Spurs News

"The Spurs pulled out every available bandage in order to stop the bleeding, leaned on every trick learned during a decade of excellence in an effort to get the Hornets out of their faces and, perhaps, out of their heads. And for a night, all the wiles worked. In a 110-99 victory over New Orleans on Thursday night at AT&T Center, San Antonio did as the Hornets had, poured it on late and dominated the stretch run while guaranteeing the Western Conference semifinals matchup will return to the New Orleans Arena for at least one more game. "

"The Hornets came into the second round of the playoffs knowing they had the opportunity to advance beyond the conference semifinals for the first time in franchise history. Now the San Antonio Spurs have a possible first on the horizon: coming back from a 2-0 playoff series deficit to advance. A home court and better performances from two of the Spurs' stars mattered for them Thursday night, as San Antonio beat New Orleans 110-99 before a sellout crowd of 18,797 at the AT&T Center. The Hornets lead the series 2-1, and Game 4 is in San Antonio on Sunday night. "

" After giving up 22 fast break points in losses in Games 1 and 2 in New Orleans, the Spurs limited the Hornets to seven transition points in their 110-99 victory Thursday night at AT&T Center. The difference: This time, Bowen was locked up on Hornets’ forward Peja Stojakovic, start to finish, and especially when the Hornets tried to get their running game at full speed. "

"The Spurs can’t stop Chris Paul, and they know it. But the moment they gave up trying was also the moment they gave themselves a chance to win this series. Four NBA championship banners hang in the AT&T Center, raised to the rafters mainly with blocked shots, rebounds and defensive stops. If there is to be a fifth, it will be lifted on layups and jumpers and a willingness to run when others expected the Spurs to walk. "

" Early in the fourth quarter Thursday night, Manu Ginobili finally found a view he liked: Flat on his back, with Bonzi Wells on top of him, Ginobili looked up in time to see his 3-pointer swish through the net. Jostled but joyful, Ginobili pumped both fists, providing the Kodak moment that ?captured the Spurs’ 110-99 victory over New Orleans in a Game 3 in the Western Conference semifinals. "

" Sometimes he goes the other direction, toward the bench. Sometimes he sits to get someone else going. Sometimes it seems like the kind of adjustment that Gregg Popovich would mock. Whether a player starts shouldn't make a difference, should it? But usually it does, and it did again Thursday. Then, on the same day Manu Ginobili was named to the all-NBA third team, he joined the Spurs first team. "

" The NBA announced its all-NBA team Thursday, and the Spurs’ results were mixed. Tim Duncan, a first-team selection in nine of his first 10 seasons, slipped from first team to second team forward for just the second time in his 11-year career. Boston’s Kevin Garnett and Cleveland’s LeBron James finished ahead of Duncan in voting for first-team forwards. Manu Ginobili, the Spurs guard who won the Sixth Man Award and finished 10th in voting for Most Valuable Player, made one of the three All-NBA teams for the first time in his career. He was voted to the third team. "

"The Hornets need two more wins to advance to the Western Conference finals, but they already have completed a difficult task: putting the San Antonio Spurs in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position. The Spurs have won four NBA titles in nine years but have never recovered from an 0-2 start to win a playoff series. That's the obstacle they face after losing 102-84 Monday night in New Orleans. The last time the Spurs were down 0-2 in a series, they were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2001 Western Conference finals. "

" Don't be surprised if Manu Ginobili starts tonight, assuming the Spurs want to get him going. Don't be surprised if Brent Barry gets extra minutes, assuming the Spurs want to take advantage of the double teams on Tim Duncan. But don't be surprised if the Spurs change little else. They are the anti-Mavs, after all. "

" Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said two days off between Games 2 and 3 has his sore left ankle feeling much better, and just in time. Faced with an 0-2 deficit in the best-of-7 series, tonight’s Game 3 is a “must-win.” “Tomorrow is a Game 7,” Ginobili said after Wednesday’s lengthy practice, “and we just have to treat it as if it were the last one.” "

" Like an NFL signal caller in the face of an all-out blitz, Duncan has seen a steady stream of double-teams headed his way the first two games of the series. The objective has been to make Duncan give up the ball, and force any Spurs player not wearing No. 21 to beat them. So far, this approach has worked wonders for the Hornets... If the Spurs aim to get back in the series in a crucial Game 3 tonight at the AT&T Center, this much is evident: Duncan's receivers need to step up and make plays."

" The Spurs have been far too loose with the basketball in the first two games, and the results have been devastating. New Orleans has forced the Spurs into 28 turnovers, resulting in 44 points. “We’ve really provided part of their offense for them,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Not only do turnovers mean a wasted possession for the Spurs, most of them become dunks and layups for New Orleans at the other end. "

"Over the years, when Bonzi Wells moved to a new city, he grew accustomed to arriving second. His reputation always beat him there... When he met his new teammates, he was ready to defend himself and prove he was worthy of another chance. Then something funny happened. The Hornets tried to prove they were worthy of him. “They treated me like I was the pope,” Wells said. “Like I’d never done anything wrong.”"

"Spurs coach Gregg Popovich insisted there was no subliminal message in the all-bench lineup that opened the fourth quarter of his team’s 102-84 loss to the Hornets in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals... Maybe not, but during the fourth-quarter court time Monday, Brent Barry presented a point of his own. In a series in which the Hornets have chosen to make the Spurs beat them with perimeter shots, perhaps there is a role for a player who has made 61.5 percent of his 3-pointers in the first seven playoff games. "

" Given the chance to play for any NBA team and any coach this spring, Brent Barry chose to stick with Gregg Popovich. Had he gone somewhere else, he might have had to worry about suiting up for someone whose personality changed under the pressures of the postseason. But not with Popovich. “He’s an ass year-round,” Barry said, dishing out the kind of admiring, heartfelt compliment only his coach could appreciate. “You don’t get much change out of coach Pop.” "

"His face said it all. Gregg Popovich didn't have to speak. After losing Game 2 to the Hornets on Monday by 18 points, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs didn't have to say, "They found a way to sustain the energy and the physical toughness in the second half, something we have been unable to do." He said it wearing the hangdog expression of a guy asking himself, "I don't know if we have an answer for those people.""

" It was the high-water mark for the Spurs in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the New Orleans Hornets, and no surprise, it had been fueled by Manu Ginobili. Back-to-back baskets by the Spurs’ sixth man extraordinaire preceded his slick pass to Ime Udoka for a rare fast-break basket. Just one minute and 19 seconds into the second quarter, the 6-0 run in little more than a minute gave the Spurs a seven-point lead and a momentary reason to believe they had solved the riddle of New Orleans’ swarming defense. Moments later, however, Ginobili committed his fourth turnover of the first half, a bad pass picked off by Jannero Pargo. That led to a Bonzi Wells dunk. "

" Led by Hornets point guard Chris Paul, the runner-up to Lakers guard Kobe Bryant in voting for the NBA’s 2007-08 Most Valuable Player award, three participants in the Spurs-Hornets Western Conference semifinal series finished in the top 10. Former MVP Tim Duncan, the Spurs power forward who won the award in 2001 and 2002, finished seventh. Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, the only non-starter to receive any votes, finished 10th. Paul, who had 30 points and 12 assists in Monday’s Game 2, finished second to Bryant, followed by Boston’s Kevin Garnett, Cleveland’s LeBron James and Orlando’s Dwight Howard. "

" They were billed as Team Experience, a collection of salty veterans with championship rings and championship mettle. When it comes to the postseason, the Spurs have seen it all and done it all. Headed into this year's Western Conference semifinals, that was supposed to be their big advantage over a neophyte New Orleans team ensconced in its first playoff foray as a group. Even Hornets coach Byron Scott saw the contrast. “They've done it over and over again,” Scott said of the Spurs. “They aren't fazed by anything.” "

"Chris Paul turned 23 on Tuesday, but the birthday presents he received were irrelevant. As Paul has shown over and over again, if someone doesn’t give him what he wants, he simply takes it. The Spurs are learning this the hard way. Through two games of this Western Conference semifinal, Paul and the New Orleans Hornets have consistently imposed their will on the Spurs, forcing them to play their style, under their rules. "

" OK ... so now what? Die-hard Spurs fans at this point are advised to read elsewhere. This is not what you want to see after the back-to-back pantsings your guys received in New Orleans. (Pantsing, verb: to forcefully remove another person’s pants as a form of embarrassment. Source: urbandictionary.com.) You may not be ready to write off the Defending Champs, Winners of Four of the Past Nine NBA Titles. Understandable. You have a lot of money invested in those little car-window-mounted flags, and darn it, you want more. Besides, you’ve watched a lot of westerns, and the good guys always win in the end. "

"After watching Hornets forward David West score a playoff career-high 30 points in Game 1, San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich wasn't certain how his team was going to slow West. In the Hornets' 101-82 win Saturday, West had his way against Kurt Thomas, Fabricio Oberto and Robert Horry. While Thomas bothered West the most, Thomas and Horry were overwhelmed by West's ability to back his way in for buckets and make jump shots. "

" Know what? The Hornets actually are behaving like the playoff kids they are, no matter how much they'd rather not see or hear something like that written or said about them. They're refusing to share their shiny, new toy -- the national spotlight. They've been terrible about deferring to the older kids on the playground. They're filled with so much adrenaline it looks like a sugar rush. They keep sticking their hands near the flames, even though everyone warns them the postseason is hot and the careless will get burned. And given the results, we hope they never grow up."

"Hornets forward David West knew the Spurs were going to feed the ball to star Tim Duncan early and often in Game 2 on Monday night after he was held to five points in his team's opening loss of the second-round Western Conference playoff series. And with the Hornets ready on the defensive end and point guard Chris Paul utilizing his skills as a playmaker and scorer, the Hornets blitzed the Spurs 102-84 in front of a sellout crowd of 17,927 at the New Orleans Arena. Duncan scored a team-high 18 points, but he was largely ineffective in the third quarter, when the Hornets went on a game-changing run. "

"Tim Duncan's statistics were better Monday night. The San Antonio Spurs' All-Star forward scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. But for the second game in a row, he wasn't able to dominate or help the Spurs win as the Hornets came away with 102-84 victory at the New Orleans Arena, taking a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. "

"David West was always a Spurs fan. He loved David Robinson, and how Robinson handled himself, and West talked about that Sunday. This should make the Spurs feel even older. Those who grew up liking them are now beating them. This should also worry the Spurs. West is averaging 30 points this season in Hornets' wins over the Spurs, and he isn't some airhead who will get caught up in the glory. "

"Manu Ginobili doesn’t have to be good now. He has to be better than that. He has to become what he was earlier in the season. He has to be what he was the last time the Spurs beat the Hornets, and before he landed badly in the Phoenix series. Against these Hornets, good isn’t good enough. Being down 0-2 doesn’t mean this series is over, and the historical data doesn’t mean much, either. But losing by 19 and 18 points here qualifies as failure by any measure. The details should be as sobering for the Spurs. The Hornets have an answer for every San Antonio staple. "

"Spurs guard Manu Ginobili entertained questions from the gathered media for about three minutes Monday night. He could have conveyed the same message in about three seconds. There was little left to be said in the aftermath of a 102-84 loss to New Orleans in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals that seemed a whole lot like the Spurs’ Game 1 debacle. "

"An NBA spokesperson said Monday that the league continues to investigate the incident that delayed Saturday's Game 1. Powerful fire extinguishers required to douse flames in a ring of fire through which Hornets mascot “Super Hugo” jumped during the break between the first and second quarters left a powdery residue on the court. It took more than 20 minutes to remove the residue. The Hornets likely will be fined for precipitating the delay. "

"Snarling and outraged, Tim Duncan stood up for Fabricio Oberto. Now someone needs to stand up for Duncan. If the Spurs are going to do what they've never done before — if they're going to win a playoff series they trail two games to none, and stem this tide of alley-oops and layups and shockingly thorough blowouts — then a few guys have to do for Duncan what he's so often done for them. This time they have to be the difference-makers."

"Hornets Coach Byron Scott said before his team's first playoff game against San Antonio that the Hornets had to stop at least one of the Spurs' three best players -- Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili -- from having a successful series. The Hornets managed to hold all three to relatively ineffective performances in a 102-84 win Monday night. "

" Game 2 is tonight at the New Orleans Arena, where another sellout crowd is expected, and Popovich said he plans to make adjustments to avoid the same outcome as Game 1. "They outplayed and outhustled us and played harder all the way around," Popovich said. "That hustle and decision making they had was good, and they kicked our butts. But we'll be fine." Like in Game 1, the Hornets want to keep Duncan from getting to his desired spots around the post area. The Hornets are likely to use double teams again to force Duncan to attempt difficult shots or force him to give up the ball quickly. "

"Throughout his stellar career, San Antonio Spurs All-Star forward Tim Duncan has had a few poor games. Given the circumstances, perhaps none was worse than Saturday night's performance when Duncan did little to help the Spurs in their 101-82 loss to the Hornets in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Duncan was ineffective in the post against the Hornets' Tyson Chandler, scoring just five points on 1-of-9 shooting and grabbing three rebounds. "

"The Bruce Bowen Hater Tour continues. Suddenly vilified as thoroughly in the Mississippi Delta as he has been in the Valley of the Sun and on the banks of Puget Sound, Bowen again is in the eye of the playoff storm. Suspended by the NBA for what was deemed a kick aimed at Hornets point guard Chris Paul in a regular-season game March 12, Bowen is the player Hornets fans love to hate now that their heroes are in a Western Conference semifinal series against the Spurs."

" Spurs beat writer Jeff McDonald gives his three keys to victory for the team in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Hornets. Slow West, young man On the surface, the secret to success seems simple for the Spurs. Hold David West to fewer than 29 points, win the game. The Spurs are 2-0 against New Orleans this season when West scores below that number. They are 0-3 when he scores more, including Game 1 when he went for 30. "

" The hype before the Spurs-Hornets Western Conference semifinal series focused on All-Star point guards Tony Parker and Chris Paul. The Game 1 reality: Neither Parker nor Paul impacted the outcome the way many believed one or the other might. Parker outscored Paul, 23-17, but Paul had 13 assists. The Spurs did a good job of limiting Paul's offensive opportunities through the first three quarters. He scored nine points in the fourth period, including six on layups in the final 3:17. "

" As for Scott's players, whom some had expected to flip out under the stress of a playoff series against the defending NBA champions? For one night, they did more than just keep their heads. The Hornets imposed their will on the Spurs throughout the second half of a 101-82 victory Saturday, and they vowed Sunday to keep it up."

" New Orleans' David West put up a rare miss on a jumper. The rebound fell into a thicket of Spurs ... and somehow into the hands of the Hornets' Morris Peterson. Peterson dribbled out to the corner, launched a 3-pointer and made a four-point margin seven. Incensed, Popovich immediately turned to his video coordinators seated behind the bench, instructing them to take note. Spurs players would be seeing that particular play again. On Sunday morning, they did. "

"While the New Orleans Arena was filled with gold T-shirt-clad fans Saturday night and the metro area was in the midst of a Buzz craze, at least one small patch in the crowd and one block in the Seventh Ward appeared to be hanging with the enemy. That's fine with San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Don Newman, a New Orleans native who returned home for the first two games of the second round of their best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series against the Hornets. "

"There have been better nights for NBA mascots. It would be difficult to imagine a better night for the New Orleans Hornets. David West set a career playoff high with 30 points and Chris Paul had 17 points and 13 assists as the Hornets blasted the Spurs 101-82 Saturday night at New Orleans Arena, drawing first blood in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. "

"Game 1 of the Spurs-Hornets series fell into a burning ring of fire. The game was delayed for 22 minutes between the first and second quarters when a skit backfired. “Super Hugo,” one of the Hornets' mascots, jumped off a trampoline to attempt a dunk, flying through a burning ring of fire and drawing plenty of oohs and aahs from the sellout crowd. Then, things went very wrong. Attendants tried to put out the apparatus through which the mascot jumped, but their fire extinguishers weren't up to the task. Two more extinguishers, much more powerful, were quickly substituted, and they were more than up to the task. The fire quickly was extinguished. But the extinguishers left a powdery residue on the court from baseline to baseline. "

"Given a chance to do it over again, the people who put together the New Orleans Hornets' on-court promotions would have changed a few things. They would've started by replacing Super Hugo with Bruce Bowen. Some of the locals already were prepared to burn Bowen alive when he came to town, and when he opened his mouth before Game 1 of the second round Saturday, he didn't endear himself any further. Asked about his March suspension-drawing kick to Chris Paul, Bowen said he'd “seen a lot worse.” Soon enough, so will the rest of us. "

"Spurs guard Manu Ginobili has been named one of the 50 greatest contributors to Euroleague basketball. At ceremonies held in Madrid, Spain, site of the Euroleague Final Four, Ginobili was recognized. He was named Most Valuable Player of the Italian League in 2001 and 2002, and MVP of the Euroleague Final Four in 2001. "

"Tim Duncan began the Phoenix series by doing something he hadn't done all year. He began this one the same way. He began this one with the fewest combination of points and rebounds he's had all year when he hasn't been helped off the floor with an injury. He began this one watching David West do to the Spurs what he did to the Suns, and he began this one playing as if he still hadn't physically or mentally recovered from the last one. "

" Hornets coach Byron Scott opted to double-team Tim Duncan to get the ball out of his hands, and the Spurs made him pay in the first half with a barrage of 3-pointers. When the Spurs went cold from long range in the second half, they could not keep pace with the Hornets. When he did get opportunities to work in the post without having to pass, Duncan never was able to get into a rhythm. He made 1 of 9 shots, matched a career playoff low with five points and seemed frustrated by the physical play of the defenders the Hornets ran at him, even former Spurs reserve Melvin Ely."

"Neither the San Antonio Spurs nor a ring of fire gone awry could derail the Hornets on their first night in the Western Conference semifinals. The Hornets used a third-quarter comeback against the Spurs and beat them 101-82 before a sellout crowd of 18,040 on Saturday night at the New Orleans Arena. A game that was oddly delayed in the first half by on-court residue from a fire extinguisher gave the Hornets a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Spurs. "

"Home-court advantage for the series belongs to the Hornets, a franchise Scott hopes can emulate the success of the Spurs. As a former Los Angeles Laker having played on three championship teams, Scott has not been shy about his respect for the league's defending champion -- and his belief that the Spurs are the best team until they lose in the playoffs. Players from New Orleans, meanwhile, crave the components of the Spurs that have allowed them to win four championships in nine years. "They're where we want to be," Hornets center Tyson Chandler said..."

" Of the many factors involved in this second-round series, which tips off tonight at the New Orleans Arena, few will bear closer scrutiny than the vast discrepancy in playoff experience between the two teams. The Hornets had little trouble navigating a similar mismatch in the opening round, dispatching Finals veterans Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd and their Dallas Mavericks teammates in five games. San Antonio, however, promises to be an entirely different challenge. "

"“T.J. could’ve done a better job of coaching,” Kidd said. T.J., Kidd’s son, was four years old at the time. Kidd would later deny this account that was detailed then in a New Jersey newspaper. But Kidd would come back to San Antonio that summer to flirt with the Spurs, and he would eventually get his way. Scott, after taking the Nets to back-to-back Finals, would be fired before the next season’s All-Star break. But it was Scott’s reaction then that was so telling, and this is also why the Hornets won’t go easily over the next few weeks."

" A feeling-good Horry is a luxury for the Spurs as they head into the Western Conference semifinal series against New Orleans. It is also a luxury they haven't been afforded too often this year. This season was supposed to be Horry's final loop around the NBA, his last step toward retirement, and it was supposed to be triumphant. "