Ginobili's 30 Points Lead Spurs to 98-89 Win Over Hornets
By ELIZABETH WHITE | Associated Press | Feb 23, 08 10:38 PM CST in
Sports
Manu Ginobili had 30 points and a career-high 12 assists, and Tim Duncan added 25 points and 11 rebounds Saturday night to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 98-89 win over the New Orleans Hornets for their fifth straight win.
Chris Paul had 27 points and David West 16 for the Hornets, who have lost two in a row and are tied atop the Southwest Division with a 37-17 record.
Down by 17 with 1:26 to play in the third, Paul and Jannero Pargo led a 19-2 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters to tie it at 78 with 7:05 remaining.
During the run, the Spurs didn't hit a shot from the field for 8 1/2 minutes. Their only scoring during the span came from six free throws.
But the Spurs weren't about to suffer a repeat of late January, when the Hornets routed them 102-78. In this one, the Hornets never took the lead after losing it midway through the first quarter.
Back-to-back 3s from Bruce Bowen and Ginobili gave the Spurs a 10-point lead, 94-84, with just over two minutes to play, and the Hornets didn't threaten after that.
New Hornets guard Mike James played almost 16 minutes and scored five points and new swingman Bonzi Wells played more than 19 minutes and scored two points.
The two were acquired in a deal Thursday before the trading deadline that sent Bobby Jackson to the Houston Rockets.
The Spurs tore away in the second quarter and were up 50-35 at halftime.
Duncan scored seven points in that last 4 1/2 minutes, including an emphatic putback dunk after Ginobili's running jumper missed that put San Antonio up 47-35.
New Orleans shot just 14-of-42 from the field in the first half and hit only five shots in the second quarter.
Ginobili's 14 third-quarter points, including three 3s, and a dunk that showed aging veteran Robert Horry can still jump, put the Spurs up by as many as 17 late in the period before the Hornets started their burst.
Notes:@ The teams will meet once more this season when New Orleans hosts the Spurs on March 12. The Spurs lead the season series 2-1. ... New Spurs C-F Kurt Thomas, acquired from Seattle on Wednesday for Brent Barry, Francisco Elson and a 2009 first-round pick, was in uniform Saturday but didn't play. ... The Spurs outrebounded the Hornets 43-35 and had a 42-30 advantage in the paint.
(This version CORRECTS SUBS 2nd graf to correct to Southwest Division sted Western Conference. Spurs 98, Hornets 89.)
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