It’s not over…..

but its damn near close.

Stop me if you have heard this before.

Spurs play well in first half of game in New Orleans, have a lead in the third quarter, lose by nearly 20. All that optimism we Spurs fans had after two big wins in the Alamo City?

Gone like a raspa in July.

The defending champs sit on the brink of elimination, having to win two in a row. One is at home, where SA is perfect this postseason and have won their last 11 postseason games and 12 in a row from this regular season to now. Taking this to a Game 7 should not be a problem, its winning that Game 7 that could be a problem. The Spurs have yet to prove to conquer the Crescent City in this series. The last time San Antonio did win there? November 9th. The Spurs have lost their last 4 games in New Orleans by an average of 23 points in three playoff games and one regular season game. If you take out the last regular season game (a 25-point drubbing) that average plummets to 19!

Can it be done? Oh absolutely. Will it be done? I’m not so sure.

Hey, I am as diehard as they come. I started going to games back in the 70’s, was around for the Ice Age and the Robinson Era..not to mention the dark days in between..and I am there now but I know what I have seen. It’s almost like a split squad game in Baseball spring training. You divide the team into two squads and send the B team on the road. The Spurs have been the B team on the road this round. B as in befuddled, bewildered and just plain bad. In two games at AT&T Center, the silver and black have rung up 110 and 100 points, away from it, 82, 84 and 79.

What I want to know is this….what is Byron Scott is saying at halftime? What the hell is in the Gatorade at 1501 Girod Street? Did he dig up Marie Laveau herself? Whatever BScott is doing, its working. In the three games at home, the Hornets are a +12, +18 and +17 in points in the third quarter. After that, the Spurs just could not recover. Apparently the third quarter is the key, in the games in San Antonio, the Spurs were +7 and +11 and the Hornets faded.

I know what you are asking now…”ok stat geek, what have the Spurs done when down 3-2″ You probably do not want to know. 9 times have the Spurs been down 3 games to 2. 6 times, they have lost game 6, the three times they did win (2006, 1990 and 1981) they lost game 7. The odds are not in their favor…then again, its never in any team’s favor in that position so its not just a Spurs thing.

How do they pull this off? Well, the first thing is not too think of having to win 2 games. Start with the one on Thursday night. Get that one, but don’t assume it is automatic. You don’t get to game 7 without winning game 6 so we are not going to even talk about a game 7 here. The one thing that the Spurs have done consistently is that when the situation is desperate, they have risen to the occasion. That is what I think they will do in game 6. Facing elimination, I think they will play with the desperation we saw in games 3 and 4…if they don’t….the next blog is about the off season.