McDonald: Spurs-Hornets Game 7 Keys To Victory

[duncan228]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...s.8d17be7.html

Spurs-Hornets Game 7 keys to victory

REMEMBER: THIS ISN'T HOCKEY

Basketball games are four periods long, not three. This inconvenient fact has doomed the Spurs in their three losses at New Orleans in this series. They’ve played the Hornets fairly even in quarters 1, 2 and 4 and even led at halftime of all three games. The third quarter in the Big Easy, however, has been deadly. The Hornets have outscored the Spurs by a stunning 94-36 margin in games at New Orleans Arena. It sounds obvious enough, but the Spurs are going to have to show up for all four quarters in order to advance.

TAKE OUT WEST

No, this has nothing to do with a Robert Horry back-pick. Still, the Hornets struggle to win when All-Star David West struggles. In two of the Spurs’ three victories in this series, they helped turn West into a non-factor. He had 10 points apiece in Games 4 and 6, shooting a combined 8 for 29 in them. Tim Duncan has enjoyed some success one-on-one defending West, but the Spurs will still send a variety of looks his way, including well-timed double-teams. Bad back and all, West has topped 30 points in each of the Hornets’ three victories in this series. If he does it again, the Spurs might not be able to survive it.

WIN THE BENCH

With Sixth Man of the Year Manu Ginobili now in the starting lineup, it is in bent on other Spurs reserves to try and lift the bench. Ime Udoka answered the call in Game 6, scoring 13 points. The Spurs also have gotten decent spurts out of big men Kurt Thomas and Robert Horry. If the Spurs’ bench can provide more production than the Hornets’ reserve trio of Julian Wright, Jannero Pargo and Bonzi Wells, it will go a long way toward winning the series.

- Jeff McDonald

[Brutalis]

At this point there are so many keys.

I guess in any 7 game series, that last game is to me comes down to in game adjustments and playing well for the whole game.

Obviously TD will try to shut down West again.

Hopefully the Hornets do not try to attack Oberto/Thomas with Chandler and CP dumping it off too much. Those easy points we never defend, and bad FT shooting usually cover the spreads when we lose.