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Hornets sting Duncan, Spurs in series opener

Sun 4th, May 2008

New Orleans, LA (Sports Network) - David West scored a playoff career-best 30 points, and the Hornets put the defensive clamps on Tim Duncan and beat the San Antonio Spurs, 101-82, in an eventful opener of their Western Conference semifinal series.

Peja Stojakovic added 22 points and Chris Paul contributed 17 points and 13 assists for New Orleans, which scored 13 in a row during the third quarter on the way to beating the defending world champions. Tyson Chandler had 10 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks.

"I think we did a great job of sticking to our game plan," Paul said. "We took a page out of San Antonio's book. If you watched them over the years they never get rattled and they always stick to what their game plan was. We did that."

Duncan was limited to a career playoff-low five points on 1-of-9 shooting. He also had just three rebounds. That's a far cry from the 24.8 points and 13.8 boards he averaged during San Antonio's first-round series win over Phoenix. The two-time league MVP averaged 22.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in four games versus the Hornets during the regular season.

"It was a team effort on Tim," Paul said. "He's one of those guys you can't guard by yourself. Tyson and those guys did an outstanding job on him. We never really let him get going."

West shot 13-of-23 from the field, and the Hornets made half of their shots from the floor and dominated on the glass by a 50-34 count.

"We'll make adjustments and change the defense a little bit and see what happens next game," Duncan said. "It was a high energy game all along. I think it got away from us a little bit, where they made shots and we didn't. That's all it came down to. Then they put a run together and we couldn't answer...they kept it on us."

Tony Parker scored 23 for the Spurs, who were manhandled by a 56-33 margin in the second half. Manu Ginobili tallied 19 points and Bruce Bowen 17 in defeat.

"They took away our inside game," Parker said. "Timmy had a rough night. They double-teamed him every time he caught the ball. We need to do a better job of trying get him the ball and try to get him some shots, try to get him some easy buckets to get his confidence going."

Game 2 of the best-of-seven set is Monday night at New Orleans Arena.

The game was delayed approximately 20 minutes when the cleanup portion of a stunt went awry. Super Hugo, the mascot of the Hornets, jumped off a trampoline and through a ring of fire to dunk between the first and second quarters. The problem was, the fire wouldn't immediately go out, forcing workers to use an extinguisher to stop it. Maintenance crews then tried to clean up the residue left behind, but officials noticed the floor was still slippery.

"Whoever's decision that was will probably get a little talking by somebody," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

The second quarter finally began with the Spurs holding a 27-23 lead, this despite the visiting team giving up the game's first eight points. San Antonio went 6-of-10 from three-point range in the first period.

The Spurs expanded that lead to 48-37 late in the second quarter, but led just 49-45 at the half. The Hornets turned up the defense in the third and used a huge run to take control.

"They were beating us to loose balls and working a little bit harder than we were in the first half. They looked like they were the younger team and Coach let us know that that's not going to be acceptable, that the Spurs out-hustle us."

Parker's three-pointer pushed the Spurs to a 54-48 lead with 9 1/2 minutes left in the third, but the Hornets scored the next 13, capped by a Stojakovic three-ball.

The lead for the Hornets stood at 74-66 going into the fourth, and the Spurs couldn't get over the hump in the final 12 minutes, and finished the game 12- of-31 from three-point range.

Parker's layup had the Spurs within 84-77 with 7:17 remaining, but two buckets from Bonzi Wells moved the spread to 11 points. San Antonio never challenged down the stretch, with West's jam moving the lead to 96-82 with just over two minutes to go.

Game Notes

Michael Finley had 13 points for the Spurs, while Wells ended with 10 for New Orleans...This is the first time these teams have met in the playoffs. During the regular season, the clubs split four contests as both teams earned a victory at home and on the road...The Hornets are 0-4 in the second round of the playoffs. They lost to New York (4-1) in 1993, Chicago (4-1) in 1998, Milwaukee (4-3) in 2001 and New Jersey (4-1) in 2002...History is not on San Antonio's side. Following a championship, the Spurs have never made it past the Western Conference semifinals in the playoffs. In 2000 they fell in the opening round to Phoenix, and lost in the semis to the Lakers in 2004 and Dallas in 2006...New Orleans won its first best-of-seven playoff series (1-6) in franchise history, as it defeated the seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks in five games, in the first round...Paul had four of New Orleans' 11 steals.

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