Got damn I was thinking the game was starting soon, so I go to check out the game thread and found out it was over. Sounded like an awesome game! Glad to see we got another nice road win!
I've been reading a little bit over at the Hornets forum. Sounds like they are not too happy with CP3 right now--one of them said s/he had a friend at the arena who texted that CP3 was yakking with Li'l Wayne on the sidelines while the Hornets were down by 10 and the other players were being coached. Also the fans over there are not too high on the Peja trade.
Here's the link, but please read, don't troll. http://hornetsreport.com/HRForums/forumdisplay.php?f=2
Some post-game quotes.
Ginobili leads Spurs past Hornets, 109-95
By Brett Martel
Manu Ginobili and the San Antonio Spurs never doubted their ability to overcome a 17-point deficit on the road, in the second half, against Chris Paul and a New Orleans Hornets squad that had yet to lose at home.
What Ginobili and Co. never imagined was a comeback so dominant that San Antonio would build a 17-point lead of its own before it was over.
“It’s hard to believe that we were up by 30” in second-half scoring, Ginobili said. “We were kind of shocked, but we played very well. We hustled a lot and defensively we were much, much better.”
Ginobili scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half, and San Antonio stormed back convincingly to hand the Hornets their first home loss of the season, 109-95 on Sunday.
Tim Duncan scored 21 points and Richard Jefferson added 19 for the Spurs, who matched a franchise-best 7-0 start on the road, set in the 2006-07 season, and continued their best overall start (14-2) in club history.
In the second half, the Spurs shot 60.5 percent (23 of 38) and made seven 3-pointers while outscoring New Orleans 65-34. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made some defensive adjustments, including going with a smaller and quicker lineup, and commanded his team to get back in the game on the defensive end, which it did. The Spurs held New Orleans to 35.5 percent shooting (11 of 31) and forced nine turnovers during the final 24 minutes.
“I saw a 17-point deficit, so we changed up the defense and it helped us,” Popovich said. “We made shots and got more aggressive, got a little more physical and just competed better in the second half.”
David West scored 23 points for the Hornets, but only five in the second half.
Paul added 15 points, while Emeka Okafor and Marco Belinelli each had 12 for New Orleans.
Paul said the Hornets’ defensive intensity slipped in the second half and he blamed himself for the club’s lack of offensive punch down the stretch.
“We’ve got to execute better on offense and push the tempo. That’s my fault,” Paul said. “I pushed it in the first half and I guess I didn’t in the second half and they were able to get their defense set. I’ve got to pick up the pace.”
George Hill scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half for the Spurs, who increased their Southwest Division lead to two games over New Orleans and Dallas.
The Spurs entered the fourth quarter still trailing 77-72, but hit their first nine shots of the period to surge into the lead for good.
Jefferson started the surge with a driving floater along the baseline. Then Gary Neal completed the comeback with a 3 to tie it at 77 and Antonio McDyess added a jumper to give the Spurs their first lead since they were up 14-13 in the middle of the first quarter.
After West tied it at 79, Jefferson and Ginobili hit back-to-back 3s and the Spurs started to pull away, taking their first double-digit lead when Hill drained an off balance jumper as he was fouled and hit the free throw to make it 94-84 with 6:58 to go.
“For some strange reason we’ve been a second-half type of team—give up points in the beginning then lock down defense in the second half,” Hill said. “If we can play defense the way we did in the second half … I think it’s going to be a scary year for everybody.”
San Antonio trailed by 17 at halftime and when Belinelli’s 3 made it 68-51 with 9:27 left in the third quarter, the Spurs responded with a 10-0 run capped by Jefferson’s 3 to make it 68-61.
The Hornets started coming apart on both ends of the floor. After turning the ball over only three times in the first half, they committed six turnovers and were only 5 of 15 shooting in the third quarter.
It left a stunned crowd to wonder what happened to the team that shot 61 percent in an impressive first half.
“The bottom line is I got outcoached,” said Hornets first-year coach Monty Williams, who began his coaching career as an intern under Popovich in San Antonio.
“Coach Popovich made a great move, going small, and I didn’t make the immediate adjustments to put us in position to hang on. … It was just an old-school whipping from a coaching standpoint.”
NOTES: This marked the second meeting of these Southwest Division rivals, with New Orleans winning the first 99-90 in San Antonio on Oct. 30. … The Spurs’ 109 points were the most allowed by the Hornets this season. … Announced attendance was 12,449, about 4,800 short of a sellout.
Take a look at the first minutes of the third quarter and you'll notice that the Hornets were standing around and were lethargic on defense. Spurs came out with a more dynamic offense and took advantage of the Hornets' sluggish defense.
[Barkley]GINOBILI!!!!![/Barkley]
Great to see the Spurs lay the smack down on the Hairnets in N'awlins.
THE SPURS STILL HAVE THE BEST RECORD IN THE NBA!!!!!
GO SPURS GO!!!!!
Views from the other side:
San Antonio Spurs rally to defeat 'stagnant' New Orleans Hornets 109-95
Published: Sunday, November 28, 2010, 7:04 PM, Updated: Sunday, November 28, 2010, 7:21 PM
Jimmy Smith, The Times-Picayune
Looking for a word to describe the San Antonio Spurs’ second-half performance against the New Orleans Hornets on Sunday afternoon at the New Orleans Arena?
Relentless comes to mind.
That would sum up San Antonio’s thorough domination in the game’s final 24 minutes, erasing a 17-point halftime deficit by shredding New Orleans’ league-leading defense and mercilessly pounding the paint to take a 109-95 win, handing the Hornets their first home loss of the season while remaining unbeaten in seven games on the road.
Sunday’s matinee featured a mentor vs. student showdown between Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich and first-year Hornets coach Monty Williams. For much of the first half, Williams was proving he had learned his lessons well, taking Popovich-like strategic time outs, making savvy matchup subs utions and watching his club race out to a 61-44 halftime lead.
And then?
“We made some changes,” said Popovich, a coach with a notorious economy of words.
San Antonio, the NBA’s third-highest scoring team heading into the game (averaging 107.1 points), put up 65 second-half points — 37 in the final quarter. Before the Hornets, who still were up five points after three quarters, could seemingly catch their breath, the Spurs had reeled off a 29-9 run in the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter.
That gave San Antonio a 101-86 lead as the Spurs reasserted themselves as the cream of not only the Southwest Division but arguably the Western Conference. San Antonio leads the Southwest Division by two games over the Hornets and Dallas Mavericks and have the NBA’s best record at 14-2.
The Spurs outscored the Hornets 52-38 in the paint, outrebounded New Orleans 42-34, and outperformed the Hornets — who entered allowing just 91.13 points per game — on the defensive end of the floor.
After David West torched the Spurs’ defense for 16 first-quarter points, Popovich pulled DeJuan Blair, who opened defensively against West, for the rest of the game and continuously fielded a small lineup against the Hornets, putting 6-foot-3 guard George Hill on the 6-foot Chris Paul, and rotating everyone — including 6-7 Richard Jefferson — he could on West.
West scored seven points the rest of the game.
“The bottom line is I got outcoached,” Williams said. “Coach Popovich made a great move going small, and I didn’t make the immediate adjustments to put is in the position to hang on at the end. There are certainly some things that we can do better. It was just an old-school whipping from a coaching standpoint.”
Paul was shouldering his share of the responsibility in the postgame dressing room, as was West, who said the Hornets knew how to counter the Spurs’ adjustments but did not execute.
“We got stagnant on both ends,” West said. “I thought they were more aggressive, and we just didn’t respond. We still had opportunities and the lead, but we didn’t play to close the game out. We just played to score. I thought we got out to the start we wanted. We were able to get what we wanted.
“But they made some adjustments and were able to get to the basket, and we had no answer for them on either end. They didn’t guard me with a big (after the first quarter) and had smaller guys on me. But we’re used to that. I know I’m going to get double-teamed when I catch the ball. They went small and took us out of what we wanted to do offensively. We’ve got counters and things we can go to when teams try to junk the game up. We just didn’t respond.”
Hill scored 14 off the bench for the Spurs, who were led by Manu Ginobili’s 23 points and Tim Duncan’s 21. West had 23 as all five Hornets starters scored in double figures.
“We’ve got do defend,” said Paul, who noted the Hornets difficult back-to-back tonight on the road against the league’s leading scorer, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. “We’ve got to execute better on offense, push the tempo. That’s my fault. We did it in the first half. I guess I didn’t to it in the second half. They were able to get their defense set. I’ve got to pick up the pace.
“This league don’t care. We’ve got to let this one go and get ready for a good Thunder team. We’ve got to come out ready to play or we’ll be smashed.”
Though Popovich evened his record against his former player and one-time assistant coach (the Hornets won 99-90 in San Antonio earlier this season), he was uncharacteristically effusive in his praise of Williams’ early season handiwork.
“Monty and his staff have done a great job of putting a system in that the players have learned very, very quickly; it’s almost impossible to do what they’ve done to be able to be on the same page the way they are,” said Popovich, the mentor. “You’d think that would take at least half the season for a new staff to come in and do it.
“They’ve taught it well, and the players have bought into it very well.”
The student, humbled by the relentlessness of the beating, was in no mood to accept pla udes.
“Coach Pop made move after move tonight,” Williams said. “I didn’t make the adjustments when I needed to, and his team got the win.”
http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ss...ly_to_def.html
Agreed. Thank you, Pop, for not benching Ginobili in the third quarter. That was a master move.
Houston up by 1, OKC with the ball 3.1 seconds left potential to win the game. Rooting for OKC as far as standings go. Houston isn't a threat
It's on NBA TV by the way, though I'm watching the slightly lagging feed on league pass broadband at the monent.
Monty Williams saved everyone the trouble.
“Coach Pop made move after move tonight,” Williams said. “I didn’t make the adjustments when I needed to, and his team got the win.”“The bottom line is I got outcoached,” said Hornets first-year coach Monty Williams, who began his coaching career as an intern under Popovich in San Antonio.
“Coach Popovich made a great move, going small, and I didn’t make the immediate adjustments to put us in position to hang on. … It was just an old-school whipping from a coaching standpoint.”
Durant goes for game winner and misses. Rockettes win.
The best news from this game for me was the fact that Hill contributed significantly offensively. While his 3 pointer is still nowhere to be found, he still shot 50%, and contributed 14 points (also the winning margin) and was a +23 for the game. Hopefully, this game will get him rolling.
San Antonio Spurs 109, New Orleans Hornets 95: Gregg Popovich adjusts at the half, the Spurs roll
by Timothy Varner
48 Minutes of
The Hornets beat up on the Spurs during the first half of Sunday’s matinee. New Orleans took a 61-44 lead into the half, and they looked like they would win this game walking away. But Gregg Popovich started the 3rd quarter with a small lineup of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, George Hill, Richard Jefferson and Tim Duncan. The adjustment worked. San Antonio played small-ball for the remainder of the game and turned a 17 point halftime deficit into a convincing 14 point win.
Keep reading →
the spurs are for real this season babies
manu ginobili don't shiv
Go spurs go!!!!!!!! Get emmmmmmmmmmmm!
I gotta say that TP played a decent game. I'm glad he didn't force anything as we might have lost if he did. He was having an off night so he made an effort to get others involved instead. I like it when he doesn't force his offense if he not having a great game.
George Hill also played good again. I think he's starting to get into form now. Stay aggressive and keep attacking George.
I am also pleased that Pop pulled Bonner quickly and played Splitter more. Keep playing Splitter and at least give him some run with TD to see how they play together.
Manu played his ass off and willed us to this win.
I still like Gary Neal and that he keeps shooting the ball. He was horrible in his first run like Timvp said, but he was much better when he got another chance later in the game.
RJ with a very good game too. Great effort from RJ.
my dream!
If we play this kind of defense, there is no stoping every team in the league will lick of those spurs
I have no idea what you just said. Can you rephrase that.
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