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Well, I just saved that game on TiVO as "Keep until I Delete".  It simply had everything I love about basketball in it:  Incredible shooting by the Hornets, West playing with fire, a tremendous comeback against the odds, big shots, and an unlikely hero. 

The comeback was crazy, considering how the Magic had built their lead in the first place.  During the second, their guards attacked the Hornets biggest Achilles heel: pick and roll defense.  They drove into the paint and scored easily, or dished to Dwight for a dunk.  Over, and over and over.  The lead grew to 18, and I had pretty much accepted that it was going to be one of THOSE nights.

But then the Magic relaxed, committed some turnovers, gave up some easy baskets, and started taking threes.  The Hornets kept attacking, the crowd got into it, and the defense on both sides began to tighten.  The Hornets, however, lived on scrapping and trying to get easy baskets.  The Magic lived by the three - despite abysmally cold shooting for them.  At some point I expected the ever over-expressive Stan Van Gundy to grab Jameer Nelson by the shoulders and scream at him, "For the love of god, get to the basket!!!"

Never happened.  Hornets win.

David West

I’ve probably said this before, but little has been more depressing over the last season and a half than David West's frequently lackadaisical play.  He’s been my favorite Hornet for years, and it hurts to see the lack of effort some nights.  Tonight, however, from the start, you could tell he was there to play.  He hit a tough jumper, fought through contact for a pair of layups, and suddenly everything was dropping.   Bad shots, good shots, contested shots, they were all falling.  I can’t even say Rashard Lewis’s defense was bad, because it wasn’t.  West was just clicking. 

Then, early in the third, when the Hornets had chipped an 18 point lead to 12, I saw West scramble to cover a cutting Matt Barnes, then sprint out to contest a shot by Rashard Lewis.  He then ran down court, leading a break that ended with an easy layup for him.  I watched that series three times, grinning like a fool, and it was then I thought we might have a chance in this game.

And the three in the fourth?  You KNEW that was going in.

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The Hornets are back in New Orleans tonight, aiming to shake off those two road losses. They'll have their work cut out doing that against the 39-19 Orlando Magic. Game tipping later than usual (8:30 p.m.) since it's being broadcast on ESPN.

The Magic are 17-13 on the road this season and have won six of their past eight. Earlier this week they beat the Cavs in Orlando, then blew out the Rockets in Houston on Wednesday. In the latter, Dwight Howard delivered 30 points and 16 rebounds, hitting all 11 of his field goal attempts.

You may recall the last meeting between the Hornets and Magic, in Orlando back on February 8: Vince Carter scored 48 points as the Magic won 123-117. Emeka Okafor proved ineffective in that game trying to slow Dwight Howard, but the baskets were coming easy for the Hornets as David West, Darren Collison and Peja Stojakovic scored 27, 27 and 29 respectively.

Morris Peterson is questionable for the Hornets tonight after straining his hamstring Wednesday in Milwaukee. If he can't play, Marcus Thornton is expected to start at shooting guard. That leaves the bench pretty thin though, as noted by Jim Eichenhofer over at Hornets.com:

Without Peterson and Songaila, the Hornets would be down to nine available players against Orlando and a bench consisting of James Posey, Julian Wright, Sean Marks and Aaron Gray.

Another result of all these injuries is Collison playing a lot of minutes. This from Elias over at ESPN.com:

Collison scored 22 points in 42 minutes in the Hornets' loss at Milwaukee, the ninth straight game in which he logged at least 40 minutes. The only other current NBA players who had streaks of at least nine straight 40-minute games during their rookie season are Grant Hill (1994-95), Michael Finley (1995-96), Allen Iverson (1996-97) and Shane Battier (2001-02).

Numbers:

Pace: Magic 95.1 (14th), Hornets 94.8 (17th)
Offensive Efficiency: Magic 107.1 (7th), Hornets 104.4 (14th)
Defensive Efficiency: Magic 99.8 (3rd), Hornets 105.5 (19th)

Linkage:

• Journals: Hornets Broadcast Drinking Game | Analyzing Tyson Chandler's Impact | Okafor v Chandler: Another look
  
• Lagniappe: Collison the hottest rookie and some Gerry V audio
  
• Standings: Hornets three games back from the 8th-place Blazers
  
• Rival bloggers: Orlando Magic Daily (THN) | Orlando Pinstriped Post

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

Quite an entertaining game on Orlando tonight, as the depleted Hornets came out on fire and dropped 70 points in the first half, taking a 15-point lead into the break. They were able to weather the Magic storm in the third quarter but it was too much Vince Carter in the end that buried them. 123-117 was the final score.

Vince Carter

Carter dropped 34 points in the second half and 48 total, his biggest scoring outburst in more than 9 years (Update: Elias says he scored 51 for the Nets once, so maybe not). There wasn't much the Hornets could have done differently against him. He had some open looks in the game, but more often than not he was taking well-contested shots. I'd go so far as to say that many of them were ill-advised. But he was hitting them, so it worked out well for the Magic.

Darren Collison

Collison played extremely well in the first half, pushing the pace when appropriate, making patient plays in the halfcourt, attacking Jameer Nelson and sticking a bunch of jumpers. He had 16 points and 8 assists heading to the break. In the second half though, he was a completely different player. He appeared much more hesitant in driving the ball and he was front-rimming his jumpers, leading me to believe that his legs were failing him out there.

Collison also had trouble keeping Nelson out of the lane, though that was mostly because of the solid high screens set by Dwight Howard and poor help defense by the Hornets bigs at the back. Nelson didn't score much himself off those drives, but he got the majority of his 10 assists that way, usually kicking out to the left corner for an open triple.

Dwight Howard vs. the Hornets bigs

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Let's see if the Hornets can pull off another surprising road win. They play the Magic in Orlando tonight in a nationally televised game on TNT. Action tips at 7 Central.

At 34-17, Orlando are tied with Denver for the third-best record in the NBA. The've won five of their last six and are 19-5 at home this season. Like the Bobcats, who the Hornets just beat on Saturday, the Magic are known for their defense, holding their last six opponents to an average of 88 points per game. Reigning defensive player of the year Dwight Howard has been on a roll recently, averaging 21 points, 15.2 rebounds and 3.6 blocks in his last five.

The Magic are coming off yesterday's big win in Boston, bouncing back from an unexpected loss to the Wizards at home on Friday.

Numbers:

Pace: Magic 95.0 (15th), Hornets 94.2 (20th)
Offensive Efficiency: Magic 106.4 (11th), Hornets 104.9 (14th)
Defensive Efficiency: Magic 99.4 (2nd), Hornets 105.7 (19th)

The Hornets are looking for their fifth straight win on the road, but may still be without Marcus Thornton who's listed as questionable for tonight. On Saturday the Hornets ended a three-game losing streak by beating the Bobcats in Charlotte, thanks in large part to a career-high 24 points from Darren Collison.

Rival bloggers: Orlando Magic Daily (THN) | Orlando Pinstriped Post

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

I didn't watch it.  I half listened as I worked on other things.  I'm glad I was distracted.  I'm also glad it's pre-season so I don't have to get upset over it.

Some random observations:

• When the third quarter came to a close the Magic already had 100 points and more than half their shots had been three pointers.(24 of 47)  Their percentages? 62.5% from deep, 64.6% from the field.  The three point barrage had been so withering that Dwight Howard had been required to take exactly one shot from the field.  He made it, of course.
  
  
• During that three-quarter long barrage, the Hornets responded with a tremendous 36% from the field as anyone not named Chris Paul, David West or Julian Wright proved themselves unfamiliar with the whole "efficient scoring" thing.

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