Game Time: Hornets vs Spurs

Chris Paul needs one steal tonight to break an NBA record for consecutive games with a steal. He’s currently tied with Alvin Robertson with 105 straight games with a steal, with MJ now in third place with 77 games. Rondo is second on the active list with 22 games, Jeff Foster is fourth with 9 steals which tells you how hard it is to string together a large number of games in this fashion. I’ll be so pleased when this is finally over with because I’m sick of the same damn graphic in every Hornets game since preseason. That’s almost 30 games.

Tyson Chandler is back for the Hornets, but Peja Stojakovic is out again tonight.

Michael Finley is playing his 1,000th regular season game tonight. Congradulations Finley.

First Quarter

• Two turnovers in the first 30 seconds, one apiece for either team.
• West isolation on the left wing, faces up Bonner and hits a 15 footer over him.
• Roger Mason top of the wing, passes it to Parker as he moves around a screen on the right wing, Parker dribbles left, defense helps, Parker passes to Mason top of the key, swings it to the corner, Finley misses, offensive rebound, Bonner three pointer on the way, good.
• Duncan misses a 19 foot jumper from the top of the key
• West down on the right box, spins quickly into the paint and draws a foul. Spurs doubling him now.
• Paul drains a 20 footer behind the screen
• Mason kicks it out to Parker, he misses the long J
• Nice defensive rotations by the Spurs to force the Hornets to swing the ball, and great final rotation by Duncan to take away the shot from the corner
• Tyson Chandler fronting Duncan, Spurs can’t get their spacing together. Bonner had the right idea to move to the high post but he was at the 17 foot mark instead of the 23 foot mark and limited his view on the pass, ended up not making a pass at all to Duncan.
• Alley oop to Chandler, slam dunk
• Butler misses a three from the corner. Second wide open three for Butler. He’s starting instead of Mo Peterson.
• Duncan with a nice jump hook in the lane with the right hand, off the left post
• West down in the paint, tries to jump over Bonner but slightly fades away for some reason and misses the 10 footer
• West isolation on the left wing, close to the baseline, drives right, blows by Bonner, layup
• Hornets lead 8-7 halfway through the first quarter with Ginobili moving to the scorers table. Paul hits a long two from the top of the key, timeout San Antonio.
• Tony Parker and Tim Duncan add a long jumper each to give the Spurs an 11-10 lead.
• Not a lot of scores here in this game. Final three minutes, Spurs stil lead 11-10 with only 4 points coming in the last three minutes. West breaks the scoring drought and hits a 17 footer
• Foul off the ball on Hornets next offensive possession, turnover. Marks ready to check in. Timeout.
• George Hill at the top of the key, drives left, blows by his man, gets to the rim and is fouled on the layup. He makes one of two at the line.
• Hill applying full court pressure and slowed down Paul at first, Armstrong hung back to set a screen, gives Paul room and gets it upcourt quick enough. Makes a drive and kick later in the possession but nothing comes of it.
• Offensive rebound Posey, he dribbles out and gives it back to Paul who gets fouled on the dribble drive by Hill.
• Nice drive and finish by Antonio Daniles off the catch. Good play.
• Daniels has Bonner on a mismatch after the quick push following the Spurs turnover, he loses control of the ball, goes to a teammate who misses a short jumper
• Nice pass by Kurt Thomas to find Hill in the left corner, he was three feet behind the three point line at the top of the key, nice crisp pass, Hill drains it at the shot clock buzzer.
• Posey gets off a shot to beat the quarter from the three point line, misses
• Both teams shooting 31% from the field in the first quarter. Hornets have three more shots, but the Spurs have two threes to none and three FTs (made only one). Hornets leading 14-10 on the backboards. 3 assists to 2 for San An. Hornets have five turnovers in the first quarter, unusual

Second Quarter

• Spurs lead 15-11
• Spurs lineup – Hill – Ginobili – Finley – Kurt – Bonner
• Hornets lineup – Daniels – Brown – Posey – Marks – Armstrong
• Hilton Armstrong pulls down a rebound to open the quarter
• Posey curls off a screen, gets the feed, catch and shoot, knocks down the 16 footer
• Posey gets teh abll with 12 seconds on the shot clock, the ball still hasn’t gotten below the three point line, he calls a play, gets Marks a jumper on the right wing, hits it
• Devin Brown tries to go coast to coast, Finley alters the shot, miss, Marks follows up and keeps the offensive board alive but none of his teammates joined him, Spurs run up court, Finley spots up from the three point line on the left wing, drains it.
• Tie game 18-18
• Finley playing his 1,000th regular season game tonight.
• Ginobili pull up jumper from the left elbow off the dribble, he gives the Spurs the lead.
• Nice lob pass by Daniels to Armstrong, layup.
• Manu drains a triple from the top of the key. He has five points now.
• Armstrong fakes a bounce pass across the lane, nobody is buying it, makes a move into the paint and Thomas fouls him. How many times does Kurt hack his man needlessly? It’s irritating.
• Timeout
• Duncan and Parker back in the game for San Antonio, as is Roger Mason. Finley and Bonner complete the lineup.
• Nice drive by West, gets by Duncan, draws a foul, makes two at the line.
• Spurs isolate Duncan as Mason cuts baseline to the opposite wing, Duncan faces up, goes to the bank, misses
• Brown knocks down a triple from the right corner
• Nice drive and kick by Parker to Bonner, but he misses from the left wing.
• Daniels jumps up in the air with nowhere to go, turns it over on a sloppy pass that was to nobody in particular
• Hornets lead 26-25 as we pass the midway point in the second quarter. The Hornets shooting has moved up to 37% but San Antonio is still down at 31%.
• Spurs extend their defense full court, Hornets inbound the ball to midcourt to West, he dribbles in to the three point line and tries to take his man off the bounce, misses the runner, loose ball foul on San Antonio. Hornets inbound the ball, high screen and roll with Chandler, moves into a post up for Paul who misses the fadeaway jumper
• Ginobili right wing on the quick push, drives left, hits the runner, Spurs lead again.
• Thomas fronting West, too much space behind Thomas, good help D by Duncan, Hornets turn it over against the shot clock after the kickout, nice block by Manu from behind on Butler’s pull up J off the bounce, Ginobili leads the break, passes ahead to Parker who’s filling the left lane, he takes it hard to the rim, gets fouled by Paul and makes the layup. Three point play.
• Posey’s lob pass on the drive is loose, Chandler can’t dunk it home, Hornets corall the rebound and Posey draws the foul on his second driving attempt. It’s on the floor, sideline ball. Posey inbounds to Chandler, Paul comes up top to get it, another high screen and roll, left wing, Paul takes two dribbles kicks it over to Butler on the right wing who’s covered closely by Bowen, he blows by Bowen and hits a pull up J. Butler looked too comfortable on that play.
• Chris Paul gets his steal. 106 consecutive games with a steal. The crowd go crazy. Parker drove along the right sideline, tried to turn the corner before hitting the baseline, Chandler met him, Paul trailed and deflected Parker’s bounce pass and then stole the ball.
• Three plus minutes remaining in the first half
• Paul strips Duncan in the post, fastbreak, Paul leads the break, Spurs get back, he finds Butler in the right corner, he drains the triple.
• Parker hits a 22 footer on the left wing, which is replied to immediately by Paul. Crowd pumped now.
• Timeout Spurs
• Hornets have some great momentum right now.
• Spurs turn it over again, Hornets push it up quickly, Kurt is stuck out on the perimeter defending Paul, Paul decides to post up West who had horrible position instead of beating Kurt off the bounce and getting himself a layup
• Spurs lead 34-33
• Parker strips Paul, leads the fastbreak, leaves it for a Manu three, he’s run off the line, but the defender had to jump about 7 feet past him, he waits and knocks it down after taking one dribble and stepping back into it
• Lovely pass by Paul to the cutting Chandler for an easy dunk, oh terrible hands on the catch, loses it out of bounds.
• Parker dribbles behind a Thomas screen and hits a 17 footer left wing. Spurs up 6.
• Paul brings it upcourt and turns on the jets just before he hits the three point line, Parker off balance, Paul gets to the rim and hits the layup
• Parker dribbles upcourt, Spurs call a timeout. 14 seconds left in the half, 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Manu drains the long three pointer from the left wing at the shot clock buzzer.
• Paul races upcourt, gets to the rim, hits a layup.

Halftime

• Interview with Parker as he comes off the court. He has 14 points on 6-8 shooting and he’s pissed at himself for letting Paul get to the rim for a layup at the end of the half. I like that.
• Spurs lead 42-37
• The Spurs were shooting 31% from the field halfway through the second quarter. A good three minute spell saw them rise to 37%, by the end of the half they were up to 43.2% making 16 of 37 shots from the field. They are also 6-9 from downtown and 4-6 from the free throw line. They have 8 assists on their 16 baskets.
• The Hornets finish the half at 38% shooting making 16-42 shot attempts. They are 2-7 from downtown and 3-4 from the free throw line. They have 6 assists on their 16 baskets.
• The Hornets had five more shot attempts in the first half despite having 9 turnovers.
• New Orleans has a good lead on the backboards 24-18
• Chris Paul is the only Hornets player in double figures, West is second with 7 points. Nobody else has more than two baskets.
• Parker and Ginobili have combined for 24 points, with Duncan adding 8. The Spurs main trio leading them in the scoring department.
• Duncan, Manu and Bonner have 15 of their 18 rebounds. Hornets rebounding is well balance with Chandler leading the way with 7 boards.

Third Quarter

• Spurs lead 42-37
• Nice baseline inbounds, gets Finley with an 18 footer off a screen, he hits it.
• Paul with a kickout to Brown, three pointer, misses
• Good job by Butler to run Mason off the three, he takes a bounce left and hits a 20 footer
• Chandler finishes inside to stop the Spurs early second half momentum
• Duncan loses his dribble on the face up, gets it back, goes glass, hits it from 15 feet left wing.
• Great patience on Paul as he maneouvers his way around the paint, knowing Chandler has a mismatch, just waiting for a passing angle, finds him, foul.
• Nice drive and kick by Tony late in the shot clock, gets Finley a wide open three from the top of the key, which he misses
• West faces up from 17 feet right wing, hits it
• Spurs lead 48-41 after three minutes of play in the third
• Duncan pump fake, Chandler bites, he drives baseline, scoop pass to the cutting Bonner, dunk
• Nice drive and one handed runner by Devin Brown from the middle of the paint off the right wing
• Paul slicing and dicing, kicks it out to West, same spot, drains it again. West is up to 11 points now.
• Bonner gets the friendly bounce on his high arcing three. He didn’t score in the first half.
• Paul knocks down a 20 footer off the dribble. Hornets down 6.
• Parker squirms his way into the paint, gets a great look for his teardrop but misses
• Bonner does a good job closing down West and taking away his face up jumper, West drives, swatted by Duncan …. Spurs run the break, get Bonner a shot on the other end, he misses.
• Duncan finds Bonner who’s cutting across the baseline, 18 footer, misses. Bonner getting a lot of shots here.
• Lovely alley oop pass by Paul to Chandler, slam dunk. Hornets crowd goes wild again. Paul dribbled down the right wing, along the baseline, Duncan shadowing him, up the right hand side of the lane up towards the elbow and scooped back to the opposite side of the rim for Chandler to dunk it home
• Timeout Spurs
• Bonner misses another long jumper, Duncan rebounds. Gets two touches on the left wing, drives past Chandler on the second, misses the runner, gets the rebound, Chandler blocks the second attempt.
• Oh no, Spurs had the fastbreak, Parker open in the left corner, whole baseline open, Ginobili made the pass but behind Parker, he struggled to catch it, they lost their easy basket
• Butler drains a triple
• Parker with a nice finish inside. Spurs back in front 55-54.
• Four plus minutes to play as Paul falls over and turns the ball over, Spurs run the break, Butler blocks the shot, Parker gets the ball, dribbles out, Butler runs frmo behind and knocks his dribble loose, it’s a loose ball bouncing down the right sideline after Butler keeps it in play, pass back to Butler, he hits a shot on the wing. Great sequence of plays from Butler.
• Ginobili knocks down a triple from the left corner
• Timeout
• Armstrong gets an easy bucket to tie up the game
• Nice ball movement from San Antonio, Bowen open in the corner, he hits the three
• George Hill back in the game also, along with Kurt and Bowen. Duncan and Manu still out there.
• Hornets have brought in Posey and Hilton with Paul, Butler and West remaining on the court.
• Duncan draws the foul, makes the first FT, makes the second. Spurs up 5.
• Lovely playmaking from Paul to get armstrong a wide open dunk
• Amstrong pushes Duncan to the deck off the ball. Silly foul. He blatantly pushed him with two hands. The refs give a silly call now and say it was part of a three point play since the ball was going down.
• Spurs lead 66-60 with one and a half minutes to play
• Spurs do a fantastic job showing on the screen and roll and push Paul out to the opposite wing, never giving him a pass.
• Great position inside for Duncan on the Spurs quick push, he gets the ball, layup.
• Posey knocks down a three pointer from the left corner
• Bowen pump fakes, drives left into the paint, hits the contested lefty runner
• Manu knifes down the lane but loses control of the ball when he meets some contact in the paint, turnover. Good D by New Orleans.
• 10 seconds to play in the third, Paul runs off a screen, passes it back to Posey four feet behind the three point line and not facing the rim, foul off the ball. They had one to give. 4.7 seconds to play, inbounds to Paul, he takes a three, brick.

Some stats

• Shooting went up a lot in the third. Spurs now up to 47%, and the Hornets are at 44%.
• Tyson Chandler has taken 10 shots tonight, making only 3. Four Hornets have taken ten shots, with only Paul making at least 50% going 6-11 from the field. Butler is 4-10, West is 5-12.
• Chris Paul has 14 points, 9 assists, 4 boards and 2 steals.
• West didn’t score again in the third quarter. He has 11 and 5.
• Chandler has 9 rebounds
• Manu Ginobili has 13 points, 6 boards, and 5 assists in only 22 minutes.
• Duncan has 15 and 11 in 27 minutes
• Parker adds a game high 16 points
• Spurs halved the rebounding deficit in the third, 31-28 Hornets.

Fourth Quarter

• Spurs lead 70-63
• Paul turns it over with a bounce pass that was about three feet off the mark
• Turnover, Spurs run the break, Hill takes it to the rim, gets fouled, makes two at the line
• Daniels takes it hard to the rim, muscles his way through the lane and finishes inside plus the foul. Daniels looks like a small Maggette with that #50 jersey and bald head.
• Ginobili wheels his way into the paint, past Brown, down the left hand side of the lane with a lefty floater off the glass after starting on the right wing
• Nice rejection by Kurt Thomas to deny Brown’s driving layup attempt
• Spurs lead 74-65 as Daniels misses a 17 foot jumper, and West picks up a loose ball foul on the rebound.
• Chandler checks back into the game
• Nice drive and re-drive by Hill, but nothing comes of it. Solid ball movement from the Spurs but the Hornets zone caused enough confusion that they didn’t come away with a clean shot attempt.
• Daniels takes it hard to the rim again, misses the runner
• Nice pass inside by Hill to Bonner, blocked from behind by Chandler, Bonner hung on the rim and was called for a turnover as he missed his dunk?
• Spurs push the ball up court, three pointer left wing, miss
• 9 minutes to play in the game
• Daniels works his way into the paint, drive and kick, ball worked back around to West, who misses a driving layup, Chandler from the weakside with the putback slam
• Timeout Spurs
• Spurs lead 74-67 …. only a 7 point game. They looked like they might take control of the game there in the last two minutes but it didn’t come off.
• Duncan draws the foul but goes 1-2 at the line
• The Spurs top trio have given superb performances tonight but they’re not getting nearly enough from their supporting cast. Hardly anything from the bigs (Bonner, Thomas), next to nothing from the wings (Mason, Bowen, Finley), George Hill has been solid but not great.
• Paul with the three point play on his clever drive
• 7:30 to play
• Great defense by Chandler, he was into Duncan’s chest with long arms contesting Duncan’s face up jumper
• Posey gets caught up in a screen, Finley in 10 feet of space in the right corner, 18 footer, misses it. That’s frustrating. Great screen by Duncan on the opposite wing to stop Posey.
• Spurs lead 75-70 with under seven minutes to play
• Bonner unloads a contested triple with about 18 seconds left on the shot clock, misses …. Hornets score on the other end. That was a stupid shot attempt.
• Parker drives into the lane, gets fouled, makes two, Spurs back up 5.
• Halfway point in the fourth quarter
• Spurs 12-15 from the FT line. Hornets 6-8.
• West takes a dribble, fadeaway J from the left elbow, misses …. Parker pushes it upcourt fast but great transition defense stops him from getting a shot attempt for his team. He sets up Duncan down in the block, left post, drives towards the baseline, spins back the other way, Posey runs down from the top of the key and tries to trap him but makes a mistake with his spacing and runs into Duncan, foul. No sorry, they called a jump ball.
• Timeout
• Posey’s leadership is on display now. A hard foul there on Duncan. Then pulling teammates aside on the way to the timeout, during the timeout and on the way back from the timeout. We’ll see if his toughness and poise rubs off on some of his teammates here.
• Jump ball, Duncan wins it, Spurs miss a quick jumper. Don’t sleep on Posey on those jump balls, he has a 7 foot wingspan and can jump quicker than most big men.
• Bonner finally hits a jump shot. He’s now 3-13 for 7 points. He’s had a rough night.
• Spurs lead 79-72 with less than 5 minutes to play
• West drains a three pointer from the right corner over Duncan late in the shot clock, nice pass by Paul out of the trap as West jumped out.
• Lovely screen and roll by Duncan, but he goes up soft with the layup and misses it.
• David West has 87 consecutive games in double figures
• Four minutes to play
• Turnover on Chandler. Off the ball, not sure what that was. 15th turnover for New Orleans, Spurs have 9.
• Nice ball movement to get Finley a wide open three in the corner, he misses another wide open jumpshot. This is tiring, watching the Spurs role players miss so many easy shots. Imagine if Posey was on this team? And Butler?
• Great defense by Butler to deflect Ginobili’s pass and create a turnover
• Spurs trap Paul again (right elbow), leave West open in the opposite (left) corner, he knocks down another three pointer.
• Spurs miss
• Timeout Hornets
• Crowd going crazy, they’re standing and waiving yellow hankerchiefs or towels or something … they’re yellow.
• 2:25 to play
• Spurs lead 79-78
• Paul’s runner is blocker, ball falls loose to Chandler, he’s blocked, but also fouled by Thomas, Chandler ties up the game and makes the second to give the Hornets the lead
• Spurs work the hand off with Ginobili from Duncan on the right elbow but Duncan blows his easy shot inside, then Manu turns it over …. fastbreak the other way, Posey layup, missed, follow up layup by Butler good
• Spurs post Duncan, on Chandler, one on one, tough fallaway runner going across the lane, miss
• 1:18 to play
• Hornets lead 82-79
• Paul swerves off a high screen and roll and kicks it out to Posey for a three on the left wing, he hits it
• Timeout
• Hornets have a 6 point lead with 1:05 left to play. They’re fairly safe here. Let’s see what San Antonio can pull off here, they desperately need a basket.
• Spurs waste 10 seconds, then Parker forces the drive, gets to the rim, misses, good shot though, offensive rebound, Parker forces another shot which is goaltended by Chandler.
• 49 seconds to play
• Inbounds to Butler, across to Paul, who’s defended full court by Parker. Decent pressure defense by San Antonio.
• Paul drives into the paint, tries the teardrop, misses, tapped out by Chandler, Ginobili dives on it and keeps it out of West’s hands, he’s tied up by Paul. Jump ball. Paul wins the tip. Spurs have to foul. 21 seconds to play, four point lead. Butler to take two FTs, he makes one of two.
• This is over.
• Timeout, Spurs inbound the ball, Mason steps on the line as he makes the catch. Spurs have to foul again. Paul makes two at the line.
• 17 seconds to pla, Ginobili runs full court and makes a driving layup

Excellent win for the Hornets and they did it without Peja Stojakovic and for 36-40 minutes tonight they missed Peja badly, with their offense struggling from a lack of scoring options.

The Spurs three best players all had big games. Their supporting cast lost them the game.

Bowen’s evident decline looks to be a big issue on the horizon for these two teams and how they matchup in the future. The Spurs now have nobody who can defend Peja Stojakovic.

I was confused by the Spurs attempts at trapping Paul also, with all the shooters they have you’re just playing into Paul’s hands.