Game Preview #40: San Antonio Spurs @ New Orleans Hornets

by silverandblack_davis on Jan 18, 2010 3:00 AM CST in Game Previews

Great. Just great. We're on a two-game losing streak, playing our fifth game in seven days and it happens to be an early afternoon game. Did I mention that this 3-game road swing so far has been looking like it's leading to hell? We got whupped by a home-lovin' Bobcats team and a young, hungry Grizzlies outfit, and now the improving Hornets take aim at a weary Spurs bunch.

Your hack afternoon-based preview, after the jump.

I can only predict one thing with absolute certainty: There will be no halftime fish due to the two-game losing streak rule. Unless Hipuks becomes a darling and changes his mind about it.

I also predict, but with much apprehension, that more than half of PtR nation might miss this game because of the schedule. I meself am dealing with a 4:00 am start time for chrissake. There might not be any second half game threads. Not that the Spurs deserve it, too, either.

But through it all, I remain hopeful for a win. So I'm pushing Timmeh's CTFD button:

Now that's out of the way, let's do this.

San Antonio Spurs @ New Orleans Hornets
Where: New Orleans Arena - New Orleans, LA
When: January 18, 2010; 2:30 PM Spurs time
Watch: FSN Southwest

How They Stack Up


17-6	Home	13-5
7-9	Road	8-13
101.1	Offense	98.7
95.5	Defense	100.2
48.4	FG%	45.0
38.4	3-pt%	35.9
73.8	FT%	77.4
42.1	Rebounds	41.1
14.2	TOs	12.9
6-4	Last 10	8-2
Lost 2	Streak	Won 1
2nd, Southwest	Position	4th,Southwest (tie)


Country/Time Zone	Game Time
Argentina	5:30 PM
West Coast	12:30 NN
Philippines	4:30 AM
Central Europe	9:30 PM
Palestine/Egypt	10:30 PM
East Coast	3:30 PM
CapHill's Room	1:30 PM
Perth, AUS	4:30 AM
Tokyo, JP	5:30 AM
Sydney, AUS	6:30 AM

Spurs (24-15)	Matchups	Hornets (21-18)
Tony Parker Four-Point Stinker	Point Guard Tony sucked last game. Plantar fasciitis or not, will he take that as motivation to bounce back against top point guard competition? Despite his team hovering only a few games above-.500, Chris Paul is still the best PG in the game. He's a killer, and will want to avenge that opening day loss. He always plays a good game against the Spurs, so I'm kinda scared. Advantage: Hornets	Chris Paul Scooby Doo

Manu Ginobili Passing Savant	Shooting Guard LatinD shared a great article about Manu in one of the FanShots so go read it. He hasn't been scoring much lately, but he's been very effective in so many ways, particularly in the assists department. For the last six games, he had these assists numbers: 7,3,6,7,6,7. That's 6.0 assists in only 28.3 mpg of burn, or roughly 10 assists per 48 minutes. Maybe not spectacular when benchmarked against the Pauls and Nashes of the world, but better than OUR point guard's 5.0 apg average in 33.6 mpg (about 7 assists per 48 minutes) in that same 6-game span. Bad comparison, I know, because TP's not really a passing point. I'm just saying that the passing game really comes easy to Manu. Devin Brown has carved himself a nice career in the NBA as a role player. He'll be a threat, but won't really go off on us (I hope). Advantage: Spurs	Devin Brown Former Spur

Richard Jefferson 3-Point Stinker	Small Forward It's just gawd awful when RJ puts up Bruce Bowen-like numbers on the offensive end. I expect a bounce back from Rage. Wait, let me correct myself. I demand a bounce back. Peja really just sucks right now. He can still get hot from three but he's so damn fragile, psychologically. Advantage: Neither	Peja Stojakovic Never The Same

Tim Duncan Clockwork Silver	Power Forward He's Tim Duncan. No further explanations needed. D-West, on the other hand, plays really well against the Silver and Black on Nooch's home court. He might be matched up against Blair in some sequences, we'll see how DeBeast handles that. Advantage: Spurs	David West Solid Big Man

DeJuan Blair B-LOL-air	Center Might be a tough night for DeJuan, having to go up against two very good big men. I hope Pop plays him decent minutes, but if his butt is glued to the bench again or gets in foul trouble, I wouldn't be surprised. Prove the naysayers (me) wrong, kiddo. Trade-related question: Will Okafor make a good frontcourt mate for Timmy D? Advantage: Hornets	Emeka Okafor Another Solid Big Man

Roger Mason, Jr. Puppy Force	Bench & Role Players Our bench wins. They always do. Advantage: Spurs	James Posey Ro-Ho 0.5

Gregg Popovich Still Drunk	Coach Considering his obsession with small ball, I am convinced that Pop is still not sober. Maybe he will be during the RRT. Jeff Bower, meanwhile, has been given the unenviable task of taming CP3's punk a$$. Advantage: Spurs	Jeff Bower Looks Like Your Friendly I.R.S. agent
	images via yahoo.com

	Other Factors
Intangibles
It's a dreaded FIGASEDA, since this game is so freaking early. We're old, on the road and goddamn tired. Advantage: Hornets
Mojo
We've lost two in a row. Nooch are 8-2 in their last 10 games. Advantage: Hornets
Winner:
Totally unrelated to everything written above, but nobody knows my previewing mojo is still spotless. Well, now you know. If we do win, it's all because of me. (yeah, right) On a more serious note, I want to see how this team has matured in terms of overcoming adversity. We've shown flashes of that fight in the Thunder game, and I expect to see some progress today against the Nooch.

Keys To The Game

Paint Balls - It'd be nice if we can protect the paint and limit CPunk3's penetration.
Long Bombs - Live by the three, die by the three.
Reserve Duty - Minutes distribution for tired legs and young 'uns will be crucial for our 3rd consecutive roadie.

Strength of Schedule

In case you missed it above, it's our fifth game in seven nights (or days) and this is the last stop of a three-game road test. So far we are 1-1. The Spurs need to salvage at least one more win before they become lazy again with an unnerving six-game homestand. Crazy people, those NBA schedule guys.

The Noochie-Haha's are also on one day's rest, after a road victory against the Pacers.

Last Time They Met

We opened our season with a bang by delivering a 113-96 beatdown against the unsuspecting Bees. The Blairventure began with a 14-point, 11-board LOL-ing effort.

Some Other Reading

Hornets

At The Hive - The SB Nation site for the Hornets. Yes, it probably was affected, too, by the great SB Nation Crash of 2010.
Hornets 24/7 - The NOOCH's TrueHoop affiliate. I'm not really a reader, but check out the comments link in each post - they describe them with adjectives such as "life-affirming", "mighty", "legendary", and "superb". You can never have too many superlatives, I guess.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: The best TrueHoop team blog is now even better, after adding two new writers. The increased content is making my head explore, in a good way, of course.
Project Spurs: Check out their podcast recaps of the game, plus the well-written articles.

Other Things Of Possible Interest

I just found two photos that'd I'd like to share.

From the 1st game of the season. Almost halfway there.

Spurs_hornets_kmh_4_medium

I don't know if this has been used before. I don't even know if this is Joey C., because there's no shiny head of doom there. Oh please oh please let not Joey ref this game.

Wherewannafighthappens-750962_medium

Where to Tune In

TV

This game will be aired on Fox Sports SW in San Antonio, and the local network in New Orleans. If you have cable or satellite, you'll have to look up your individual channel. And of course, there's always League Pass for the haves. For the have nots, read on.

Online

As always, NBA League Pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Most Spurs games will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area.

Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email to dmenendez@gmail.com for more assistance.

NBA League Pass audio is still free this year, so check it out.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).

Tweet Comment 15 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

damn boy! it’s too early! I hope to wake up to a win tomorrow. c’mon FSM make us win.

If you liked it then you should have put a 5th ring on it. Oh oh oh.

by TDzilla! on Jan 18, 2010 4:17 AM CST reply actions

Good preview. I somewhat expected some reverse mojo action.

Just saw you know, our record on the 4 game road trip so far is 1-2 and not 1-1 in the SoS section.

The Spurs currently owe us 6 wins (assuming they owe us 2 wins for each loss they take….minimum).

And last, is anyone else concerned of how bad we’ve done so far on this mini road trip (second longest of the season) with the RRT looming? Luckily, the RRT starts with a BABA, and it’s the only one. We only have one BABA in the next 17 games actually, but 8 in the last 26 games of the season. There is only one more FOGAFINI though.

by BlaseE on Jan 18, 2010 8:14 AM CST reply actions

If you’ve got to have a BABA as part of the RRT, then it’s definitely better to get it out of the way right up front. This is not a bad thing.

Consider the gun jumped
5 in 10

by J.R. Wilco on Jan 18, 2010 10:57 AM CST up reply actions

Yeah, I agree. It will be 2 days of rest as well. @ Sacramento will be the warm-up for the @ Portland the next night.

The RRT is actually very travel friendly this year. The pre ASG leg is all west coast games including two in LA in a row but not a BABA with all start times at 9:00 or 9:30 Spurs time. The post ASG leg is all Eastern teams with 6:00-5:00 start times and not BABA’s. We could definitely go 7-1 or 6-2 on the RRT and get the national media paying attention to our momentum (as they like to do at that time and no sooner).

by BlaseE on Jan 18, 2010 11:27 AM CST up reply actions

Yup, they have to stick to their playbook as much as the Spurs do.

Consider the gun jumped
5 in 10

by J.R. Wilco on Jan 18, 2010 4:53 PM CST up reply actions

NBA league pass is free today

Just wanted to give you guys a head up who dont know. NBA league pass will be free today check your email.

GO SPURS GO
SPURS 2010 NBA Champions (if team is healty LoL)

by Manu-20 on Jan 18, 2010 12:58 PM CST reply actions

Yup. I am gonna try and see if the mobile one works for me today. Will be at the office. So sneak time :P

by LionZion on Jan 18, 2010 1:53 PM CST up reply actions

It is actually free until the 26th

"If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert"
- DBG

by LasEspuelas on Jan 18, 2010 6:10 PM CST up reply actions

I need this win so bad right now. Something needs to go right this weekend, damnit.

The Spurs - now playing like sh*t again!

by Tim C. on Jan 18, 2010 1:22 PM CST reply actions

yeah…I’m leaving work in 15 minutes to go watch the game which means I’ll have to make up the time tomorrow or Thursday so the Spurs better win

by BlaseE on Jan 18, 2010 1:43 PM CST up reply actions

Well, the Blazers scored nine straight at the end of the 3rd and now lead the Wizards by three.

by 4Him on Jan 18, 2010 1:45 PM CST up reply actions

aldridge with 22 and 11 through 3 quarters….nice

by BlaseE on Jan 18, 2010 1:48 PM CST up reply actions

Oh well. The Wizards win, 97-92. Sorry about that – the Spurs will make it up for you…

by 4Him on Jan 18, 2010 2:28 PM CST up reply actions

That’s the first time I’ve seen Brent Barry wearing a tie. He does a great job with the Halftime Report.

by 4Him on Jan 18, 2010 2:37 PM CST reply actions

Really, Stern? 4:30 am in Southeast Asia? And you have the guts to say you want global expansion? You should’ve just said you wanted the NBA to expand its reach to the rest of the 1st world countries. Racist, ethnocentric pig.

Just kidding. Please don’t give us Joey C. in the playoffs.

"Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man." - Some Tall Guy Who Wore #50

by theonlyromeo on Jan 18, 2010 8:03 PM CST reply actions