For once, Byron Scott couldn’t say the youth and inexperience of New Orleans didn’t matter.

Days after losing Game 6 99-80, it was clearly evident, he said, that they didn’t go after that contest as hard as they could have.

But, he said, that’s not so surprising for a team whose playoff roster averages 27 years old and whose starters have seen a total of 97 playoff games coming into this postseason. By contrast, San Antonio’s five starters had a total of 501 playoff games going into the 2008 playoffs.

Bill Haber / Associated Press

Hornets head coach Byron Scott

“There’s a false sense of security that you do have a Game 7 if you don’t get it done in Game 6,” Scott said. “With the young group we have, that came into play a little bit.”

Tonight, beginning at 7:30 in the New Orleans Arena, Scott can only hope the team doesn’t take its foot off the pedal and attacks the Spurs with intensity and energy.

It’s Game 7, and it’s the biggest game in the history of the franchise. As a franchise, this is the 10th playoff appearance. And in the previous nine tries, no team – not in Charlotte, not in Oklahoma City and not in New Orleans – made it past the conference semifinals.

The club also is 0-2 in Game 7’s, losing to Milwaukee in 2001 while falling to Miami in 2004. But neither game was on the Hornets’ home floor, and New Orleans is 6-0 at home this postseason, playing in front of boisterous sell-out crowds.

Only two teams, in fact, have won on the road this year in the conference semifinals – Detroit and Los Angeles. The home team is 22-2 in this round.

“The advantage that we have is we're playing at home,” Tyson Chandler said. “We've been playing great at home all year and I feel like the guys are loose and are going to come out with some great energy.”

That could have to do with several factors. All three home wins against the Spurs haven’t been close. New Orleans has won by 19, 18 and 22. New Orleans also defeated San Antonio by 25 at home in the regular season.

Nevertheless, Game 7’s are different.

“You win, you go on,” Scott said. “You lose, you go home. It’s vacation time.”

And no one involved with the Hornets this year wants to take an early vacation, not after setting a bushel of franchise records, including most wins in a season (56) and the first-ever division championship.

“I like what we’re doing right now,” Scott said. “I’m very comfortable with what we’re doing and I want that to continue. I want them to have that same feeling. I don’t want (Sunday) to be our last practice. I don’t want (Monday) to be our last shoot around.”

The Hornets know how tough an out San Antonio will be tonight. They’re not expecting anything to happen like it did in the previous three home games in this series.

San Antonio is, after all, the defending champion. It has won four titles in nine years. And it’s a franchise that prides itself on winning the tough games.

“It’s going to take a collective effort from everybody, even guys not in the game,” Morris Peterson said. “We’re going to have to be cheering and pulling for each other. It’s going to be a tough one. It’s not going to be easy. San Antonio isn’t going to come in here and roll over.”