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Home sweet Dome. Or next door at least. Hornets back in the Big Easy tonight to take on a Devin Brown's new ball club. Game tips at 7 Central.

The Bulls are 22-22 on the season, 8-15 on the road. They've been looking good recently with a 4-game winning streak, all of those wins coming outside of Chi-town (Suns, Rockets, Spurs and Thunder). Wednesday's game in OKC saw new All-Star Derrick Rose continue his stellar play by dropping 26 points and 7 assists.

Devin Brown has been with the Bulls for two games now and racked up two DNP-CD's. Another former Hornets, Jannero Pargo, has been racking those up all season.

The Hornets and Bulls last met on December 23 in Chicago. Devin Brown led the Hornets in that losing effort with 22 points, while Tyrus Thomas (21 points, 9 rebounds) and Joakim Noah (17 points, 18 rebounds) came through with big games for the Bulls. Chicago was +17 on the boards.

Numbers:

Pace: Bulls 95.5 (12th), Hornets 94.3 (20th)
Offensive Efficiency: Bulls 99.0 (28th), Hornets 104.8 (15th)
Defensive Efficiency: Bulls 101.3 (7th), Hornets 105.6 (19th)

The Hornets are 25-20 on the season, 16-4 at home, coming off a 3-1 road trip. James Posey will miss tonight's game with that strained Achilles he suffered against Golden State on Wednesday.

Linkage:

• Earlier on the blog: The Price of Fiscal Sanity
• TrueHoop: Rose leading charge for Bulls
• Lagniappe: Midseason report card and a Hornets-Pacers spin on the Super Bowl
  
• Rival bloggers: Blog a Bull | By The Horns (THN)

(Many thanks to Dariusz for today's banner featuring Jannero Pargo. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz's designs in our Wallpapers vault.)

Hornets back on the road today (uh-oh), battling the Bulls in Chicago. Game tips at 7 Central.

The Bulls have started out with a disappointing 10-17 record, and followed up last week's OT win over the Hawks with losses to Sacramento and New York. The loss to the Kings saw them blow a 35-point third-quarter lead. Whoops.

The Bulls should be fully healthy with Tyrus Thomas expected to return from a forearm injury today. Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald reports that Chicago's starting lineup will be shaken up a little, with Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson getting the nod instead of John Salmons and Brad Miller.

The Hornets are coming off that 108-102 win against the Warriors on Wednesday, and have won three of four overall. Their 2-11 road record hardly inspires confidence though. There's a good write up on the team's road woes in today's Times-Picayune.

Linkage:

• Earlier on the blog: Should the Hornets blow it up and trade Chris Paul?
  
• Journals: Why the Hornets would trade Chris Paul
  
• Lagniappe: More CP and D-West trade speculation, plus a must-read from At The Hive
  
• Rival bloggers: Blog a Bull | By The Horns (THN)

(Many thanks to Dariusz for the banner, today featuring Jamaal Magloire. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz's designs in our Wallpapers vault.)

As the Hornets continue to prove that the team this year is a fairly average crew, more and more writers(like the always entertaining Bill Simmons) - and "fans" - are arguing that blowing up the team and starting over is the best course.  The first thing we need to address - and let's make no bones about it - is that it's a stretch to call the Hornets results this year "average", despite their record.  They are below average in every measure of shooting, rebounding, defensive efficiency and offensive efficiency.  Of the primary categories, only their turnover and assist rates are better than average overall.  So yes, this team needs change.  However, should they blow up the team - and trade Chris Paul?

The premise is that the Hornets should package Chris Paul with all the horrible Hornets contracts on the books and start over from scratch.  So let's run through that scenario:

Blowing up the Hornets

The bad contracts the Hornets have are Peja Stojakovic, Morris Peterson, and James Posey.  That trio ties up $27.5 million in salary this year, and $29.5 million next year.  So lets posit that the Hornets bundle all three contracts with Chris Paul and trade them right now.  They lose a 24-year old top 3 talent in the league.  They get back a bunch of expiring contracts, a player or two that will never be 60% of Chris Paul, and draft picks.  (Of course, most of the teams that could deal for Paul are at least average already, and will clearly get better, so those picks will be worth a miniscule amount.)

The result: 

Continue reading »

Normally, I try to do a pretty good job with my recaps.  Give a few salient bits of information, point out some things the Hornets did wrong, some things they did right.  However, I don't have a lot to say about this game.  Our outside shots weren't falling and the Bulls were able to pack it in.  The Bulls defense was physical and our guys couldn't hold on to the ball or convert on anything.  It had all the same problems of the Milwaukee game, except magnified.

The Hornets ran the same defense that the Bulls did, except for one exception - we didn't wait to see if they were hitting their outside shots before ignoring the perimeter. 

It was a bad, painful game, and there was not much to be gained from watching it.

In fact, here's a Poster from one of my favorite sites, Despair.com to sum up watching that game.

At least Houston and Utah lost tonight too.  We play Houston Monday, and that game is important, since it will help settle tie-breakers and will probably prove important in determining which Southwest team will get the third or fourth seed.

Ta tee ta toe.

The Hornets wrap up their four-game road trip tonight in Chicago. The Bulls are also on a segababa, having lost in Philly last night, their third straight defeat. That gives them a 29-37 record overall, still in the mix with five other teams for the final playoff spot in the East. They're 19-11 at home on the season. We owe them for the beatdown they gave us in New Orleans in early February, back when we were without Paul and Chandler.

Luol Deng is out for the Bulls. We may still be without Peja Stojakovic, though on Wednesday Byron Scott said he hoped to have him back for one of these weekend games.

Game tips a little after 7:30 p.m. Central. Other games to keep an eye on today (all times Central): Jazz at Heat (noon), Spurs at Rockets (7:30), Clippers at Nuggets (8:00).

Linkage:

• Lagniappe: 6 on 6, Byron Scott interview, Honeybee pics, and bundles more.
  
• Rival bloggers: Blog a Bull | By The Horns | Thank You Isiah
  

(Many thanks to Dariusz for the banner and the above image.)