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West at his best for victorious Hornets

by Charley Rosen

Charley Rosen is FOXSports.com's NBA analyst and author of 14 books about hoops, the current one being No Blood, No Foul.

Updated: May 14, 2008, 1:57 PM EST 173 comments

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Game Time: Hornets 101, Spurs 79

As ever, the Spurs' perimeter shooting was the single most important factor in determining the outcome of this and most of their games.

2008 NBA Finals

Thursday's Game 1

Pierce, Celtics hold off Lakers

Analysis

Photos

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Celtics-Lakers through the years

Video

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Here are the quarterly breakdowns of the Spurs' mid- and long-range shooting:

First quarter: 7-for-18. Fortunately for the visitors, many of their makes were treys, so they managed to play the Hornets on virtually even terms.

Second quarter: 2-for-6. With Bruce Bowen, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker able to get to the basket, the Spurs actually nursed a 3-point lead at halftime.

Third quarter: 2-for-12. Concurrent with New Orleans elevating its game at both ends of the court, the Spurs' feeble shooting proved fatal for the defending champs. This was when the game irrevocably turned in the Hornets' favor.

Fourth quarter: 4-for-11. Too little, too late. Also, two of the Spurs springers connected in garbage time and where therefore meaningless.

But the primary focus should be on the victorious Hornets, who made precious few mistakes and featured several heroes.

For years to come, David West's clutch performance will be celebrated in verse and in song in The Big Easy. That's because he did everything that a player can do. He scored from outside, inside and the spaces in between — 16-for-25, 38 points. He rebounded (14), passed (five assists) and defended (two steals, five blocks, including one in defense of Tim Duncan). He was belligerent, determined and the bellwether of the Hornets' glorious victory.

Chris Paul — 6-for-18, 22 points and 14 assists — didn't unleash his quick-footed drives into the middle until the second half. That's when the Hornets went to the screen-and-roll game and CP3 put the Spurs to sleep.

Mo Peterson — 4-for-9, 12 points and two steals — made the Spurs pay for double-teaming West by hitting 4-of-6 triples.

Tyson Chandler — 2-for-5, four points, eight rebounds and three blocks — smothered Duncan and also made several excellent rotations on defense.

Only Peja Stojakovic continued to struggle — 3-for-8, nine points. But if Bowen's chest-to-chest defense rendered Peja useless on offense, he kept plugging away and hauled in 11 big rebounds.

And kudos to Byron Scott for mixing up the defense against Duncan — sometimes doubling him on the catch, more frequently doubling him on the move and sometimes playing him straight-up.

The Hornets' overall defense was consistently aggressive — attacking every dribble, pass and catch (they had eight steals to the Spurs' one) and executing nearly flawless rotations (they had eight blocks to the Spurs' two).

Above all, the Hornets refused to be intimidated by the Spurs' relatively easy wins in San Antonio. If the reigning champs out-adjusted their young opponents deep in the heart of Texas, the Hornets responded by emphasizing their speed, quickness and all-out energy.

If the Hornets could do no wrong, did the Spurs do anything right?

Duncan only shot 5-for-18 under constant pressure but did come up with 23 rebounds.

Parker was assaulted just about every time he ventured into the paint but shot 7-for-14 and scored 18 points.

Ginobili also had a tough time finding the basket — 5-for-15 — but still drove, spun and slanted his way to 20 points.

Ime Udoka — 3-for-6, nine points — was a plus off the bench.

Only Bruce Bowen — 4-for-5, 10 points, along with lock-down defense on Stojakovic — brought his A-game.

Otherwise, Kurt Thomas looked slow and old. Michael Finley looked ancient. Fabricio Oberto couldn't take two steps on the defensive end without committing a foul.

Speaking of fouls.

This was certainly a hard-hitting contest with the Hornets achieving a much higher slugging percentage than the visiting Spurs.

Because their shots weren't falling, the Spurs concentrated on driving the ball to the hoop, yet they were awarded only 18 free throws (one of which was created by a deliberate ploy in the endgame so that Scott could get his scrubs into the game) compared to 33 by the Hornets. Despite both Duncan (one free throw) and Parker (five FTs) being routinely bumped, hacked and downright clobbered, the refs mostly sucked on their whistles until the Hornets had the ball.

It's called the home-court advantage.

(And by the way, the visiting team has the final say in positioning its players along the foul-lane when free throws are in the offing. Meaning that Joey Crawford erred in nailing both teams with delay-of-game warnings when the Hornets kept playing switcharoo in trying to match up Chandler with Duncan.)

In any event, the Spurs are now in a do-or-die situation. Can they come up with more between-game adjustments to contain West, to keep Paul (who hit only 1-of-4 jumpers) out of the lane and to match the Hornets' intensity?

And do the Hornets have enough of a killer-instinct to close the series and thereby avoid an anything-can-happen seventh game?

Not even The Shadow knows.

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