Hornets try to adjust against Spurs tonight

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: May 11, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 1:45 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — Much has changed since the Hornets left New Orleans with a 2-0 lead over the Spurs in their Western Conference semifinal series.

Manu Ginobili moved into San Antonio’s starting lineup, and Tony Parker started guarding Chris Paul, enabling Bruce Bowen to guard Peja Stojakovic.

All three changes paid off for the Spurs in their 110-99 victory in Game 3. They’ll try to pull even when Game 4 is played at 7 p.m. today (TNT) in San Antonio.

The Spurs replaced Michael Finley with Ginobili, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, to get an offensive boost; he scored 31 points.

They conceded that Paul was going to continue his high-scoring pace, which he did by scoring 35, but they tried to slow down his counterparts, particularly Stojakovic, who had averaged 23.5 in the first two games.

Bowen harassed Stojakovic, limiting him to seven shots (he made just two, 1-of-3 on 3-pointers) and just eight points.

“We talked about the possibility of them putting Bowen on me before the game,” Stojakovic said, “because they tried to stop Paul (in the first two games) and they didn’t have any answers. We didn’t have good ball movement in Game 3, and they were able to take some things away.”

They also took away shooting guard Morris Peterson, who had scored 12 on 5-for-5 shooting in Game 2 but who had just three points on 1-of-3 shooting in Game 3.

“Peja and Mo understand the game, and when they had the looks, they knocked them down,” Paul said. “We have to find a way to get them involved.”

The Spurs seem willing to take Paul’s best shot as long as they can do a better job against the complementary players.

“Chris is going to score regardless,” Parker said. “He’s got the ball in his hands every single time. Every single play it’s Chris Paul.
So we decided to put Bruce on Peja and at least hold somebody down, because Peja was killing us.”

The Hornets will try to do a better job of freeing Stojakovic after they made just 2-of-11 3-pointers and the Spurs made 11-of-25.

“We have to do a better job of setting screens to get (Stojakovic) open,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said. “But the main thing we have to do is keep them out of the paint. For us to win this series it is going to come down to keeping Parker and Ginobili in front of us. We can’t allow them to combine for 62 points.”