The Hornets up their intensity big time noticeably fed up with losing and dominate the Suns down the stretch and win 120-103. The Hornets largest lead of the game was 22 points. The largest Suns lead was 8. The Bees have managed to keep their losing streaks at 3 games or less and snap this one in style sweeping the Suns series 4-0. Talk about a major accomplishment.
How the hell they were able to beat the 2nd half edition Suns after showing that handling 2nd half up-tempo from teams was too much of a challenge and Shaq added into the equation, I will never know, but I guess that’s why I like the Hornets. They answer the bell no matter how difficult that may be. The Hornets shooting was sky high from their last 3 games and the reason they were able to dominate the Suns. 53.3 field goal percentage, 53.3 3 point percentage, and 88.9% on free throws. Did I mention they put on this beautiful show in front of the largest sellout crowd of the season? There were17,931 in the house tonight. Mostly because Shaq came to town, but nevertheless they were treated to an explosive Hornets show. The Hornets are back to 20 games over .500 at 38-18 and move into 3rd in the West.
| Field Goals | Rebounds | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pos | min | fgm-a | 3pm-a | ftm-a | +/- | off | def | tot | ast | pf | st | to | bs | ba | pts | |
| C.Paul | G | 35:41 | 9-21 | 2-3 | 5-6 | +19 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 25 |
| M.Peterson | G | 20:40 | 5-5 | 1-1 | 0-0 | +9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| D.West | F | 38:39 | 11-22 | 0-0 | 5-6 | +20 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 27 |
| P.Stojakovic | F | 37:30 | 6-12 | 2-6 | 3-3 | +24 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| T.Chandler | C | 30:35 | 6-7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +20 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 12 |
| J.Pargo | 30:11 | 9-15 | 3-4 | 1-1 | +7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 22 | |
| M.James | 12:19 | 1-4 | 0-1 | 2-2 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| H.Armstrong | 12:13 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| R.Bowen | 10:11 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| R.Butler | 05:52 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | -5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| M.Ely | 04:34 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | -3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| J.Wright | 01:35 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
NEW ORLEANS(AP) Chris Paul had 25 points, 15 assists and three steals to help the New Orleans Hornets end a three-game losing skid with a 120-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night.
David West scored 27 points and reserve guard Jannero Pargo 22 added for New Orleans, which shot 53 percent in avoiding its first four-game losing streak of the season.
The Suns continued to struggle since trading Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’Neal, but they couldn’t blame their third loss in five games solely on the veteran 7-foot-1 center, who had 15 points and seven rebounds.
Phoenix fell apart defensively in the second half in the face of the Hornets’ combination of up-tempo offense and good perimeter shooting. The Hornets were 8-of-15 from 3-point range while outscoring Phoenix 16-12 on the fastbreak and 40-36 inside.
Hornets center Tyson Chandler, who hadn’t notched a double-double in his previous four outings, awoke from that slump with 12 points and 15 rebounds. He muscled inside for follow-up dunks on teammates’ missed shots and threw down several alley-oop dunks.
Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 32 points and 14 rebounds. Leandro Barbosa scored 17 points, hitting five 3-pointers, Raja Bell had 14 points and Steve Nash 13 assists.
New Orleans shot nearly 70 percent in the third quarter and opened a 20-point lead. West hit a jump hook to start it off, then Paul hit a jumper and a 3 before feeding Chandler on the first of two alley-oop dunks in the period.
Morris Peterson, who finished with 11 points, hit all four of his shots in the quarter, including a 3-pointer. Stojakovic closed out the period with a leaner off the glass as he was fouled, putting New Orleans ahead 97-77 heading into the final period.
Stoudamire hit a pair of straightaway jumpers to open the fourth quarter, but Pargo responded with his third 3-pointer, and New Orleans maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way.
The New Orleans Voodoo are set for their Arena football season and will take on the hosting Los Angeles Avengers at the Staples Center. Arena Football is back and the Voodoo look to have a successful campaign after a disappointing 5-11 last year, their first losing record in franchise history, which is three years. They will try to do so under QB Steve Bellisari, who had a successful year last year as our back-up quarterback when he got to play for injured QB Andy Kelly. With Andy finally retiring, Head Coach Mike Neu will put Bellisari in charge. Music to my ears. Bellisari was much better than old man Kelly. Yet Mike Neu stuck with his papa bear first string quarterback. Why? Because of experience? Screw that! He played just as well as Bobby Hebert could play if he stepped on the field right now. The man was old and washed up. Bellisari will get to start the entire season with what is considered a stellar WR core. Even with the big addition Derek Lewis going down with an ACL before the season even starts, the offense still looks to be much improved from last year. I still wish we had our original expansion team back from 2004. That magical expansion year for the Voodoo. No preseason, just started playing football in the AFL for the first time and finished 11-5. Next year, we went 9-7. Katrina came, suspended operations for ‘06. Came back in ‘07 as an expansion team again and did as well as you would expect an expansion team would, 5-11. With an improved team, expectations will be much higher.