Hornets Down Lakers At The Hive

The Hornets opened up a little slow and found Kobe Bryant to be a little bit of a challenge early, but the Bees ultimately were able to pull away from the Lakers in the third quarter with good defense and nice play from Chris Paul, good 3-pt shooting from Peja, and fantastic bench play, a regular stat nowadays, and won 108-98 to pull within a half game of both the Lakers and the 21-in-a-row Rockets in the Very, very crazy and tight Western Conference. Chris Paul led the scoring with 27 pts. and had 17 assists. David West had an unusually low scoring night scoring only 12 pts. but did play on a questionable ankle the entire game. In fact, he re-aggravated it in this game; his status now is unknown. Chris Paul also went down in the game on an ankle; he, unlike West, finished the game and said afterward when asked about his ankle, “I’m good, we’ll see tomorrow, but right now, I’m just ready to eat.” Attendance was 18,199, the largest sellout of the season (very nearly 100% capacity).

Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
C.Paul	G	42:47	9-19	2-5	7-12	+12	0	4	4	17	4	4	2	0	0	27
M.Peterson	G	13:26	3-6	1-4	0-0	+1	0	1	1	1	4	1	1	0	0	7
D.West	F	37:53	4-10	0-0	4-4	+13	2	12	14	2	2	1	4	2	0	12
P.Stojakovic	F	35:34	5-16	5-9	0-0	+9	1	3	4	2	0	1	1	0	0	15
T.Chandler	C	36:25	7-9	0-0	0-2	0	9	11	20	2	3	0	3	2	0	14
J.Pargo		22:46	3-8	2-5	3-4	+5	0	2	2	2	1	0	1	0	2	11
J.Wright		19:17	4-6	1-1	0-0	-1	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	9
B.Wells		17:01	3-7	0-0	1-2	+2	3	3	6	1	4	0	1	0	0	7
M.Ely		11:35	3-3	0-0	0-0	+10	2	2	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	6
R.Bowen		03:16	0-0	0-0	0-0	-1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0

(Recap from Yahoo Sports, not NBA.com)

NEW ORLEANS (AP)—The Los Angeles Lakers lost a starting center who accounts for nearly 20 points a game, then lost their edge despite Kobe Bryant’s best efforts.

Chris Paul had 27 points and 17 assists to help the New Orleans Hornets beat the Lakers 108-98 Friday night in what could prove to be a costly game for both teams.

Paul hobbled to the finish after hurting his left ankle on a failed drive to the hoop with 2:31 to go. Lakers center Pau Gasol and David West, however, did not make it to the final horn.

Gasol sprained his left ankle while stepping on Vladimir Radmanovic’s foot in the first quarter and needed help getting to the locker room. He was on crutches after the game, saying he didn’t want to put any weight on it in hopes of keeping the swelling down.

“It swelled up pretty good. We’ll know more tomorrow,” Gasol said. “We’re going to make sure there’s no damage to the ligaments, at least not too bad. I hate sitting out … I want to be back as soon as I can.”

West had 12 points and 14 rebounds for New Orleans, but limped off the floor with just under seven minutes remaining, twisting his right ankle while playing through a left ankle sprain that kept him out for three games last week.

Hornets head coach Byron Scott said he was unsure of West’s condition. However, Scott said Gasol’s departure changed the game.

“It changed big time because of the fact that now we don’t have to think about him on that post or double-team him,” Scott said. “It gave Tyson (Chandler) more of a free rein to guard different guys.”

Bryant had 36 points and nine assists for Los Angeles, which lost for only the third time in 17 games. He walked dejectedly to the locker room with 15 seconds left after fouling out. Lamar Odom had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers, who won by 29 points when they visited New Orleans on Jan. 9. Los Angeles had not yet acquired Gasol back then, but did have a healthy Andrew Bynum. Without either this time, they shot only 38 percent.

Bryant said Gasol’s departure changed the Lakers’ approach, but 9-for-30 3-point shooting is what really did them in.

“We knock a couple of those shots down and now their defense has some decisions to make,” Bryant said. “We missed a lot of shots. We had some open opportunities. We just didn’t make them, but we have great shooters on this team and I have no doubt that we’ll bounce back.”

Saints Sign Former Jag Mark Brunell

The former Jaguar Quarterback has signed a deal with the black and gold to be backup quarterback for Drew Brees. Bruell was with the Washington Redskins last year. In my opinion, he will be lucky to make it out of training camp. The staff on the Saints has shied away from keeping hardly any QB’s backing up Drew Brees the last couple of years. Yeah, this signing is one of the least exciting signings we had, but it’s a reason to blog on a team with, right now, no reason to blog on. Meanwhile, the Saints are in the process of blowing opportunities for the gizilienth (my word) straight offseason as Lito Shepard, former Eagle LB is going unnoticed to lesser name, still decent, but lesser name linebackers. I still say that we would be so much better off to drop Shanle and Simoneau like a ton of bricks, get someone like Lito Shepard, and have him, Vilma, and Fujita start at linebacker. I still don’t know why I not the Saints GM!!!

INFO on Brunell (From NOS.com):

Brunell is a 15-year NFL veteran who spent the past four seasons (2004-2007) with the Washington Redskins after having been acquired via a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars in March of 2004.

A three-time Pro Bowl selection, Brunell has played in 157 career regular season games over the course of his career (1993-2007) and thrown for 31,826 yards. Owning a career completion percentage just shy of 60% (2,738 completions on 4,594 attempts), the former University of Washington signal-caller owns 182 touchdown passes to 105 interceptions for a passer rating of 84.2. In addition, the 6-1, 217-pound lefthander has rushed for 2,433 yards on 509 carries for a 4.8 average and 15 touchdowns.

Brunell brings 15 seasons of experience.

Brunell broke into the NFL as a fifth-round draft choice of the Green Bay Packers in 2003 before being acquired by the Jaguars in their first-ever trade on April 21, 1995. He earned the starting quarterback’s position in the Jaguars’ inaugural season and by the end of his second season (1996) as a starter, and led the Jaguars to the AFC Championship game.

Brunell played for Jacksonville through the 2003 season and earned Pro Bowl honors in 1996, 1997 and in 2001.

While with the Redskins, Brunell had his best season in Washington in 2005, when he completed 262-of-454 passes for 3,050 yards, 23 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while leading the Redskins to the postseason. In 2006, Brunell set a single-game NFL record for consecutive pass completions, connecting on his first 22 attempts in a 31-15 victory over the Houston Texans.

No stranger to the postseason, Brunell has started 10-of-the-11 postseason games in his career and completed 156-of-307 passes for 1,833 yards with 11 touchdowns and interceptions.

Brunell graduated from St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, California, where he was a three-year letterman at quarterback and safety.

Known as one of the most active players in the community throughout his career, Brunell and his wife, Stacy, operate the Brunell Family Foundation, which is committed to enriching the lives of children who face chronic of life-threatening illnesses. The Foundation has contributed over $700,000 to Jacksonville’s Wolfson Children’s Hospital, specifically to children receiving pediatric pr neonatal intensive care. In 2001, the hospital opened the Brunell Family Children’s Neurodiagnostic Center.