The Spurs hoisted 29 shots from 3-point range against New Orleans. Twenty-two off them bounced off of the rim.

That long-distance power outage from the NBA's second-best 3-point shooting team made it possible for the depleted Hornets to wrest away a key victory in an ever-fluid Western Conference race.

"We got the shots we wanted from the people we wanted," Tim Duncan said. "They just didn't go down."

Matt Bonner, the team's most accurate long-ball artist, was 1 of 5. Ime Udoka was 0 of 5. Michael Finley was 5 of 12 overall and 2 of 6 from 3-point range.

Mason missed all four of his attempts, including two from 3-point range, and turned in the first scoreless outing of his Spurs career. The misses made it difficult for the Spurs to win on a night in which they turned in one of their better defensive efforts.

"Missing can be contagious," Bonner said. "You start to miss a couple, the basket gets smaller."

But at the end of a night of not being able to throw the ball in the Mississippi River, the basket shrinking to a pinhole, the Spurs very nearly salvaged a miracle from the 3-point line.

The Spurs were down seven points when Manu Ginobili sunk his fourth 3-pointer with 25.3 seconds left. After New Orleans botched the inbounds play, with the ball going through Rasual Butler's hands, Finley hit another one with 17.8 seconds to go.

Suddenly, the Spurs (48-25) were within 87-86 and had a chance.

Chris Paul, who otherwise had an ordinary 26-point, nine-assist night, weaved up the court, waited for Ginobili to reach for him, then rose for a half-court shot. Officials awarded Paul three foul shots, and he sank all three to ice the game.

The Hornets (45-27) earned the victory despite being down two starters - Tyson Chandler (ankle) and Peja Stojakovic (back) - and with a key reserve, James Posey, serving a one-game suspension.

"We are a wounded animal," said New Orleans coach Byron Scott, whose team sits seventh in the West. "We have no choice but to come out fighting."

Tony Parker had 20 points and seven assists to lead the Spurs, while Duncan contributed 19 points and 15 rebounds.

New Orleans shot 37.5 percent from the field, becoming the second Spurs opponent this season to finish below 40 percent and still win the game. Oklahoma City was the other, pulling off that feat March 16.

The Hornets did it in large measure from the foul line, a place where they were as good as the Spurs were bad from the 3-point stripe. Led by David West's 11-of-11 showing, New Orleans made 32 of 33 free throws.

"They played more aggressively than we did," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They wanted the game more than we did. They played sharper than we did for more minutes than we did."

The Spurs were done in by a constant barrage of misfires from 3-point range. They were below 20 percent for most of the night, and flirted with their season low of 11.8 percent set in a loss to Denver in November.

Afterward, Popovich would not criticize his team for something as capricious as missing shots. However, he did censure his team for not doing enough little things to weather the hail of misses.

"We had an abysmal night from three, and that would have helped a great deal if they had gone down," Popovich said. "It comes down to execution and playing aggressively. In that regard, they took advantage of us not making threes."

Still, the Spurs left New Orleans Arena knowing if they had only been as bad as 9 of 29 from 3-point range, they might have won the game.

"We just didn't get enough shots to go down," Duncan said. "We have to continue to shoot the open ones, and hope for the best."