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NBA: Spurs have new life against Hornets
Jeff McDonald
San Antonio Express-News

NEW ORLEANS — The death notice had been written. The tombstone had been carved. All that awaited was a corpse.

When the Spurs came back from New Orleans behind 2-0 in their Western Conference semifinal last week, they knew they were essentially one loss from seeing their season shift from the sports pages to the obituaries.

“You understand what you are facing,” Spurs forward Tim Duncan said. “You understand that if we lost one of these (two) home games, you are facing elimination, and for the most part, the series is over.”

Channeling Mark Twain, reports of whose ultimate demise were also once greatly exaggerated, the Spurs are not only still alive in this series.

They are kicking.

“Kicking our butts,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said.
The Spurs followed back-to-back blowout losses in New Orleans with back-to-back blowout victories in San Antonio, clawing back from the brink of extinction in most spectacular fashion.

Their latest triumph, a 100-80 victory in Sunday’s Game 4 that equalized the series, was an object lesson in utter domination. The Spurs took the lead for good their final lead with still 8:36 left in the first quarter, pushed it to 14 by halftime and led by as many as 27 in the second half.

As the series moves back to New Orleans for Game 5 tonight, the Spurs have turned the tables. With a healthy Duncan and a healthier defense in tow, the Spurs now have a chance to slip a toe tag on the Hornets.

“We are in a different situation now, but we have to try to do it the same way,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “We have to approach Game 5 the same way we approached Game 3 and 4.”

Halfway toward the first comeback from a 2-0 series deficit in franchise history, the Spurs realize winning in New Orleans won’t be easy. The Hornets have yet to lose at New Orleans Arena this postseason and beat the Spurs by a combined 37 points here in Games 1 and 2.

Still, few thought such a triumphant return to New Orleans possible after the Spurs limped home from the Big Easy last week.

Before the Spurs had even landed in San Antonio after twin defeats, talk in New Orleans had shifted. Fans, on talk shows and in the bars of Bourbon Street, here were already looking forward to the conference finals.

The Spurs, in a sense, were Twain’s Tom Sawyer, witness to their own funeral.

Scott isn’t sure if such premature speculation rubbed off on his callow team, but he didn’t exactly shoot down the theory.

“Our intensity was terrible,” Scott said after the Game 4 rump roasting. “I think from Game 1 to Game 4, it has gotten worse. The Spurs’ has just gotten better, and that’s the difference.”

In the process, the been-there, done-that Spurs have taught the young Hornets a valuable lesson: When planning the funeral of the defending NBA champions, it’s best to wait and see the body first.

There are factors other than experience at work in the Spurs’ resurrection, and this is what should give the Hornets pause as the whole procession moves east.

After playing each of the games in New Orleans with a high fever, Duncan is well now. He flashed a clean bill of health in Game 4, scoring a team-leading 22 points, hauling in 15 rebounds and blocking four shots.

Point guard Tony Parker has been more aggressive, doing his best to nullify Chris Paul, his New Orleans nemesis.

Above all, the Spurs are defending better than they were in New Orleans, where the Hornets shot 49.1 percent and averaged 101.5 points.

The Spurs’ work on the defensive end in Game 4 might rank s among their most dominant efforts of the postseason. New Orleans shot 40.2 percent and scored a playoff-low 80 points, to the satisfaction of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

“We’re not a great offensive team,” Popovich said, “but if we play good defense, that fuels everything we do.”

The Spurs played much of Game 3 and 4 on emotion and intensity, wrung from a sense of death-bed desperation. The trick now is to keep it up as the series moves to New Orleans, the end seeming far less imminent than it was just days ago.

“We’re going in there, and we’re going to do the obvious,” Duncan said. “Try to take one and put some real pressure on them.”

Do that, and it could be time to start work on a new tombstone.