San Antonio Spurs beat New Orleans Hornets 106-102: NBA Recap
A depleted San Antonio Spurs franchise defeated the pesky New Orleans Hornets 106-102 at the AT & T center here on Wednesday night.
Tony Parker paced the Spurs with 24 points and 13 assists to go along with his 4 rebounds. Tiago Splitter led them in the scoring department with 25 points and 7 defensive rebounds while Stephen Jackson chipped in with 15 points
in the winning cause.
The Spurs were missing the services of their star player Tim Duncan who is out with a bruised knee. Moreover, their head coach Gregg Popovich was also a little under the weather on Wednesday night and passed the reins to his assistant
for the game.
“With Coach Pop not here and Timmy (Duncan) getting some rest, it was hard. I think everybody played hard tonight to take advantage of the minutes and win the game. My game was working. I was rolling to the basket, and Tony (Parker)
found me every time." Splitter commented after his big night.
The Hornets found difficult to penetrate in the paint and were outscored 36-66 by the Spurs near the board region.
New Orleans started off well; they were in front for most of the first quarter. They even extended their lead to 7 points early in the first period before the Spurs came back to negate the deficit down to 32-35. The second quarter
also had a similar pattern. The Hornets pulled away early before the Spurs caught up with them near the end of the quarter. New Orleans outscored San Antonio by a single point in the second quarter to go into the locker room holding a 4 points lead.
Third period was the coldest quarter of the game. A total of 33 points were scored in the quarter as players from both teams missed quite a few of their basket opportunities. The Spurs managed to cut the deficit by three points
by the end of the third period. They meant business in the final period and outscored the Hornets 28-23 to secure the win.
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