NEW YORK —The New Orleans Hornets held San
Antonio’s Tim Duncan to five points and raced to a 101-82 home
victory over the Spurs in the opening game of their Western
Conference second-round series on Saturday.
David West scored a career playoff-best 30
points to lead the Hornets with Chris Paul adding 17 points
and 13 assists.
The Hornets trailed by 11 points late in
the second quarter before roaring back.
"We just came back with a lot more energy,"
West told reporters.
"They were beating us to loose balls," he
added. "There’s no excuse for that. We’ve got the fresher
legs, the younger legs and we want to be the aggressor the
entire series."
Game 2 is in New Orleans on Monday (Tuesday
in Manila).
Also on Saturday, the Detroit Pistons
pulled away from the Orlando Magic in the third quarter and
rolled to a 91-72 victory in the opening game of their Eastern
Conference second-round series.
Chauncey Billups scored 19 points and
Richard Hamilton had 17 to spark Detroit.
Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu each scored
18 points for Orlando. Dwight Howard finished with 12 points
and eight rebounds.
Game 2 is in Detroit on Monday (Tuesday in
Manila).
Tony Parker led San Antonio, last year’s
NBA champion, with 23 points while Duncan made only one of
nine field-goal attempts and had just three rebounds.
The points total was a playoff low for
Duncan and shackling him will be the Hornets’ strategy
throughout the series.
"We just don’t want to give him easy
looks," West said. "We know he is one of the best players in
the league when he catches the ball two or three feet from the
basket. We are going to have guys running at him the entire
series."
The game was delayed between the first and second quarters
when a stunt involving a mascot going through a ring of fire
went wrong. Workers had to use fire extinguishers to put out
the flames and it took 20 minutes to clean up the court.
