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(Saturday, March 24th) Final Score: San Antonio 89, New Orleans 86 New Orleans, LA (Sports Network) - Danny Green made the go-ahead jumper with 41.8 seconds left and the Spurs got past the Hornets, 89-86, on Saturday. DeJuan Blair scored 23 points to pace San Antonio while Stephen Jackson added 14, Tim Duncan 13 and Tony Parker 12 with 10 assists. The Spurs have won three straight and six of their last seven. They will conclude a back-to-back-to- back stretch Sunday against Philadelphia. "I thought New Orleans was more efficient than we were and executed better than we did," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "We just had to hang in there and keep plugging. That is probably the best thing we did, was keep on pushing and at the end of the game it worked out. So we were fortunate." Jarrett Jack had 27 points for New Orleans, which was coming off a 97-90 win over former teammate Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. Marco Belinelli's jumper gave New Orleans an 86-85 lead with 1:33 remaining but Duncan responded on the other end, tipping in a Jackson miss to put the Spurs on top. After Jack missed a driving, contested layup off the front of the rim, Green caught the ball near the baseline, took one dribble to his left and hit a pull-up jumper for an 89-86 advantage. Jack was called for a carry on the Hornets' next possession, but Parker couldn't capitalize, missing a 17-footer with 8.9 seconds left. Out of a timeout, Jack passed up a three-pointer and instead drove to the basket, where he missed a contested layup. "I was just trying to make a play at the basket," said Jack. "My legs were kind of tired at that particular point. I tried to muster it up there, and I just didn't have enough steam to get it up on the glass." Green was fouled and was off on a pair of free throws -- the Spurs' only misses from the foul line in the contest -- but Belinelli's long three-point heave at the buzzer fell short of the rim. The contest was consistently hard-fought from beginning to end. It featured 14 ties, 16 lead changes, and neither team led by more than six points. Jack scored 17 in the first half and New Orleans was up, 48-47, at the break before San Antonio took a 73-72 lead into the fourth. Game Notes The Spurs went 15-of-17 from the foul line. The Hornets went 11-of-12...San Antonio has won 10 of its last 12 meetings with New Orleans...The Spurs were without guard Manu Ginobili (hip) and forward Tiago Splitter (back spasms) while the Hornets played without centers Chris Kaman (illness) and Emeka Okafor (sore left knee) and forwards Trevor Ariza (sore right ankle) and Jason Smith (league suspension). Smith served the first of a two-game suspension which he received for committing a flagrant 2 foul on Clippers forward Blake Griffin on Thursday. 03/25 00:02:44 ET Powered by The Sports Network. |