(Best E Casino) - The defending world champion San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Hornets play the pivotal Game 5 of their Western Conference semifinal series tonight at New Orleans Arena.

This series is knotted at 2-2. Game 6 of this best-of-seven set is scheduled for Thursday at the AT&T Center.

The home team has won all four games in this series. On Sunday, Tim Duncan had a dominating performance with 22 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots, as the third-seeded Spurs crushed the No. 2 New Orleans, 100-80, evening this series at two games apiece.

Tony Parker contributed 21 points, six rebounds and eight assists for San Antonio, which is 5-0 at home in this year's playoffs. Manu Ginobili and Ime Udoka both scored 15, while Michael Finley came off the bench for 12 points.

Star point guard Chris Paul scored 23 for the Hornets, who shot 40.2 percent from the field. Jannero Pargo netted 11 and David West finished with 10 points in the loss.

San Antonio, which is 1-3 on the road in this year's postseason, has won 10 straight Game 5s in the playoffs. The Spurs have never won a playoff series when they lose the first two games of the set.

The Hornets, who have never lost a playoff series when they win Games 1 and 2, are 5-0 at home in this year's playoffs. They are 3-4 all-time in Game 5s in the postseason.

If veteran forward Robert Horry plays in tonight's contest for San Antonio, he would participate in his 238th postseason game, most in league history. The 37-year-old Horry is averaging 1.8 points in eight playoff appearances this postseason.

The Southwest Division-champion and second-seeded Hornets are back in the postseason for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign. New Orleans moved to the Western Conference for the 2004-05 campaign, and are competing in the West playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

New Orleans won its first best-of-seven playoff series (1-6) in franchise history, as it defeated the seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks in five games, 4-1, in the first round of the postseason.

The Hornets are 0-4 in the second round of the playoffs. They lost to New York (4-1) in 1993, Chicago (4-1) in 1998, Milwaukee (4-3) in 2001 and New Jersey (4-1) in 2002.

The Spurs, who swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in last year's NBA Finals, have captured four world championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007) in the last nine years.

History is not on San Antonio's side. Following a championship, the Spurs have never made it past the Western Conference semifinals in the playoffs. In 2000 they fell in the opening round to Phoenix, and lost in the semis to the Lakers in 2004 and Dallas in 2006.

San Antonio, which is playing in the postseason for the 11th straight year, advanced to the West semis for the eighth straight year. The Spurs knocked out Steve Nash and the sixth-seeded Phoenix Suns in five games in round one.

The Spurs have won four of their last seven trips to the West semis. They defeated the Suns, 4-2, last year in this round.

This is the first time the Hornets and Spurs have met in the playoffs.