Scanning the blogs and beats following the Spurs' 100-80 win over the Hornets in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals ...

Buck Harvey, SA Express-News: "Horry said everyone tends to exaggerate experience and that this is still basketball. He’s not wrong on that. As Gregg Popovich often jokes about the media’s ability to switch themes nightly, the Spurs are old when they lose and experienced when they win. But what happened Sunday is not an accident. The Spurs took apart the Hornets’ defense while their own solidified. This is what happens when you’ve survived on the playoff road in Phoenix and Detroit and Salt Lake City, and you’ve swept one NBA Finals and played a Game 7 in another."

John Reid, The Times-Picayune: "Coach Byron Scott urged his players to push the tempo, keep Spurs stars Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili from driving to the basket and limit Tim Duncan as best as possible. None of those three objectives were accomplished. Parker got through first and second lines of defenses. Ginobili made difficult shots, and Duncan had no problems shooting over Tyson Chandler. Duncan led the Spurs with 22 points, Parker scored 21 and Ginobili had 15. The Spurs made 51 percent of their shots, and they made eight 3-pointers."

Mike Finger, SA Express-News: "Easy. That was the word David West couldn’t even bring himself to say. It was the word that never should have been on his mind, let alone his lips. And now, in the cold, cruel moments after the Spurs had shown him how foolish he was for even considering it, it was the word that made him shake his head, sigh and realize how much can change in one four-day trip to Texas. "We thought it was going to be ...," West said, trailing off. He sat at his locker in the AT&T Center late Sunday night, icepacks wrapped around his knees, a stupefied look on his face. He had just absorbed a second consecutive blowout loss, had just missed 11 shots and made only four, had just seen the Spurs even a playoff series his New Orleans Hornets had hoped would be over by now."

Hornets 24/7: "Essentially, even when the Hornets managed to do good things, they couldn't finish them. Of course, I don't want to give the impression that the Hornets were doing lots of good things. I said in my last post that I felt comfortable because the Spurs hadn't shown they could stop our offense. They did it tonight. Oh, and don't let the spurs 30.8% long range shooting fool you. Finley and Udoka killed us from long range when the minutes mattered, and Parker seemed to hit every long shot he took."

48 Minutes of Hell: "We got exactly what we wanted out of CP3 tonight, which was a good but not great game in which he felt like he had to shoulder the burden for a team that was struggling offensively. We have done a solid job limiting the number of perimeter shots the Hornets are getting, as well as stopping West from getting open mid-range shots and Chandler from getting alley-oops. We have made their offense ebb and flow on the state of Chris Paul's shooting. This is exactly what we wanted."

At The Hive: "... there's one thing we have to change back in New Orleans: don't bring the double on Duncan until he puts the ball on the floor. Timmah's a terrific passer from the paint, and given the opportunity, he will pick you apart. It's far easier to pass while holding the ball instead of dribbling it. Throw in the fact that Duncan usually goes into this weird little bendy thing with his head projecting far ahead of his body whilst driving, and it makes it even more obvious that he needs to start dribbling."

John DeShazier, The Times-Picayune: "The Hornets worked long and hard, playing 82 regular-season games over the course of six months, in order to secure home-court advantage for as long as possible in the Western Conference playoffs. Good thing they have it in the semifinals, because they're probably going to need it. They're going to need every ounce of energy and electricity they can squeeze out of the home crowd and every advantage associated with knowing the rims and bounces of the New Orleans Arena on Tuesday night. Because on Sunday night at the AT&T Center they again failed to make a connection, again watched the Spurs jam their signal."

Mike Monroe, SA Express-News: "Horry appeared in 87 playoff games with the Lakers, 74 with the Houston Rockets and has now been in 72 since joining the Spurs before the 2004-05 season. The 16-year veteran from Alabama has a keen memory about his postseason experiences. When a producer from the TNT network asked him on Saturday to videotape a brief message to his mother for Sunday’s Mother’s Day telecast, he declined, citing a bad Mother’s Day experience in 1995, while he was with the Rockets. "I did that once before," he said, "and we lost the game, so I’m not doing it again. It was an afternoon game on Mother’s Day, and there were about 12 people there, and we lost the game."

Pounding The Rock: I ... drink ... your ... milkshake!

Related: The Internets are alive, 2008 NBA Playoffs