misses a three on the other end
• Hornets lead 76-71
• David West on the catch and shoot from 17 feet on the right wing
• Manu to Oberto, Manu fakes coming up top, backdoor cut baseline, Oberto feeds him, Manu kicks it back out to the top of the key, misses the three.
• Too many long shots from the Spurs. They look good when they get inside, bad when they shoot jumpers. Too easy to defend right now. They’re settling for long shots
• David West hits from 15 feet on the left wing over Oberto. He has 28 points on 12-21 shooting. He’s on fire. He missed his first four shots too. So he’s 12-17 since then.
• Inbounds Spurs, Duncan has nowhere to go, Finley ends up taking a contested 20 footer to beat the shot clock at the end of the buzzer, hits it.
• Bonzi answers with a long J of his own.
• Duncan muscles Ely down low and draws the foul. Chandler should be coming back soon, maybe now.
• Timeout Spurs
• There’s 8:42 remaining. The score is 82-73 Hornets
• Hornets have outscored the Spurs 8-7 to start the fourth. Doing well to hold onto this lead while they get some of their starters some rest.
• David West with a big block on Oberto. West was beaten by Oberto’s first step but he recovered nicely.
• Brent Barry finally makes his way off the bench. About bloody time Popovich. How can you leave your best shooter on the bench through all of this when they’re doubling Tim on every post up and your squad just shot 4-15 and stunk up the joint during the third.
• Paul is on Barry
• Parker gets into the lane and hits the runner over West
• 84-77 Hornets with 7 minutes to go
• Wells posts up Finley on the mid post, he’s isolated on the left wing, turnaround, good.
• Paul steals it from Duncan, runs the break, lobs it up for Wells, nope. Out of play. Hornets ball.
• Duncan draws the foul, gets one of two
• Finley misses a 18 footer
• Paul misses a quick three, not a good shot
• Manu for three, misses, Oberto on the glass, Parker to Duncan to Parker to Finley for three. He has 13 points now.
• Timeout Scott
• Hornets lead 88-80 with 5 minutes to play. San Antonio don’t look like they’re able to win this one.
• Stojakovic with the runner, good. 10 point lead.
• Pargo launches a quick three, bad shot
• 4 minutes to play, Duncan misses another shot, this one was a doozy from 6 feet. He’s 1-9 tonight.
• Paul drives into the lane and gets the layup
• Hornets have their starters out there except Pargo for Mo Pete. Spurs have their starters there except for Manu who’s replacing Thomas.
• There’s three minutes to go
• Defensive three seconds on New Orleans. Manu misses the FT. They’re 12-21 from the line tonight.
• Ginobili drives right along the baseline, cradles it back left, hits the running left hook in the lane. Nice move.
• Chris Paul with the fallaway turnaround over Bowen. That’s the game. Paul upset that Bowen ran into him after the shot, it was Paul’s scissor kick release that caused the contact
• Peja has 22, West 28, Bonzi 10. Nice scoring help for Paul. Paul has 12 points and 12 assists.
• Turnover San Antonio, fastbreak led by Paul, misses the layup, putback slam by West. He has 30.
• Turnover, fastbreak, beats Bowen, draws the foul
• This is over

Some Stats

1. New Orleans won the battle of the boards 50-34. They beat them 16-8 on the offensive glass.
2. Hornets had 6 turnovers in the first half, finished with 7, their average for the postseason. They take excellent care of the basketball. The Spurs had 5 in the first, finished with 13, a couple of late turnovers killed any hope of making a comeback
3. Final score was 101-82. New Orleans ran up the score over the final four minutes, wasn’t that far apart
4. Scoring for New Orleans – 30 for West, 22 for Peja, 17 for Paul, 10 for Bonzi, 10 for Chandler, 8 for Mo Pete
5. Scoring for San Antonio – 17 for Bowen which came all in the first half, 23 for Parker, 19 for Manu, 13 for Finley. Only 5 for Duncan, only 9 shots. 3 points off the bench. Kurt only had 2 points.
6. The Hornets shot 50%, 4-10 from three, 11-15 from the line
7. The Spurs shot 41% from the field, 39% from three (above average for San Antonio) and a miserable 12-21 from the line. They shot only 3-14 from three in the second half
8. Spurs shot only 4-15 in the third
9. Hornets had 23 assists to San Antonio’s 19. The ball movement from New Orleans was really good tonight. Chris Paul wasn’t needed to create everything. Peja created a few off the dribble. West and Bonzi were their normal selves and put forth really good games. Pargo took some more pressure off. I didn’t think tthis was a championship caliber team 3-4 months ago (it’s been getting better and better since then, since the Bonzi Wells addition, Pargo’s larger role, Peja getting more comfortable, Julian Wright’s emergence) because Paul was needed to create such a large percentage but this type of balance is superb and capable of leading to a title.
10. Manu Ginoboli and Oberto led the Spurs with 6 boards apiece. Duncan had 5, Kurt had two, Bowen chipped in with 5 too.
11. On the other hand Tyson Chandler dominated the glass with 15 boards, 6 offensive. West had 9 rebounds. 5 other Hornets had 4 rebounds.

Some thoughts

• Typical defensive strategy from Byron Scott tonight. His team have doubled Tim Duncan on the catch throughout the game. Force the ball out of the opposition’s best player’s hands and force the supporting cast to beat you. The Spurs shooters were hot early but they’ve cooled off since. San Antonio haven’t been able to get any easy shots tonight and their offense has been out of rhythm all night long. Well done Byron Scott and great performances by the players in executing the strategy.
• New Orleans are just so much deeper than San Antonio. So many more weapons. Stop Paul, then there’s West, stop West, then there’s Peja, stop Peja then there’s Pargo, stop Pargo, then there’s Bonzi, stop Bonzi, then there’s Mo Pete, stop Mo Pete, then there’s Chandler. Heck they even have Ely and Wright after that who can score. They just keep coming at you. So many players capable of scoring and scoring from all over the court. The Spurs can’t leave anyone open.
• The rebounding edge and quality point guard play from Chris Paul allowed the Hornets full control of the game
• Popovich made a huge blunder leaving Brent Barry on the bench for most of the game. The Spurs are a distinctly mediocre three point shooting team. When you’re best player is being doubled on every catch you have to have shooters. You can’t get away with being a mediocre three point shooting team against this strategy from Byron Scott. Can’t be done, not going to happen. Brent Barry is the best shooter on the Spurs, he has to be on the floor. Terrible decision.
• Tim Duncan looks very nervous on that bench. He knows tonight was no fluke and this team is real. He tied his playoff low with 5 points. The previous was against Rasheed Wallace and the Portland Trailblazers back in 1999. I remember they doubled Duncan hard throughout that night, they made a point out of trying to double Duncan with an extra big like Brian Grant. Troubled Duncan’s passing out of the post as much as his scoring.
• I’ll repeat, this was no fluke, this Hornets team is capable of doing this again and again and again. This is a championship caliber ball club.
• Julian Wright got no time on Manu Ginobili and Manu proceeded to have his way
• Kenny Smith likes the job San Antonio did on Chris Paul in the first half. They kept him out of the paint well then and managed to control the tempo. In the second Paul managed to push it in there during the second half and got the tempo up.
• The Spurs first half shoting was disguising of their problems. They were unable to create any easy baskets in the halfcourt and it was only a matter of time before it cost them, that would be the third quarter.

New Orleans did what they’re supposed to, they held homecourt. Game One to New Orleans, let’s see what happens in Game Two.