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With the Hornets looking for a new coach, and the constantly pending sale seemingly no closer to fruition than it was three weeks ago, it's no surprise that fans haven't been thinking too hard about what to do with a front court that looked overwhelmed last season. The combination of Emeka Okafor and David West contributed greatly to an interior defense that allowed opponents to make 64.9 percent of their shots at the rim, third worst in the league, and 47.2 of other shots within 10 feet, sixth worst in the league.

Now sure, one can argue that this is the duo's first season together and that they are sure to improve next year. The problem remains though that they are remarkably bad at defending the pick and roll together. So bad in fact that Bower rarely allowed them to play together late in the game.

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The Hornets had an early game up in Toronto, and once again were unable to get it done on the road, falling to a fairly weak Raptor squad.  The Hornets had several things go wrong for them tonight, but this was a very winnable game.  .500 will have to wait.

Chris Paul

I'm a little confused by Jeff Bower's use of Chris Paul at times.  Yes, I know he's a top 3 talent in the league, but the man is fighting an ankle injury, comes up gimpy in the second quarter, and they still played him 40 minutes.  It was also obvious it was bothering Paul too.  No explosions into the paint, several mid range jumpers rather than drives, and his defense was atrocious in the second half as any determined drive to the basket would lose him.  It was an ugly game for him - 10 points on 13 shots, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal and five turnovers.  Basically, he played like Jason Kidd.

Collison proved earlier in the season he can run the team.  If Paul's hurting, then play the rookie.

Shooting Woes

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Hornets taking on the Raptors this afternoon at the Air Canada Center Centre in Toronto.

Them Raps have disappointed this season, starting out with a 12-17 record. They blew out the visiting Nets on Friday but had lost four of five before that. They're 8-5 at home this season.

Meanwhile, the Hornets are coming off a big win over the Nuggets in New Orleans on Friday, when Chris Paul went off for 30, 19 and 9. The Hornets are just 2-10 on the road this season, 0-4 against Eastern Conference hosts. A win today would get them back to .500 with a 13-13 record.

Hornets and Raps last met on November 4th, with Toronto using a 34-14 third quarter to blow the game open and cruise to a W. Video analysis of that here.

Game tips at noon Central, but it's not on local TV. If you don't have NBA League Pass, tune into Sean Kelley and Gerry V calling it on 106.7 FM.

Linkage:

• Journals: Contenders or Pretenders?
  
• Lagniappe: Chris Paul talks about his shoe release, plus some other stuff
  
• Rival bloggers: RaptorBlog.com | Raptors Republic | RaptorsHQ.com

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

The Hornets fell apart in the third quarter against the Raptors on Friday night. They gave up 34 points while only scoring 14, and the Raptors were able to cruise to victory in the fourth.

Here's video and commentary on the Hornets' offensive and defensive possessions in the third quarter:

The Hornets played the Raptors evenly for the first, second and fourth quarters tonight. It was the third quarter that killed them. Up 56-51 ninety seconds into the second half, the Hornets then could only watch as Toronto took off on a 32-7 run. The Raps dropped 8-of-10 triples during that stretch and never looked back. 107-90 was the final score ( box | recap ).

Chris Paul came through with another big game for the Hornets, finishing with 21 points (8-13 FGs), 18 assists, 7 boards, 2 steals and just one turnover. Big numbers like that from CP used to be a nice consolation in a loss, but these days it's just depressing. He's playing out of this world, and the Hornets are still getting spanked. Word is he didn't stick around to talk to the media after the game either. This woeful start to the season must be killing him.

Jumping into some bullets:

• When the Raptors weren't lighting it up from deep in the third quarter, they were playing some zone defense that the Hornets had trouble cracking. And when they weren't in that zone, they did a nice job crowding the middle and recovering to challenge the Hornets shooters. There were holes there for our wings to drive off the catch, but alas, most of our wings can't drive.
  
  
• The Raps also did a solid job defending the pick and roll, hedging hard with a big and having an extra man help enough to cover West fading or Okafor rolling.

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