Ron Schwane / AP

Forward David West needs to give the Hornets another huge season to help New Orleans in its quest to win the Western Conference and make the NBA finals next season, writes Steve Jones of NBCSports.com.

Detroit
The Pistons have a very good team which just hasn’t met its high expectations the last few seasons. The conference finals have been the end of the road. So exit Flip Saunders, who has been replaced as coach by Michael Curry. Under Larry Brown Detroit won the 2004 title and almost repeated the next season. That proved too tough an act to follow for Saunders, who was let down by his players who were overconfident that they could always come out of any tough situation.

Curry must put an end to that way of thinking and also must make sure his talented cast plays hard at all times, eliminating the lapses when the team resembles “zombies” — the word used by Pistons forward Antonio McDyess when talking about Detroit’s inconsistent play. The Pistons have the players to win a championship but Curry must get more out of those players than Saunders did. The window of opportunity to win a title is not yet closed on this group but Curry knows that time is coming in the not-too-distant future.

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Justin Edmonds / Getty Images

Spurs control Paul -- and Game 1

  PBT: L.A. had occasional bright spots in loss to San Antonio, but when allowed its star PG to be smothered, it never had a chance.

Mike Stone / Reuters

Spurs show no sign of rust, handle Clippers

Tim Duncan had 26 points and 10 rebounds and the San Antonio Spurs, recharged after a weeklong layoff, wore down the busy Los Angeles Clippers to win Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series, 108-92 on Tuesday night.

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