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May 2008
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Bradley Handwerger: May 2008 ArchivesLooking for another reason, to go along with poor shooting in the third quarter and bad perimeter defense, that the Hornets season is over?
New Orleans couldn't do it. With home court and a rowdy crowd in tow, the Hornets fell 91-82 to end its season in the Western Conference semifinals. Chris Paul fouled out and Jannero Pargo had a great fourth. But nothing was enough to overcome an experienced and determined San Antonio. It's the first time the Spurs have ever come back from an 0-2 series deficit. New Orleans still has never moved into the Conference finals. ...I'm heading down for interviews. This one is over. The Hornets are assured, for now, of at least one more game in the Arena. Should New Orleans lose in San Antonio on Thursday, Game 7 is here Monday night. thanks for joining. Tell us your thoughts on this win. ------- ...Chris Paul is good. With 3:09 left, amid chants of M! V! P!, CP3 has 28 points and 12 assists. yeah, he's fairly good. This is the first time since Game 2 against Dallas that I've seen him really take over the game on his terms. ...Let's look, again, at Scott Cody's keys to the game. 1. Tyson Chandler foul trouble 2. Get out fast. 3. Peja needs to be hot Well, that's at least what the song is right now in the Arena. Mo Pete is hitting all kinds of shots. Chris Paul is taking to the rim and scoring and getting in the Spurs' heads. And the best part of any game in the Arena, when the fans can sense a Peja Stojakovic 3-pointer. Ever seen 18,000-plus people collectively stand up and go nuts when a ball goes through the basket? It's crazy. One other thought. Deuce Mc... Scott Cody gives me his thoughts right now about the first half. "Like I said. Parker gets his first pionts in the paint in the final seconds. His five points are in the final seconds of the half. That's pretty successful. Byron Scott talked about limiting one of the big three, and I think that's been pretty successful. You saw it at the 3:45 mark. Scott went small and tried to force David West to be matched up with Tim Duncan.... The Hornets' head coach decided, apparently, to run the Spurs into the ground, as WWL-TV's Scott Cody said to me. Julian Wright, Jannero Pargo, David West, Peja Stojakovic and Chris Paul. Think that's a fast lineup? And in other news, we've got more famous people in attendance: Big night in New Orleans. ...and no fire extinguishers have come out on the floor. In fact, we've got Air Hugo and mini Air Hugo instead of Super Hugo. They're dancing. It's funny. The crowd is enjoying. Can you ask for anything more? Glenn Dorsey is in the house. He's a bit more famous in these parts than Danny Glover. So, he got a bigger chair. Actually, he got the biggest cheer of the night so far. OK, so the game. Let's look back at Sc... that goes for several things. I wouldn't say any player or team has really come out guns ablazin'. The Hornets are shooting 50 percent, which good, but they've taken three fewer shots than San Antonio has shot. And the Spurs are shooting below 40 percent. Also, the Hornets promotions department is 1-for-1 on timeout entertainment tonight. They hamster ball crawl involved not fire. In other news, Danny Glover is in the ... Tyson Chandler picked up two quick fouls in the first 5 1/2 minutes of the game, breaking Scott Cody's first key to the game. Melvin Ely came and shot a pretty nasty (read: awful) hook shot. Let's see what happens. ...Scott Cody, a.k.a. the best dressed man at WWL-TV, is sitting next to me. He has this to say about the keys for tonight: 1. Tyson Chandler has to stay out of foul trouble. I'll add one more key: And speaking of, I'm a... so, obviously, the game is going to start relatively soon. Tip-off is set for 8:40 p.m. Saturday night the give away from a yellow shirt for everybody. This time, it's the terrible towel. No, we're not the Steelers. But that's the only name i can think of for the towels. Stay tuned. ...It took awhile, but New Orleans turned a close Game 1 into a blow out in the final 3 minutes. And CP3 was the catalyst. New Orleans wins 101-82. ...San Antonio went 9-of-17 from behind the arc in the first half. The second half? The Spurs are 3-of-13. And the Hornets have a 12-point lead with 2:33 to play. Think the 3 isn't a big part of this game? ...In the four games this season against the Spurs, the Hornets went as David West went. In the two losses, he had 15 and 16. In the two wins, he had 32 and 29. Tonight, he has 28. That's a good sign. ...Scott's thoughts: And me: It was bound to happen, and the fans wanted it. And what the fans want, the fans get. New Orleans made a run, specifically a 10-0 run to take the lead. It was 49-45 to start the half. It's now 58-54 with 6:45 to play in the third. Chris Paul might be waking up, Bruce Bowen is cooling off for the Spurs and the crowd is back into the game. Let's see if this can keep up. ...So, Scott had to do the 10 o'clock news. He also watched the game at the office. But now he's here. What does he have to say? Scott says: Like Scott said, i (Bradley) think there'... Yes, New Orleans is down. But look at it this way - it's down by four despite playing a mostly sub-par first half. The Hornets shot 45 percent in the half, but for much the first 24 minutes, they were in the 30s. Chris Paul couldn't get untracked and worse, has three fouls. He can't be nearly as aggressive in the second half, not that he has been aggressive in the first half. He has been the opposite of aggressive. Whatever ... Just a quick one here: Peja is keeping the Hornets in this with 11 points, and Julian Wright is giving the team good minutes, playing good D and moving on offense. also, Bruce Bowen just got fouled hard by Bonzi Wells. You think it might have been a little payback for Bowen's mugging of CP3 in March? ...OK, so it's been at least 20 minutes since Super Hugo flew threw the hoop that was set on fire. That's the second time SH has ruined the flow of the game. Late in the season, he tore the net on a dunk and it took nearly 20 minutes for Arena folk to put a new net up. This time, the floor, as previously stated, was full of flame retardant. The court is proving hard to clean up. They need a Zamboni to get the floor right. ... New Orleans began the quarter hot, keeping San Antonio off the board until 7:36 remained in the first. And then San Antonio picked up its game (which, by the way, happened when Manu Ginobili came in the game) and the Hornets went cold. New Orleans finished the quarter shooting 41.7 percent while the Spurs ended 50 percent. Ginobili was 4-for-4, and 3-for-3 from 3-point range and has 11 points. The Spurs have six treys in the g... Just like I knew, San Antonio battled back and now has the lead, 21-17 with 2:27 to play in the first quarter. Tim Duncan hasn't really been that big an advantage for the Spurs. Manu Ginobili has two quick 3-pointers to get the Spurs going and has 8 off the bench in about eight minutes. Ginobili will be the key to this game. New Orleans needs to find a way to contain him ...Yes, I went there with the cowboy cliche. It happens. But let's say this: Byron Scott wanted the Hornets to force San Antonio into a jump-shooting team. So far, Barely three minutes in, San Antonio has yet to score and is 0-for-4. New Orleans is getting rebounds thanks to Tyson Chandler. Now, do I expect this to continue? Not at all. S.A. is too good. But I do like the confidence New Orleans is playing with and I do like the to... So, a week ago, when the Hornets closed out its series against Dallas, the franchise wanted a "gold out." It didn't happen. The Arena was a cornucopia of colors. Well, tonight, New Orleans did something about it. The fan give-away tonight at the Nest is a gold shirt at every seat. It looks pretty fantastic. It'll look great. It looks like this now from my camera phone:
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