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Winner will be first in the Southwest. If I had to bet, I would pick the Spurs. Hornets don't do well on back-to-backs.
Game is Saturday, 7:30 CST.
Local TV: CW35 HD
Radio: 1200 WOAI
League Pass has its free preview for TV and Broadband through November 1.
Early write-up, local and national should come out after the Hornets game tonight.
Spurs look to extend dominance of Hornets
Adam Markowitz
The San Antonio Spurs seem to always be everyone's dark horse pick to win the NBA le. However, they were a very mediocre team in SW Division play last year, going just 9-7 SU. The only team that they really had extended success against? Saturday night's opponent, the New Orleans Hornets.
The Hornets are going to be playing on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets before heading to San Antonio for their first road game of the year. In spite of the fact that New Orleans allowed three opponents to pick up double-doubles and had five reach double digits in scoring, it had no problem trumping the Milwaukee Bucks 95-91 to open up the season.
As expected, when the Hornets do well, G Chris Paul and F David West both have good games. Paul knows that his team in the Bayou is probably short, as his name has been swirling as trade bait since the end of last season, but he got his 2010-11 campaign off to a good start by scoring 17 points to go with 16 assists. West had 22 points and seven boards.
Shooting the ball was a real problem last year for the Hornets, and things aren't off to a good start this year. If you take away Paul and West, the rest of the team only shot 19-of-54 from the field, a dreadful 35.2 percent. There is a real issue of depth on this team as well, something that very well could be exploited by the Spurs on Saturday.
As for San Antonio, it couldn't have asked for a better start to its season either. The team used a dominating fourth quarter to stomp the Indiana Pacers in the home opener 122-109, easily covering the 8 ½-point NBA betting line.
Defense in the post was a big problem, as both F Danny Granger and C Roy Hibbert had monstrous days for Indiana, but the Hornets don't have the bulk in the paint to cause that same type of problem this weekend.
Six Spurs scored in double digits, led by center Tim Duncan, who had a double-double with 23 points and 12 boards. Guard Tony Parker came up just one assist shy, as he had 20 points and nine helpers. Rookie James Anderson, a pure scorer from Oklahoma State, had a nice debut, going 4-for-8 from the field down 2-for-5 from beyond the arc to score 10 points. Guard Manu Ginobili nailed five triples and scored 22.
The Spurs have won five straight and eight of the last 10 in this series. Last season was an absolute embarrassment for the Hornets, as they were washed away four times, each loss by at least seven points. San Antonio averaged putting a 105-92 beat down on New Orleans lap in the four victories, each of which resulted in relatively easy covers.
The Spurs are going to come into this one at 11-4-1 ATS in their last 16 games played at home, while the Hornets are only 3-8-1 ATS in their last 12 dating back to last season away from New Orleans Arena.
The home team has gone 13-4 ATS in the last 17 meetings in this Southwest Division rivalry, while the favorite is 11-4 ATS in the last 15.
Bookmaker will be right there with you every step of the way this weekend and will have all of your NBA betting lines, including the one for this duel. We expect to see San Antonio open as a fairly heavy favorite.
Winner will be first in the Southwest. If I had to bet, I would pick the Spurs. Hornets don't do well on back-to-backs.
I think there are only like two to three teams in the league that can pull off consecutive wins on back-to-back, the Spurs, right now ain't one of them lol
Saturday: Hornets (2-0) at Spurs (1-0)
By Jeff McDonald
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...-at-spurs-1-0/
*********************
Hornets have Pop protégé
By Mike Monroe
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...e-pop-protege/
Last edited by duncan228; 10-29-2010 at 11:52 PM.
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...expanded-role/McDyess braces for expanded role
By Jeff McDonald
...With Bonner out again tonight with a sprained right ankle, and rookie center Tiago Splitter again not expected to play with a strained right calf, McDyess is bracing for an even heavier workload.
Hopefully tiago doesn't turn out to be a pussy.
New Orleans (2-0) at San Antonio (1-0)
TV: CST, SUN+
Kickoff: 8:30 pm EDT Sat Oct 30, 2010
By Alan Ferguson
The San Antonio Spurs’ slow start last season led to one of their worst finishes in recent campaigns. The New Orleans Hornets’ resulted in their first playoff absence in three years.
One team will have a chance to remain unbeaten to begin this season when the Spurs and Hornets meet in San Antonio Saturday night.
The Spurs (1-0) dropped six of their first 10 games last season and eventually finished seventh in the Western Conference, their worst showing since All-Star center Tim Duncan joined the team in 1997-98.
San Antonio’s “Big Three” of Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker got perhaps their last season together off to a strong start by scoring at least 20 points apiece in a 122-109 victory over Indiana on Wednesday night.
“All three (of us) played pretty well for the first game of the season,” Ginobili said. “And when that happens, everything becomes better.”
Richard Jefferson and George Hill each added 16 points, and top draft pick James Anderson scored 10.
Like San Antonio, the Hornets have used a balanced attack, led by All-Star point guard Chris Paul, for their 2-0 start.
With 17 points and 16 assists, Paul was one of four players in double figures in Wednesday’s 95-91 victory over Milwaukee. In a 101-95 win over Denver on Friday, he was one of five players with at least 10 points, scoring a team-best 18.
Paul scored 10 of those points inside the final nine minutes and recorded three of his seven assists during a decisive 13-2 run.
“Chris kind of took over there,” first-year coach Monty Williams said. “It’s just a big win for our team.”
Another victory Saturday might prove even bigger as New Orleans has dropped five in a row to its Southwest Division rivals and five straight in San Antonio. Since relocating from Charlotte before the 2002-03 season, the Hornets are 2-12 there.
The presence of Paul in the lineup along with some help could help New Orleans break those skids.
Paul is averaging 26.8 points in his last five meetings with the Spurs. However, he missed two matchups last March, including a trip to San Antonio, because of left knee surgery.
His expected counterpart in Saturday’s game, Parker, has averaged 22.0 points in his last nine matchups against the Hornets.
The Spurs, though, will likely not have Brazilian 7-footer Tiago Splitter available for this game. Splitter, a former MVP in Europe, is nursing a sprained calf suffered in training camp and could return Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“He’s quite frustrated,” coach Gregg Popovich said.
DeJuan Blair, who is listed at 6-8, could start again in Splitter’s place. The 21-year-old, who played both forward and center as a rookie, had nine points on 2-of-9 shooting and three rebounds as he became the team’s youngest opening-night starter since Parker, who was 20 in 2002.
Reserve forward/center Matt Bonner is also expected to miss up to two weeks after spraining his right ankle in the season opener.
*********************
Team Stat Leaders
Points
David West NO 22.0
Tim Duncan SA 23.0
Rebounds
Emeka Okafor NO 9.0
Tim Duncan SA 12.0
Assists
Chris Paul NO 16.0
Tony Parker SA 9.0
Blair will be important and I would bet he's dying to outdo his last game. We know we'll see a bit more of Dice, who has looked great so far, and Simmons will be playing some of Matt's minutes I'm sure.
I am pretty curious about the matchup with Blair/West. I think Blair could do alright on that guy.
Spurs got this, agree with xellos. Blair to do well on West
Blair will owns West
I'm hoping Blair is too short to guard West, especially if the Hornets create enough spacing. Still Blair is strong and can force West out of the paint. Honestly, West has to dominate this matchup for the Hornets to have a chance, unless the bench has another big game like last night against Denver.
Win Win Win!!!!!!!!!
http://www.nba.com/news/referee.html
Referee Assignments
Sat. Oct. 30
New Orleans @ San Antonio: Dan Crawford; Tony Brothers; Violet Palmer
I'd love to see how McDyess does on West. He played some great defense in the playoffs last year.
This is a big game for Blair. West, although he is not really hyped, is a very solid player. He has been spectacular to start the season.
Blair will have to pay extra attention tonight to West and he will have to play physical with him, while at the same time keeping him off the line.
As always, rebounding will be huge for the Spurs. If they can significantly out rebound the Hornets, they should win.
I too was looking towards the West/Blair matchup. It's quite simple, if West can't win that matchup on the offensive end, then the Hornets won't win this game.
Good luck tonight!
By playing tonight, Tony Parker will play in his 670th regular season game for the Spurs, passing Sean Elliott and moving into sole possession of 4th place on the Spurs all-time list in that category; only David Robinson (987), Tim Duncan (979), and George Gervin (709) will have more regular season appearances.
If Blair is too short to guard West, he is too short to guard anybody. Blair needs to have a good game tonight after being so unspectacular vs Pacers.
Blair needs to stay out of foul trouble tonight and hopefully play 30+ minutes, so that Duncan and McDyess don't have to be overextended. That being said, Pop shouldn't risk losing this game just to keep Duncan and McDyess in a certain minutes range. If it takes playing them more than he'd like to get the win, then it needs to be done.
It's not a must win obviously, but it's a game the Spurs should win, they just had two days off and they'll have another day off after this one. Also, Splitter will be back next game, which will lessen the load on Duncan and McDyess.
Unfortunately, Pop probably will attempt to keep Duncan and McDyess in a certain minute range (even at the expense of winning), play too much of Blair-Simmons together (he'll probably think West is a good match-up for Simmons, since he's not overly long or athletic and West will inevitably torch him) and this game will end up being closer than it should be, to the point where it may even be a loss.
I don't know who's worse, Tony Brothers or Violet Palmer...
Tiagos debut baby!!!!!
Is Tiago really playing?
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