Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Swartz
This misses a few points. One, San Antonio has led all three games in NO at the half. The Hornets are winning because they have been physical with the Spurs and are as tough mentally as they are, which is not a combination SA sees often, to put it mildly. Game 3 was tight well into the fourth quarter. It's easy to look at the final score and say blowout, no contest for the home team but only Game 4 in the five games so far has been that way prior to halftime. Last time out, San Antonio just absolutely could not hit a shot in the third quarter, and that had a lot to do with it.
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You definitely don't have to sell me on the Hornets, as I am a Hornets fan, but for me it's basically all about defense. It's true that game 3 was not a one-sided game, but that was due to an abnormally good offensive game from the Hornets given that Bruce Bowen has essentially removed Peja from the roster -- and given that the Hornets usually create offense from their defense. The Hornets have not played a single minute of decent defense in San Antonio. Conversely, they are swarming all over the place (sorry) in New Orleans. I'm just sort of wondering why that is.
I don't expect anything different tonight. I don't think they'll get wiped out a la game 4, but their defensive rotations will again slow down (because of the crowd I suppose, I dunno) and we'll be headed back to New Orleans for game 7. My big concern there is the puzzling THREE full off days between games (what the hell, NBA?) so the Spurs will have three days to rest up and sit around thinking about their third quarters. Don't know if it will make a difference, but it's definitely a concern.