Where y'all at? Mikey here with your holiday guest recap as the Hornets beat the Indiana Pacers. Before I break it down bullet-style, let me first say that the Pacers did a few things tonight that impressed me. As Chris Paul said in his post-game comments, Indy is a better team than many people give them credit for. They rebound well, and they play with high energy. Youth, lack of experience, and a little bit of indiscipline has probably cost them 6 or 7 games this season, to include this one. They are going to be a tough team to beat in the eastern conference in the near future. Now to the comments.

  • Starting lineup included Peja for the 1st time since a win in Toronto six games ago. Welcome back big fella, and you knock down two treys; Lovin' IT! He didn't shoot great, but he was active on the boards, and even had two put-backs. Nice contribution.

  • That Danny Granger guy is pretty good. 34 Points, 5 boards, and a couple of assists for the Grace King Grad. What can I say? We know how to grow 'em here. He has the full arsenal of shots. He had better be an all-star.

  • The Hornets got 2 fouls on Roy Hibbert early in the game, but Jim O'Brien kept him on the floor. Good move Jimmy, he was beating Chandler to spots for rebounds, and scoring with regularity before he got his 5th foul. This is the best you'll see him play all season. You heard it here first.

  • Speaking of Chandler, I thought he might get going vis-a-vis Houston with that quick alley oop. Nope, two quick whistles and its time to ride some pine again. This is my sad face. With that said, he came back to finish with 8pts and 6 boards. A solid game given his limited minutes, not a great game by any means, but solid.

  • Thought I'd mention that Sean Marks hit a shot, then took it upon himself to continue to shoot. I think I threw up in my mouth a little. Only 4 minutes in this game for Marks, probably the most positive number I can give for him.
  • The Hornets got destroyed on the boards tonight, but offensive rebounds were even. The Pacers are the 2nd leading rebounding team in the League, but thats no excuse to be out-rebounded by 9. That needs to be cleaned up.
  • At about the 7 Minute mark in the 3rd Quarter, the Hornets Defense decided to show up. I guess the bus was locked, and the D couldn't get out.
  • Rasual Butler continues his steady play. You can just tell the guy is playing with a high degree of confidence. 15pts on 6-11 shooting, and throw a couple steals and rebounds in there, now THATS good gumbo!
  • Bench scoring: 33-18 in the Hornets' favor. That is a positive sign. Make no mistake about it, that is the influence of Antonio Daniels. He had 6pts and 2 dimes, Me Likey!
  • Indiana shot 9-12 from three. That's insane!!!
  • I was almost glad Hilton got that Technical for defending Chris Paul from Troy Murphy's giant nose. That's probably the toughest thing he's ever done, ever.
  • Chris Paul and James Posey just took over the 4th quarter. They had 21 points between them. I'm loving the Posey Post-ups. He's got two good moves from down there and looks pretty comfortable. I'd like to see Posey peel the onion skin back a little, and learn how to make a nice, crisp pass out of the post.
  • How spoiled am I? I only mentioned Chris Paul's name once in this recap after that 4th quarter he had, well twice now.
  • In the end, it was D-Weezy that nailed the game-winner. He is good for one or two of those every year, so clutch. He finished with a workman-like double double.

Many thanks to Ryan and Niall for allowing me to hold down the fort until the Irishman's return. Hey, there was a Dick Harter sighting tonight! 100 thousand bazillion points to the one who can tell me his significance in Hornets history. Now, let's take care of business against the Wizards on Tuesday. The schedule gets pretty tough after that.