The Spurs crushed the Hornets

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Published: December 5, 2010

Chris Paul came to play.

I’d like to leave it there.  Or maybe go to the “Both Teams played Hard” standby that Rasheed Wallace went to, but that would be a lie.  The Spurs played hard.  The Hornets, for the first seven minutes of the game, didn’t play hard.  The middle two quarters of the game involved a lot of the Spurs hitting every shot they put up, even the bad ones.  That stretch probably would have broken the game open – if the Hornets hadn’t already let the game get away from them.

And make no mistake, they let it happen.  Simple cuts during the first seven minutes yielded easy shots as neither West nor Okafor moved more than a step or two to help anyone.  Simple drives by any Spur  led to open shooters as the Hornets perimeter guys took two steps to help, then froze putting themselves in the worst possible place – neither committed to stop the drive, nor committed to stay home on the shooters.  If the driver did beat their man, well, West and Okafor weren’t coming over.  Oh, and transition defense?  I’m sure it happened somewhere, but I didn’t see it.

Then, things got worse.  Andersen and Smith?  Neither of them were apparently aware that the prime offensive basketball skill Matt Bonner has is to shoot three pointers.  Nice to see you play, Andersen, but go back to the bench if you think giving seven feet of space to Matt Bonner is a good idea.

The Spurs were even getting offensive rebound after offensive rebound – when they were missing almost nothing.  The Hornets had 2 offensive rebounds in the first three quarters.

Chris Paul?  He still played hard every minute he was out there.  I’ll just think about that, and forget the rest of it . . .

. . . and I guess maybe I’ll think about Aaron Gray, cuz he was alright.  Besides, who doesn’t like to think about Aaron Gray?

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