Schiefelbein: Scott hopes talk rings true

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Published: May 5, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — Hornets coach Byron Scott put three ring boxes on the countertop and opened them.

His players walked over and inspected the rings — Scott’s NBA championship bling from running with the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s.

“Simple message,” Scott said. “I showed it to them and said, ‘This is what they’ve got. This is what we want.’ Simple as that. You have to go through the best to get to that particular point.

“I just wanted to let them get a good look at them, and I put them right back away. They won’t see them again for a while.”

This is what went down in the Hornets’ locker room Saturday night at the New Orleans Arena before their 101-82 first-game victory over the San Antonio Spurs, the defending NBA champs and the class of the league, with four titles, since 1999.

“It sort of gives you goosebumps in that’s what you’re striving for,” Chris Paul said of looking at the rings. “We know that’s what the team in the other locker room has, and they know what it takes to get there.

“We understand right now we’re on that same journey, and we feel like we can get there. It’s great motivation for coach to show his rings, because he knows what it takes to get there.”

Detractors of the Hornets have pointed to the team’s lack of playoff experience.

They might be forgetting the one guy in their locker room with heavy playoff experience: Scott, as a player and as a coach, getting the New Jersey Nets to the finals in 2002 and ’03.

The NBA Coach of the Year has been confirming that selection so far in the playoffs, where the Hornets are 5-1 against the two oldest teams in the postseason.

Scott coaxed his players through the first-round win over the Dallas Mavericks by reminding them of where they were and what they had to accomplish and not to get carried away with the team’s snowball of success this season and in the playoffs so far.

And while stars are going to be stars, Scott has been making a difference in the way he’s used his bench, which isn’t widely considered the team’s strength.

Making a difference in closing out the Mavs in the fourth quarter of Game Five on Tuesday night was clutch shooter Jannero Pargo and energetic Julian Wright.