The Hornets have a huge task ahead of them. They have a chance to knock out the defending champion Spurs and they are going to have to do it on their home floor. They can’t expect David West to have another 38 point and 14 rebound night. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of intensity this young team lead by Chris Paul will show with a chance to close out the Spurs. Here’s what I think both teams need to do in order to win.

Hornets:

Chris Paul has to be able to penetrate and find his shooters and/or Tyson Chandler. While Peja did not have a great shooting day in Game 5, Peterson hit 4 3 pointers and the Hornets are going to need those long bombs to keep the pressure off David West inside.

Keep playing good interior defense. Chandler and West combined both 8 blocks and Tim Duncan was reduced to a 5-18 shooting night in Game 5.

Spurs:

Find a way to get their stars going. Most of the role players have been playing their games. Bowen hits his open shots. Udoka hits his open shots. Oberto does the dirty work. The 3 of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili simply having been living up to their high standards. Parker seems to be the only consistent one beacuse he continually gets to the basket. Tim Duncan has been having a sub-par series and seems to have problems going up against a big, long defender like Chandler. Ginobili just has not been as dominant as he usually is. Maybe I’m just accustomed to seeing him make wild circus shots around the basket. These 3 definitely have to do more in order for the Spurs to win.

Prediction: I think the home court trend of the second round continues. The Spurs will feed off their home crowd and there’d no way Duncan and Ginobili have 2 bad games in a row. The Spurs will win a close game that the Hornets will have a chance to steal. But the poise of the Spurs will prevail and send the series back to New Orleans.