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Halftime tweak helps Spurs hand Hornets first home loss
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By J. Michael Falgoust
November 29, 2010
New Orleans, LA — The teacher gave the student a Sunday school lesson.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who was a mentor to New Orleans Hornets first-year coach Monty Williams, engineered a 31-point turnaround for a 109-95 win in a pivotal matchup of Southwest Division rivals.
The Spurs have the NBA's best record (14-2) and remain the only unbeaten team on the road (7-0). That matches the franchise-best road start of 2006-07, when the Spurs last won a title.
They also dealt New Orleans its first home loss in eight games.
"I got outcoached," Williams said after his team blew a 17-point halftime lead. "I didn't make the adjustments. Coach Pop made one. ... It was just an old-school whipping from a coaching standpoint."
Hornets power forward David West scored 18 points in the first half, taking advantage of DeJuan Blair off the dribble, and New Orleans shot 61%. So Popovich switched his defensive scheme. He went to a smaller lineup with Richard Jefferson, who, like Blair, is 2 inches shorter than 6-9 West but 40 pounds lighter.
Whenever West touched the ball, he was immediately double-teamed. He scored five points in the second half.
"R.J. did a great job on West, being all over him, frustrating him," said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who sparked the comeback with 10 points in the third quarter. "We were blitzing him all over the place."
Ginobili had 23 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Jefferson caught fire in the fourth quarter with eight of his 19 points.
"It's hard to believe that we were up by 30 (in second-half points)," Ginobili said. "We were kind of shocked. ... We hustled a lot, and defensively we were much, much better."
New Orleans committed six turnovers in the third quarter and was 5-for-15.
The Hornets had beaten the Spurs by nine points Oct. 30 as part of New Orleans' club-record 11-1 start. But Sunday's loss was the Hornets' third in four games, on the heels of a four-game trip. They left right away to play at the Oklahoma City Thunder today.
Guard Chris Paul (15 points, seven assists) blamed himself for not pushing the tempo in the second half, enabling the Spurs "to get their defense set."
San Antonio forward Tim Duncan, who scored seven points in the loss to the Hornets, had 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting in 28 minutes Sunday and was a defensive force in the comeback.
Popovich cautioned not to read too much into one victory, albeit a spectacular one. "Tonight it worked out," he said. "Another night it might not work at all."
The loss didn't carry added significance for Williams, given his ties to the Spurs.
"I don't think it's a rivalry yet," he said. "You've got to go to the playoffs a few times to have a rivalry."
• NBA News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
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