Getting defensive

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: May 7, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — Amid all the Chris Paul crossovers, the Tyson Chandler dunks off lobs, the David West mid-range jumpers, and the Peja Stojakovic long-range jumpers, it’s easy to overlook just how good the Hornets defense is.

“Everybody looks at us as a running team,” coach Byron Scott said after practice Tuesday, “but we’ve said from Day 1 that one of our main goals was to be one of the top five defensive teams in the league. We were able to accomplish that and that’s why we had the season that we had.”

They had the fifth-lowest defensive scoring average (95.6) in the regular season, held Dallas to less than that (94) in the first round, and have held San Antonio to even less than that (83) in winning the first two games of the Western Conference semifinal series. They’ve held the Spurs’ to 42 percent shooting in the first two games. Game 3 is Thursday night in San Antonio.

“We’ve stated all along that we don’t have a bunch of great individual defenders, but as team we’re pretty darn good,” Scott said. “We’ve just been doing a heck of a job of making sure that we crowd spaces, trying to take away certain things from certain guys, and you have to give our guys a lot of credit for studying the tapes that we’ve given them on individuals and what their tendencies are and our guys coming out and trying and take those away.”

Scott said before the series that the Hornets had to hold down at least one of the Spurs’ top three scorers — Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. All three are averaging less than their regular-season averages. Duncan averaged 19.3 during the season and is averaging 11.5 in the first two games, Ginobili has dropped from 19.5 to 16.0, and Parker from 18.8 to 17.0.

“I thought (in Game 2) they came out and were a little more aggressive with Duncan early in the game,” said Hornets center Tyson Chandler, whose primarily responsible for guarding Duncan. “They tried to penetrate a little more, but our whole game plan was to keep them out of our paint. As long as we keep Tony and Ginobili out and keep the other guys shooting jump shots, we’ll be all right.”

Forward David West had 30 points and Chandler 10 in the 101-82 victory in Game 1. In the 102-84 victory in Game 2, West had just 10 points and Chandler five. Chris Paul (30 points) and Peja Stojakovic (25) helped pick up the offensive slack, but it’s New Orleans’ consistency on the defense that has generally allowed it to overcome the inevitable off shooting nights.

“As long as we do the same things on the defensive end that we did in the first two games in terms of helping and getting back to stop their transition and making things difficult for them,” Stojakovic said, “we’re going to have a chance in every game.”

In the first two games, the Hornets turned up the pressure at the start of the second half. In Game 1, they held San Antonio to 17 third-quarter points and 33 second-half points. In Game 2, they held the Spurs to 18 third-quarter points and 41 second-half points.

“We were more aggressive and had more energy,” Stojakovic said. “Our rotations were much better in the second half as far as double-teaming Tim Duncan. We were much quicker and reacted better on the defensive end.”

Scott said the Hornets have kept their defensive mistakes to a minimum, but he still hopes to reduce them.

“We can still rotate a little bit better at times,” Scott said. “We miss our assignments at times. We’ve had some miscommunications on a couple of occasions. But on the defensive end I’m trying to get our team to play the perfect game. It’s probably impossible, but that’s at least what we’re striving for. So we still feel we can play a little bit better on the defensive end.”

New Orleans has double-teamed Duncan nearly every time he has touched the ball and yet the Spurs haven’t been able to consistently take advantage of the four-on-three edge elsewhere. They’ve periodically gotten open jumpers, but haven’t made enough to convince Scott to abandon the double team.