It was about the time David Robinson showed up at the Alamodome with a slight limp that the Spurs knew good help might be hard to find Tuesday night.

As it turned out, the Spurs would have simply settled for a pair of good hands.

After committing 15 turnovers in the first three quarters, then going scoreless for the first 5:57 of the final quarter, the Spurs fell 78-73 to Charlotte on Tuesday night at the Alamodome.

About 10 minutes after the game ended, police officers, ushers and security guards evacuated the Alamodome because of a bomb threat.

Though most of the crowd of 16,624 had already begun filing out, some of the players were still in their uniforms when they were told about the threat. After a sweep, the building was declared safe about 11:20 p.m.

The Spurs' play at the Alamodome has fast become a disaster of its own, forcing the team to drag a three-game home losing streak into tonight's meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers.

The current swoon is the Spurs' longest at home since they dropped four straight at the end of the 1996-97 season, a season in which David Robinson played in only six games. In no other season during Robinson's 13-year tenure have the Spurs lost more than three consecutive games at home.

Having fallen to 16-7 at the Alamodome this season, the Spurs are only one home loss shy of what they suffered all of last year when they went an NBA-best 33-8. Never have they finished with an overall winning record while losing more than 12 home games.

The only thing that threw a scare into the Hornets Tuesday was a postgame bomb scare. The San Antonio Spurs? Not on this night.

Turning a most unusual set of circumstances to their advantage, the Hornets overcame an early assault by Tim Duncan and the Spurs, then controlled the second half on the way to a 78-73 victory at the Alamodome.

Charlotte (21-23) was fighting the odds in this one, coming off a back-to-back set of weekend defeats and playing one of the league's Western Conference powers in a road game. The outlook didn't change that much even though the Spurs (29-14) announced just before the game that one of their twin towers, 7-1 David Robinson, would not be playing because of a right knee bruise.

The scenario got worse. Starting point guard Baron Davis, the Hornets' leading scorer with a 19.3 average, was fighting a stomach virus. And once the game began, the Spurs started getting points in bunches from 7-0 Tim Duncan and sprinted away early to a 12-point lead.

With Davis and fellow backcourt starter David Wesley misfiring repeatedly as they began what would be a night of misadventure -- they finished with a combined 6-for-29 and 14 points -- it appeared that Charlotte was headed for a third consecutive loss.

That was before the Hornets' defense rose up with an aggressive second-half performance, before Bryce Drew scored 15 to power a dominating bench effort and long before someone phoned in a bomb threat that prompted San Antonio police to start rushing everyone from the arena just minutes after the game's conclusion.

The bench production was huge. In addition to Drew, Jamaal Magloire scored nine and Stacey Augmon eight. George Lynch grabbed nine rebounds, one off Elden Campbell's team-high of 10. Overall, Charlotte's bench topped San Antonio's reserves in scoring (34-10) and rebounding (23-9).

Duncan closed with 29 points, only nine in the final two quarters, and 21 rebounds.

"It seems like every time we get our backs to the wall, we come up with a big win," forward P.J. Brown said. "We really needed this game and we got it. But we shouldn't rely on things like this to get us out of trouble."

Drew started providing some of his points late in the first quarter as the Hornets began their comeback from the 12-point deficit. Just after entering the game with about four minutes to play in the period he hit a baseline jumper, then followed with a three-pointer.

That helped Charlotte close in by the end of the quarter, when San Antonio's lead was down to five. And the momentum carried over into the second, producing an overall 19-6 run that put the Hornets into the lead shortly before halftime.

They led 65-63 at the break. At that point Duncan was riddling their defense, however, hitting 8-of-9 shots and scoring 20 with nine rebounds. They knew they couldn't afford to let that continue.

"They missed David (Robinson)," Brown said. "Duncan had to shoulder more of the load with him out. Our big key was the second half. Duncan had 20 in the first so we went to work even harder on him defensively (doubling him with two big men every time he touched the ball)."

The Hornets opened a seven-point lead in the third quarter when San Antonio went six minutes without a point. They had a scoring drought of their own that allowed the Spurs to slip back within two, then pushed out to a nine-point lead.

San Antonio scrambled in the final minutes to pull it out. When Duncan hit one of two free throws with 45.5 seconds left Charlotte's lead was a single point, 74-73.

But, with the Spurs forced to foul, the Hornets responded at the line to close it out.

Brown and Augmon hit two free throws apiece in the final seconds to seal it.

Peter Vescey admits that he's, "no budget director or restoration expert," but talks about the Tim Duncan situation at the end of the 2002/03 season.

He figures all thoughts of Duncan abandoning the Spurs are off-track.  While most people are commenting on how much Cap space the Magic and other teams will have, they forget that the Spurs will have even more.

Once the assumption is made that Duncan will stay, Vescey looks at Jason Kidd's option at the end of 02/03 and asks if Kidd might be the one to bolt ... to San Antonio.

Hey, it's not an outrageous thought, but we mention it here because we haven't had anything from Vescey for a while.

Charlotte (20-23) at San Antonio (29-13), 8:30 p.m., Alamodome; TV: WAXN, Ch. 64; Radio: WBT-AM (1110)
LEONARD LAYE
Staff Writer

At first glance the view was not particularly good for the Hornets. Look back and they could see two weekend losses. Look ahead and they find a tough three-game road trip staring them in the face.

So why was coach Paul Silas smiling after Monday's practice?

He was watching a rapidly improving Jamal Mashburn work out, and Silas liked what he saw.

"He's progressing very nicely," Silas said. "And if all continues to go well, it appears he'll be back practicing with the team pretty soon."

That could be as soon as Feb. 11, when the Hornets return to practice after the Feb. 8-10 break for the NBA All-Star Weekend. The team is putting no strict timetable on a return, leaving that to Mashburn.

"After he does start practicing, I think he'll be playing again within a week or two," Silas said. "He's in great shape so he won't have to spend time getting his conditioning down. He'll need to work his way back as far as basketball stamina is concerned. But he's a lot quicker now than he was before he went out."

Mashburn, Charlotte's starting small forward and leading scorer last season, suffered a lower abdominal strain in the final playoff game last spring. He didn't know what the injury was at the time and hoped rest would cure it.

Instead the pain bothered him all summer and was still hampering his play through training camp in the fall and the nine early-season games he played before going on the injured list.

Pursuing every option for recovery other than the least attractive one -- surgery -- Mashburn has been practicing on his own, working with therapist Alex McKechnie and personal trainer Ed Downs. It's been a gradual process of almost two months, but Mashburn has changed his workout routine to fit McKechnie's guidelines and is now working without pain.

Mashburn played in the first nine games and averaged 18.0 points. He was shooting 37.6 percent, well off his eight-year career average of 42.0.

He spent part of Monday's workout in light one-on-one play with forward Jerome Moiso, who is also on the injured list. Mashburn shot the ball well and appeared to move well.

He will continue to work with McKechnie, who arrived last weekend from Vancouver, British Columbia, for a week-long stay.

Mashburn's progress offered the Hornets more light at the end of the tunnel as they left Monday afternoon for San Antonio and an 8:30 p.m. game today against the Spurs. They will play Friday at Houston and Sundy at Memphis before returning for home games next week against Boston and Philadelphia.

The Hornets recently took another step toward having a healthy roster when they got forward George Lynch back. Lynch, a starter last season at Philadelphia who was part of the October trade that sent Derrick Coleman to the Sixers, had been unable to play or work out all season after having foot surgery.

He has gotten limited minutes in six games and is playing his way back into shape.

"George's legs have been slow to come around, which was to be expected because he had to go so long without any activity," Silas said. "It's going to take him a while longer but you can see signs that it's coming for him. His shot is getting better."

Reserve forward Robert "Tractor" Traylor, on the injured list with an ankle sprain, could be back by the weekend.

Starting lineups

Hornets Pos. Spurs
Baron Davis PG Tony Parker
David Wesley SG Antonio Daniels
Elden Campbell C David Robinson
P.J. Brown PF Tim Duncan
Lee Nailon SF Steve Smith

Scouting report

? The Spurs have lost two in a row at home and are 16-6 at the Alamodome.

? Hornets coach Paul Silas will use backup center Jamaal Magloire at power forward at times to try to counter Tim Duncan (25.3 points, 12.7 rebounds).

Tim Duncan overcame a terrible start, Tony Parker returned from his sprained ankle and started zipping by the Lakers, and the Spurs suddenly found themselves needing only a 3-pointer to tie with six seconds left.

In the end, both Terry Porter's final shot and the Spurs fell short, allowing the Lakers to escape with a 94-91 win Friday night.

Though the Spurs lost for the sixth straight time to Los Angeles, they can at least take something away from their latest setback. After collapsing in the fourth quarter in Saturday's loss to the Lakers, they rallied time and again Friday.

On Saturday night, Robinson totaled 12 points, six rebounds and seven blocks, numbers that probably won't be good enough to get him named to the All-Star team, but more than enough to help the Spurs beat Golden State 90-82 in front of 18,328 at the Arena in Oakland.

Robinson's effort was a bit surprising considering he had played 40 minutes Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, most of which was spent with the 350-pound O'Neal leaning on him. What the picture didn't say: Robinson helped force O'Neal into missing eight of his final 10 shots to keep the Spurs within striking distance.

The Jazz have been very up and down lately. When they have played poorly, coach Jerry Sloan has said the players didn't come to play. It bothers me to hear that pro athletes cannot get himself ready to do his job. I also thought that part of a coach's job is to motivate and get the best out of his players. What's your view on this? Do you think the Jazz will make any trades before the deadline? The rumor about trading Karl Malone keeps resurfacing.
--Wayne Baas, Sandy, Utah

The rumor keeps surfacing because Karl keeps floating it. Personally, I don't think it will happen this season. I don't think owner Larry Miller wants to make the obvious deal -- sending Malone to Dallas. Several members of the Jazz are still learning how to come to play every night. Remember that besides John Stockton and Karl Malone, this is a fairly young team that sometimes frustrates the veterans (particularly Stockton) with its here-one-minute-gone-the-next attitude. Utah has had some tough losses, but most of the time they compete. The Jazz will be around in May for sure, though how far into May is a legit question. A lot of teams, by the way, want Andrei Kirilenko. I think he's an untouchable.

The Spurs can only hope that holds true. The 10 3-pointers they made in Wednesday's win over the Jazz were their most since Dec. 5, interrupting a seven-week stretch of spotty ? and sometimes horrendous ? shooting.

Tim Duncan and David Robinson may grab most of the attention for their work around the basket, but the Spurs' fate this season often has been determined by how well they shoot from 23 feet, 9 inches. When they make at least 36 percent of their 3-pointers, the Spurs are 20-3. When they don't, they're 9-9.

The Spurs' shooters face their toughest test tonight in the Lakers, who are holding opponents to a league-low 30.8 percent behind the arc. In Saturday's meeting, the Lakers quickly closed out on the Spurs' shooters, forcing them to miss 14 of 15 3-pointers.

It took a desperation shot to get Steve Smith going Wednesday night, but before long, the Jazz were desperate to figure out how to stop him.

The San Antonio Spurs guard erupted for 18 points in the final six minutes of the second quarter to lead the Spurs to a 98-92 victory over the Jazz at the Delta Center.

It was San Antonio"s eighth victory in a row over Utah, including a 3-0 record this year to clinch the season series.

Smith, the NBA"s leading 3-point shooter this season, finished with a game-high 29 points, going 5-for-5 from the 3-point line and making all 12 free throw attempts.

""He"s a very clever player," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of Smith, who exploited a glaring weakness in Utah"s defense.

So many times in the game, a San Antonio player would lure a Jazz defender into the air with a pump-fake, only to drive past him.

That would force the defense to collapse to stop the penetration -- and that"s when Smith found himself wide open at the 3-point line.