New Orleans ? Tyson Chandler struggled with the idea that New Orleans could be favored in its second-round series against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, even if the Hornets are the higher seed and have home-court advantage.

“I don’t know if many players on this team consider themselves underdogs, but for some reason that’s what we’ve been labeled as,” Chandler said. “We’re always going to be underdogs, and we don’t mind that. But people come around, it seems, when you start winning, so hopefully we can win some and get people to come around a little bit.”

The young Hornets, in the postseason for the first time in four seasons, passed their opening playoff test impressively, eliminating the Dallas Mavericks in only five games.

Only hours after the Hornets closed out Dallas, the Spurs disposed of the Phoenix Suns, also in five games.

Hornets coach Byron Scott said the Spurs appear to playing better now than during most of the regular season, when they finished second to the Hornets in the highly competitive Southwest Division, which had four 50-win teams.

“You can’t really ever count them out,” Scott said. “They understand what it takes to win.”

The Spurs said they felt a little beat up coming out of their series with Phoenix.

Manu Ginobili complained of soreness in his left ankle. Tony Parker said he was starting to feel old and that the hot tub was his best friend.

Don’t buy it. Parker won’t turn 26 until later this month and is playing some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 29.6 points to go with 7.0 assists during the first round of the playoffs.

Ginobili averaged better than 18 points against Phoenix. Tim Duncan, meanwhile, exhibited his typical dominance inside, averaging 24.8 points and 13.8 rebounds.

“They’re built around Duncan,” Hornets forward David West said. “Everything they do is kind of predicated on him. And that’s why they’ve won, been so good for so long, because they have a cornerstone and he’s unselfish and defers to those other guys like Parker and Ginobili when it’s needed.”