biba
11-10-2007, 01:38 PM
Hornets still looking up at big, bad Spurs
Saturday, November 10, 2007John DeShazier
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1194675859245250.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
Of all the things Byron Scott and the Hornets wisely have managed to pilfer theoretically from San Antonio, which has become the NBA's model franchise en route to winning four of the past nine titles, the one thing they still can't steal is tangible, and it's the only thing that counts.
A victory.
So Friday night at the New Orleans Arena didn't tell us where the Hornets are in the league hierarchy. It told us where Scott's team isn't namely, not yet in San Antonio's class, school, district or state.
"You've got to put together a solid game to beat them," David West said.
Not a quarter, half or three-quarters of one. A total game and, to no one's complete shock, the Hornets didn't in a 97-85 loss to the reigning champs.
That's not exactly man-bites-dog material. Every NBA franchise is looking up to the Spurs and few are looking up as vertically as are the Hornets. San Antonio's victory Friday night was its eighth straight over New Orleans, and gave the Hornets back-to-back losses after four consecutive wins to open the season.
But, likely, there aren't many teams in league history that have operated with the efficiency of the Spurs, who simply are capable of taking away any facet of the game an opponent has the audacity to believe it does well, and muscling them around or slicing them to shreds, seemingly depending on San Antonio's mood.
"They have great execution," Tyson Chandler said. "They're not a team that's going to beat themselves. You've got to beat them. That's what a championship team is all about."
But coming up short, in a country-mile kind of way, was a brutally sobering conclusion for the Hornets, who billed the match as an early season assessment of their playoff worthiness. San Antonio was good when it needed to be, great when it needed to be, resilient when it needed to be, patient when it needed to be, composed when it needed to be.
"They just don't take a night off," Scott said. "They come to play every single night. If you beat them it's because you were better than them that night. It's not because they gave it to you."
Said Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich: "It was a good effort. I thought the guys focused really well. The Hornets have been playing very well -- for us it was a helluva win."
It was one in which the Spurs took control in the middle quarters, when they outscored the Hornets 58-39, which allowed them the luxury of just keeping it close in the first and fourth quarters.
The Hornets wanted to win, believed they could and had no trouble saying they welcomed the visit. But their reward for looking forward to San Antonio was the arrival of a championship team on alert, one that delivered a body blow and a message: Believing you are worthy is a heck of a lot easier than actually stepping between the lines and proving it.
"We are a veteran team," Spurs guard Tony Parker said, after jabbing the Hornets blind for game highs in points (27), assists (eight) and minutes (39-plus). "There was no panic. They played good, they made a run. We just tried to play good defense and make some stops."
They did that and more and, again, there really is no glaring embarrassment to being undressed by San Antonio. The Spurs do to many what they did to the Hornets. Peja Stojakovic likened their cohesiveness and execution to the way a Swiss watch operates and as high a compliment as that is, it might not be grand enough in basketball terms.
"They stick to what they do," West said. "It's hard to get them to deviate.
"If you don't do all the right things against them, they'll beat you. You've got to have quality possessions every time you play against these guys. You almost have to force yourself to slow down, to make sure you get a good, quality shot every time against these guys."
"They play on a string out there, offensively and defensively," Chandler said.
They're on a string, the other team breaks.
That doesn't mean the Hornets suddenly aren't a playoff-caliber team; they are. San Antonio just showed they aren't a championship-caliber one.
The Spurs showed that having the ideology isn't nearly the same as getting the win, showed there still is several notches of space between them and a team that wants to compete with them.
. . . . . . .
John DeShazier can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3410.
Saturday, November 10, 2007John DeShazier
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1194675859245250.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
Of all the things Byron Scott and the Hornets wisely have managed to pilfer theoretically from San Antonio, which has become the NBA's model franchise en route to winning four of the past nine titles, the one thing they still can't steal is tangible, and it's the only thing that counts.
A victory.
So Friday night at the New Orleans Arena didn't tell us where the Hornets are in the league hierarchy. It told us where Scott's team isn't namely, not yet in San Antonio's class, school, district or state.
"You've got to put together a solid game to beat them," David West said.
Not a quarter, half or three-quarters of one. A total game and, to no one's complete shock, the Hornets didn't in a 97-85 loss to the reigning champs.
That's not exactly man-bites-dog material. Every NBA franchise is looking up to the Spurs and few are looking up as vertically as are the Hornets. San Antonio's victory Friday night was its eighth straight over New Orleans, and gave the Hornets back-to-back losses after four consecutive wins to open the season.
But, likely, there aren't many teams in league history that have operated with the efficiency of the Spurs, who simply are capable of taking away any facet of the game an opponent has the audacity to believe it does well, and muscling them around or slicing them to shreds, seemingly depending on San Antonio's mood.
"They have great execution," Tyson Chandler said. "They're not a team that's going to beat themselves. You've got to beat them. That's what a championship team is all about."
But coming up short, in a country-mile kind of way, was a brutally sobering conclusion for the Hornets, who billed the match as an early season assessment of their playoff worthiness. San Antonio was good when it needed to be, great when it needed to be, resilient when it needed to be, patient when it needed to be, composed when it needed to be.
"They just don't take a night off," Scott said. "They come to play every single night. If you beat them it's because you were better than them that night. It's not because they gave it to you."
Said Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich: "It was a good effort. I thought the guys focused really well. The Hornets have been playing very well -- for us it was a helluva win."
It was one in which the Spurs took control in the middle quarters, when they outscored the Hornets 58-39, which allowed them the luxury of just keeping it close in the first and fourth quarters.
The Hornets wanted to win, believed they could and had no trouble saying they welcomed the visit. But their reward for looking forward to San Antonio was the arrival of a championship team on alert, one that delivered a body blow and a message: Believing you are worthy is a heck of a lot easier than actually stepping between the lines and proving it.
"We are a veteran team," Spurs guard Tony Parker said, after jabbing the Hornets blind for game highs in points (27), assists (eight) and minutes (39-plus). "There was no panic. They played good, they made a run. We just tried to play good defense and make some stops."
They did that and more and, again, there really is no glaring embarrassment to being undressed by San Antonio. The Spurs do to many what they did to the Hornets. Peja Stojakovic likened their cohesiveness and execution to the way a Swiss watch operates and as high a compliment as that is, it might not be grand enough in basketball terms.
"They stick to what they do," West said. "It's hard to get them to deviate.
"If you don't do all the right things against them, they'll beat you. You've got to have quality possessions every time you play against these guys. You almost have to force yourself to slow down, to make sure you get a good, quality shot every time against these guys."
"They play on a string out there, offensively and defensively," Chandler said.
They're on a string, the other team breaks.
That doesn't mean the Hornets suddenly aren't a playoff-caliber team; they are. San Antonio just showed they aren't a championship-caliber one.
The Spurs showed that having the ideology isn't nearly the same as getting the win, showed there still is several notches of space between them and a team that wants to compete with them.
. . . . . . .
John DeShazier can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3410.