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Paul leads Hornets against Spurs in Game One

May 3, 2008 - 2:01 PM San Antonio at New Orleans 10:00 pm EDT Western Conference semifinals

NEW ORLEANS (Ticker) - The second-seeded New Orleans Hornets and third-seeded San Antonio Spurs meet for Game One of their Western Conference semifinal series on Saturday.

The Hornets looked very impressive during their first round series, ousting the seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks in five games.

Chris Paul continued his stellar season in the opening round, saving his best performance for the series-clincher.

Paul registered his first career postseason triple-double with 24 points, 10 rebounds and a game-high 15 assists as New Orleans finished off the Mavericks with a 99-94 victory in Game Five on Tuesday.

Committing just six turnovers during the opening round, Paul became the first player in postseason history to have 30-point, 10-assist games in his first two playoff contests.

While the Hornets are through to the second round for the first time since the franchise relocated to New Orleans in 2002, the Spurs are the reigning NBA champions.

San Antonio is coming off a four-games-to-one rout of the sixth-seeded Phoenix Suns in the first round.

Considered in many basketball circles to be an even matchup, San Antonio dominated the Suns from start to finish - scoring in the lane at will while Tim Duncan continued to solidify himself as one of the greatest power forwards of all-time.

Duncan averaged almost 25 points and just under 14 rebounds per game and hit his only 3-pointer of the season en route to a double-overtime victory in Game One.

Spurs point guard Tony Parker logged 29 points and seven assists in the first round and understands he faces a difficult matchup against Paul and the rest of his teammates.

"It is going to be a great matchup," Parker said. "They're a great team, a very young team. They have two all stars with Chris Paul and David West, so it's going to be a very good series.

"In the season, we went 2-2 with them, so we are going to have a lot of work, and it's going to be tough."