Hornets on short end of mismatch with Spurs
San Antonio pulls away to easy victory
Thursday, February 17, 2005
By Jimmy Smith
Staff writer
So often this season, the Hornets have had opportunities in the fourth quarter to close out opponents but couldn't finish.
On Wednesday night at New Orleans Arena, they couldn't finish the first half.
The San Antonio Spurs outscored the Hornets 13-4 in the final 3:20 of the second quarter, breaking open what was a close game, then coasted in the second half for a 101-78 victory in front of 13,105.
From the time the Hornets held their last lead of the game at 36-35, San Antonio outscored New Orleans 66-42.
And much of the damage was done thanks to the Spurs' thorough domination of the offensive boards. The Spurs pulled down 19 offensive rebounds and converted those into 25 second-chance points. San Antonio had 51 total rebounds.
The Hornets had 30 total rebounds and five on the offensive end, three less than the Spurs' Malik Rose, who had eight and finished with a game-high total of 15 rebounds. New Orleans had 13 second-chance points.
"It's no secret that to be successful in this league you've got to defend and rebound," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "We did neither.
"You want to measure yourself, and tonight it shows we've got a long way to go. But if you want to measure yourself against the best, you've got to bring your best. That team is on a mission to be the best."
The loss stopped a 12-year streak of non-losing seasons for the Hornets, who are 11-42. The Spurs are 41-12.
Were it not for that 13-4 run in the final 3:20 of the first half, the Hornets could have walked off the court thinking they'd played their finest defensive half this season.
Before the run the Spurs trailed 36-35 after Dan au made two free throws.
But true to the championship-caliber team they are, the Spurs kept the pressure on, limiting New Orleans to four points the rest of the half, all by au.
A three-point play by Tim Duncan, who led the Spurs with 19 points, capped an 8-0 run before au's driving layup around Duncan thawed the Hornets' cold spell.
Bruce Bowen's 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining gave San Antonio it's biggest lead, 48-40, in a half in which there were eight lead changes and the score was tied three times.
It wasn't that close the rest of the way.
"New Orleans did everything they could during the first half to maintain," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Our defense just took over in the second half. They have so many guys hurt; they're playing their hearts out. They never give up. They just ran out of gas."
Rookie J.R. Smith's career-high 25 points paced the Hornets, but on this night there wasn't much assistance. au had 13 points, P.J. Brown had 12 and Chris Andersen 10. Starting forwards Rodney Rogers and George Lynch and six and zero points, though they blocked three shots each. Andersen had four blocks and the Hornets had 12 overall, a season high.
I always appreciate how gracious and classy Pop is with every beaten opponent. He'll always find something positive to say about them.
I wish our fans were that way about our Spurs when we lose occasionally instead of savaging them like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
Byron Scott's hapless Hornets were
OWN3D!
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