TO BE THE TEAM, YOU GOTTA BEAT THE TEAM…SPURS DEFEAT HORNETS

The legendary wrestler Ric Flair was in attendance Monday night for the game between the San Antonio Spurs verses the New Orleans Hornets. Throughout the playoffs after the Hornets made a great play, or the crowd noise had decreased, the sounds of WOO would blare over the loud speaker and the fans would reciprocate with a WOO of there own. The great Ric Flair is responsible for that call and response ritual and it was a staple when a fan would go to the game.

There is a saying that Flair has said throughout his Hall of Fame, iconic wresting career that also should have resonated throughout the locker room of the New Orleans Hornets after there 91-82 loss to the San Antonio Spurs… TO BE THE MAN, YOU GOTTA BEAT THE MAN. And as gallant and determined the Hornets were last night, they proved they are not yet ready to be the men.

The Spurs had to use all of their experience, talent and guile to finally end the unlikely journey of this Hornets team. Due in part of New Orleans great defense and San Antonio lack of offense, the Spurs survived another poor shooting night from Tim Duncan, despite being singled covered by Tyson Chandler. They almost blew a 17 point lead going into the fourth quarter if Jannero Pargo could have connected on a wide open three point shot with around a minute left to play. They survived shooting only 28% in the second half and scoring only 40 points. In fact, the offense in the second half was so bad, I thought the Cleveland Cavilers coaching staff had flown in at halftime and had taken control of the offense.

The Spurs won this game because the Hornets were not ready for that next step. I have always said I’ll take talent over experience anytime, but this time, experience was victorious. A player such as Robert Horry, who most basketball folks didn’t know was still alive, came back from the basketball grave and did what “Big Game Rob” usually does…Perform. Michael Finley hit two three point shots and was perfect from the field in 11 minutes. Just to let everyone know he can do some other things besides shot 3 point shots, he also grabbed 4 rebounds.

One could make a strong argument that players three through twelve on the Hornets squad are better individual basketball talents than the Spurs (numbers one and two are Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, and I won’t buy any argument against them). The Hornets are the younger, stronger, more athletic, and dynamic team than San Antonio. But in this card game, when the Spurs went to play the trump card, which was experience, New Orleans had nothing in its arsenal to combat it. Game, set and series.

It was quite evident from the start of game seven, that this was going to be a lot different game than the previous three games at home where New Orleans had the defending champs beaten and befuddled. There was a sense that New Orleans knew the Spurs were going to give them all they could handle despite the previous games. The good news for New Orleans was they would not be caught with their point guards down and become bewildered when the Spurs showed why they are a dynasty.

The bad news in knowing that information was Hornets played tighter than at anytime at home in the series. It seemed they realized the magnitude of the contest and started thinking instead of playing, thinking about making the open shots instead of just shooting them. At one point, New Orleans was 15-40 from the field and with each wide open miss, desperation, despair and inevitability began to set firmly into their minds. The Hornets knew they were the better team, they knew they had blown them out at home; but it seemed they also knew that in a game like this, the Hornets were the one’s who were the students and San Antonio were giving the lesson on how this playoff thing works.

Give New Orleans humongous credit for fighting back, and San Antonio a slight scolding for not putting them away when they had them down by 17 after three periods. But in the end, the Spurs move on to defend their title for another round. For the Hornets, it’s time to take what they learned and improve for next. And like Flair said, to be the man, you gotta beat the man.