New Orleans, LA (Best E Casino) - David West had career playoff-highs of 38 points and 14 rebounds, and the New Orleans Hornets continued their success at home with a 101-79 win over San Antonio, pushing ahead after five games of their Western Conference semifinal series.

Chris Paul added 22 points and 14 assists for the Hornets, who hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday in San Antonio.

West, who shot 16-of-25 from the field, also had five assists and five blocked shots. The Hornets are one win away from advancing past second round for first time in franchise history.

Morris Peterson tallied 12 points and Jannero Pargo 10 for New Orleans, which had just six turnovers. The Hornets are 6-0 at home in the playoffs this year.

"We had to treat this like a Game 7 because there was no way that we wanted to go back to San Antonio with them having an opportunity to pull this out down there," West said. "We just wanted to make sure that we took care of home."

Hornets center Tyson Chandler had to be helped to the bench with 8:47 left in the fourth quarter after hurting a toe on his left foot. He didn't return. To make matters worse, West played through a back injury most of the night.

"Both are sore," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "Both are a little beat up. We'll get a chance tomorrow to go through some things as far as looking at the tape and then get on the flight. The good thing about both of them is that they're young. Hopefully, they will be ready Thursday. It's Tyson's toe and David's back. I think that (West's injury) it's pretty serious. Is it going to keep him out of Game 6? Probably not. We just need to make sure that we get some treatment on there, get some rest, and get ready for Thursday."

Manu Ginobili scored 20 points and dished out seven assists for the Spurs. Tim Duncan finished with 10 points and 23 rebounds, but was hurt by a 5-for-18 performance from the field. Tony Parker scored 18 and Bruce Bowen 10 in defeat.

The home team has won every game in this series, and Tuesday brought a carbon copy of the first two games, when the Hornets won by 19 and 18 points, respectively.

The Spurs were ahead 47-44 at the half, but fell apart in the third quarter. New Orleans outscored the defending NBA champions 28-11 in the period and maintained a comfortable advantage throughout the fourth. The closest the Spurs got was eight points, at 85-77 with barely under five minutes left on a bucket by Ime Udoka.

"I thought 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."

However, the Hornets scored the next 13 points with seven coming from Pargo. Paul started the burst with a driving layup, and after Parker missed two free throws, the third-year guard drove in for another layup with 3:24 remaining for an 89-77 difference.

A layup from Duncan moved the Spurs to a 51-50 lead with 8:57 left in the third, but the Hornets scored the ensuing 14 points. Paul scored seven in a row, and his pass to Chandler resulted in an alley-oop jam for a 61-51 margin with 5:24 left. Peterson followed with a three-pointer to cap the rally.

San Antonio led 23-21 after the opening quarter and was ahead by as many as seven in the second, the last time at 43-36 with 1:49 remaining on a Ginobili three-point play. However, the Hornets scored the ensuing seven points, started by a Peterson three.

Game Notes

West finished the game one point shy of a Hornets playoff record. Glen Rice had 39 on April 26, 1997 at New York, when the Hornets were located in Charlotte...The home team is 17-1 in this round of this year's NBA playoffs...The Spurs have never won a playoff series when they lost the first two games of the set. Conversely, the Hornets are 0-4 in the second round of the playoffs, having lost to New York (1993), Chicago (1998), Milwaukee (2001) and New Jersey (2002)...San Antonio forward Robert Horry played in his 238th playoff game, moving past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most all-time in league history...The Spurs shot 37.7 percent from the field...Peja Stojakovic scored nine and had 11 rebounds for New Orleans.