Duncan shines as Spurs crush Hornets to even series

Posted: 05/12 - 00:00

Tim Duncan had a dominating performance with 22 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots, as the Spurs throttled the New Orleans Hornets, 100-80, evening their Western Conference semifinal series after four games.

Tony Parker contributed 21 points, six rebounds and eight assists for San Antonio, which is 5-0 at home in this year's playoffs. Manu Ginobili and Ime Udoka each scored 15, while Michael Finley came off the bench for 12 points.

The Spurs have never won a playoff series when they lost the first two games of the set, but they're now even headed back to New Orleans for Game 5 on Tuesday.

"We were lucky enough to come back here and right our ship a little bit," said Duncan, who was 10-of-13 from the field. "We feel good going back to New Orleans."

Conversely, the Hornets are 0-4 in the second round of the playoffs, having lost to New York (1993), Chicago (1998), Milwaukee (2001) and New Jersey (2002).

"If we're playing good defense it really fuels everything we do," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We were fortunate we did that both games in a row and got even."

Chris Paul scored 23 for the Hornets, who shot 40.2 percent from the field, 11 percentage points less than the Spurs. Jannero Pargo scored 11 and David West added 10 for New Orleans.

West was just 4-of-15 from the field, while Peja Stojakovic struggled by scoring just six on 3-of-9 shooting for the Hornets.

"I thought we went to some of our bad habits from early in the season," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "We missed some easy shots in the first six or seven minutes of the game and we let that dictate how hard we were going to play on the defensive end."

Ahead by just a 24-22 margin after the first quarter, the Spurs started to pull away in the second. Ginobili and Udoka drilled early three-pointers for a 30-24 lead.

Parker's layup culminated a stretch of nine straight Spurs points for a 41-26 advantage nearly midway through the quarter, and it was 55-42 at the half. Parker and Duncan combined for 33 points on a spectacular 14-of-20 shooting.

"Obviously he's got to be more of a quarterback in this series and he's doing a good job of it," Popovich said of Duncan. "We're feeling pretty confident with it. He's making great choices in when to do things for himself and when to involve his teammates."

Duncan played a big aggressive role throughout the game. The two-time league MVP drove to the basket early in the third, using his left hand to bank the ball off the glass and through. Duncan, who completed the three-point play after he was fouled by Tyson Chandler, tumbled into the photographer's row under the basket.

To complicate matters for the Hornets, the 7-foot-1 Chandler picked up his fifth foul with 8:39 left in the third quarter. It was on that play that Ginobili was fouled and he made both attempts for a 64-44 lead.

New Orleans didn't threaten from there, falling behind 85-61 after three periods and never got the lead under double digits. The Spurs were able to use their reserves for almost the entire fourth quarter. Game Notes

San Antonio forward Robert Horry, in the postseason for his 16th time, has never lost in the first round of the playoffs. Sunday marked his 237th playoff game, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most all-time in league history...The defending NBA champions held a 45-36 rebounding edge.