San Antonio pulled to 85-77 on Udoka’s third 3-pointer, but Paul responded with a driving layup with 4:33 left and scored again on a pass from West to turn back the Spurs’ rally.

Paul, who had six points in the first half, scored nine points and set up Chandler for an alley-oop dunk during a 20-4 Hornets run to open the third quarter. Peterson’s 3 capped the surge, giving New Orleans a 64-51 lead.

While Stojakovic managed only nine points, he recognized who had the hot hand. His pass to the corner set up Peterson’s fourth 3, which put the Hornets ahead 68-54. Paul then added two free throws, giving him 12 for the quarter, and West scored his 30th point of the game on a jumper over Parker, giving the Hornets a 72-58 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Duncan was held scoreless until early the second quarter, but the Spurs hit their first four 3s and six of their first eight. Ginobili’s second 3 put San Antonio up 37-30.

West, who had 22 in the opening half, got New Orleans to 38-36 on a jumper late in the second quarter, then tied it at 43 when he put back a blocked fast-break layup.

The Spurs took a 47-44 lead into halftime after Parker got up from a hard foul and sank two free throws in the final seconds.

Then, as in the first two games of this series, the Hornets stormed ahead in the third quarter, this time outscoring San Antonio 28-11 in the decisive period.

“The New Orleans defense was great tonight,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They played fantastic, especially in the third quarter and that’s when they got away from us and that was the end of the game.”

Notes: Popovich was called for a technical between the first and second quarters while arguing with referee Joe Crawford about an earlier delay of game call. ... Robert Horry’s appearance for San Antonio gave him 238 in the playoffs, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most in NBA history. ... New Orleans’ Melvin Ely and Fabricio Oberto of the Spurs were called for double fouls and double technicals after a collision under the San Antonio basket in the first quarter. ... Saints quarterback Drew Brees, among the local celebrities at the game, signed a football brought to him by a Hornets mascot and threw it to a fan in the upper deck of the arena.

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