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Spurs face elimination by Hornets in Game Six

May 15, 2008 - 1:55 PM New Orleans at San Antonio 9:00 pm EDT Western Conference semifinals Hornets lead, 3-2

SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) - The defending champion San Antonio Spurs have their backs against the wall.

The Spurs will try to avoid elimination from the playoffs when they face the New Orleans Hornets in Game Six of the Western Conference semifinals on Thursday.

Once again San Antonio came up on the short end of the stick on the road, dropping a 101-78 decision to the Hornets to create a three-games-to-two hole in this best-of-seven series.

"The New Orleans defense was great," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They played fantastic, especially in the third quarter and that's when they got away from us and that was the end of the game."

"We know their backs are against the wall and they're going to come at us with everything they got," Hornets coach Byron Scott said.

Scott has his team just one step away from making its first trip to the conference finals. The franchise never appeared in the Eastern Conference finals when they were located in Charlotte.

"We've proved all season long we're one of the better teams in the NBA," Scott said. "We had every reason after Games Three and Four to fold, but again, being with these guys, they've showed this type of resilience all season, so I'm not surprised."

But if the postseason holds true to form, the Spurs could be heading back to the "Big Easy" for a pivotal Game Seven as the home team owns a 16-1 record in all four NBA's conference semifinals.

David West had his way in the paint, scoring a playoff career-high 38 points, compared to just 10 from Tim Duncan, who has been held in check most of this series by Tyson Chandler.

"They did a great job of crowding the paint and also getting back to our shooters," Duncan said. "They were very physical on the post. I didn't shoot the ball very well and those opportunities kind of turned into them running it back at us."

Hornets guard Chris Paul netted 16 of his 22 points after the break to continued his outstanding postseason performance.

The Spurs are looking to capture back-to-back NBA titles for the first time. They have failed to make it to the conference finals in each of their last three championship defenses following the 1999, 2003 and 2005 seasons.