Balanced Spurs start with win over Hornets

Reuters | 10/29/2009 5:56 PM

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The healthy-again San Antonio Spurs showcased their new-found depth to produce a balanced attacking effort and open their season with a 113-96 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday.

Tony Parker top-scored with 17 points and Manu Ginobili added 16 for the Spurs, who had six players scoring 10 or more points. Three others scored nine points each.

"I wasn't really expecting to score a lot," Ginobili told reporters, playing for the first time since an ankle injury last season forced him to miss 38 games.

"My job this year won't be about scoring as much but creating and changing the pace of the game coming off the bench."

All-Star point guard Chris Paul had a game-high 26 points and nine assists for the Hornets, who also received 18 points each from David West and center Emeka Okafor, who added 10 rebounds.

San Antonio were injury-plagued last season with Parker, veteran Tim Duncan and Ginobili all effected and they failed to advance beyond the first round of the Western Conference playoffs for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.

The team sought to add depth in the off-season, trading for athletic swingman Richard Jefferson and acquiring forward-center Antonio McDyess and center Theo Ratliff.

That depth was evident on Wednesday when rookie DeJuan Blair scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Roger Mason added 11 points. Both came off the bench and played more than 20 minutes each.

"After what happened (last year) we knew we had to improve our team and now we have a lot of weapons," Parker said.

"We're really good offensively, but we have to get back to being one of the top defensive teams too."

San Antonio edged out to a 19-13 first quarter lead and then made six three-pointers in the second to take a commanding 57-39 advantage at halftime.

Parker landed hard while driving to the basket in the third quarter and left the game, though he appeared to be unaffected afterwards.

Paul finished 11-for-16 from the floor, while his Hornets' team mates also shot the ball well but allowed San Antonio to shoot 52 percent and share the scoring load with 29 assists.

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