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The Hornets won their sixth straight game earlier today, knocking off the Wizards in Washington. Once again it proved to be a struggle, as New Orleans allowed the Wiz to shoot 58 percent from the field and out-rebound them 41-29. Thankfully the 3-ball was working though and the Hornets feasted on 19 Washington turnovers.

The Wizards refused to go away in the final minutes and had the game tied at 101 with three minutes left, but then Randy Foye and Nick Young made some bone head plays and the Hornets finally knocked in a few free throws. 115-110 was the final score (box).

Peja Stojakovic

A long-awaited big game from Peja, who started out red hot with 13 first-quarter points and finished with 20 on 7-of-13 shooting. He was the primary option on a numerous set plays and benefited more than once from solid screens by David West. Nothing new there, but the Hornets also had him running off a corner screen into the paint a couple of times and he seemed to have an extra bounce in his step with spins and fades.

Chris Paul

26 points, 10-of-20 shooting, 14 assists, 3 steals, 3 rebounds, 3 turnovers. And at the risk of sounding spoiled, something seemed a little off with Chris in this one. I felt he passed up a lot of open jumpers, missed a couple of layups he usually makes and got a little lost on defensive rotations a few times. The Hornets also tried to exploit Paul's match-up with the 5-5 Earl Boykins in the fourth quarter, running the same play three times in a row to get CP posted against him, but nothing much came of it, with Paul being forced into a travel the last time.

I liked hearing Paul scolding West late in the second quarter though. After West hedged poorly trying to guard the pick and roll and Randy Foye ended up scoring in the lane, Paul could be heard yelling at West: "You say you gonna show, you better do it!"

Marcus Thornton

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Hornets in Washington to play the Wizards today, trying to build on those two road wins earlier in the week. Game tipping at noon Central.

The Wizards have been in turmoil lately with the whole Gilbert Arenas gun fiasco, which saw him get suspended indefinitely. They're also expected to be one of the more active teams leading up to the Feb. 18 trade deadline, with rumors abound about the likes of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.

For right now though, the Wizards are 12-22 basketball team coming off a surprise win over the visiting Magic on Friday. Jamison has led them in scoring the past three games with at least 26 per, while guys like Butler, Randy Foye and Nick Young have been taking turns having big scoring nights. Some numbers:

Pace: Wizards 94.1 (8th), Hornets 91.9 (20th)
Offensive Efficiency: Wizards 101.8 (23rd), Hornets 103.2 (20th)
Defensive Efficiency: Wizards 105.8 (21st), Hornets 105.6 (20th)

The Hornets are gunning for their sixth straight win overall, and hoping they don't need all 48 minutes to secure it after struggling against the Nets on Friday.

Linkage:

• Journals: Hornets' Store Lacking in Team | Trade Talk
  
• Lagniappe: More make-believe trades and stuff
  
• Rival bloggers: Bullets Forever | Truth About It (THN) | Wizards Insider

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

The Hornets bounced back from Monday's loss in Atlanta by beating the Wizards in D.C. tonight, 109-98. Since the New Orleans bench has been the hot topic of conversation recently, I'll start out talking about the reserves in this one.

Byron did shake things up some. He subbed out three starters in the first quarter: Posey for Wright, Bowen for West, Brown for Butler. Our first unit got off to a slow, sluggish start at both ends of the floor, resulting in a 28-22 Wizards lead heading into the second. West was taken out with 3:27 left in the first, then returned less than two minutes into the second. Chris Paul sat out the first half of Q2 as usual, as did Tyson Chandler, and we didn't fare too badly during that stretch. I was happy with the defensive effort; we allowed the Wizards 10 points on just 4-of-12 shooting before all our starters were back on the floor. The problem was again the offense, as turnovers, rejections and plain ineptitude resulted in our guys scoring only 6 points on 2-of-5 shooting in the same stretch.

Of course Chris Paul and our other big guns then tore the Wizards a new one for the rest of the second quarter and all through the third. The 40 points we scored in Q3 were a season high, and we led 85-68 entering the final frame. Gotta be safe to roll with five bench guys when you have a 17-point lead, right? Wrong. The Wizards ripped off an 11-2 run in the first three minutes of the fourth, cutting their defecit to just eight. Byron called timeout, the starters came back in and after a few minutes of struggle to regain momentum they closed it out strong.

The five-man reserve unit that almost threw the game away consisted of Daniels, Brown, Posey, Bowen and Armstrong. I can't criticize them too much individually for what happend at the start of the fourth though. It looked like they were out there playing some kind of half-assed zone defense, which resulted in nobody following cutters or boxing out for the defensive boards. As a result, the Wizards got second chances and point blank looks. I'm guessing that was one of the "junk defenses" Byron spoke about before the game, the idea being to mix it up a bit and keep Washington on their toes, try to generate offense from the bench defense. Unfortunately, the guys we had out there trying to play that kind of defense need a lot more experience playing it to be effective. And they really need to work on their communication, because nobody seemed to know their role.

Even though his efforts failed tonight, I hope to see Byron experimenting with the bench some more in the coming weeks. I don't think there's one good solution that he's going to hit on. He just needs to adjust game by game depending on what the opposition is doing (not his strength, I know), and ensure that everyone knows their role in whatever offense and defense we decide to run.

Moving on to some bullets...

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Real quick:

Hornets are in D.C. to take on the Wizards, game tips at 6 p.m. Central. We beat them 97-85 in New Orleans back in late December. They're 15-49 on the season, 10-22 at home, won in Minnesota on Monday to snap a five-game losing streak.

The Wizards have a bunch of guys injured or ill. See here for details. Mike James missed Monday's game with the flu but I'm guessing he'll be back to play his old team.

As for the Hornets, Peja has been ruled out again tonight, but everyone else is available, and Byron is looking to shake up the rotation a little. Should be interesting.

Linkage:

• Ryan's game preview
• Lagniappe: Nicknames, Mark Cuban, Rasual Butler, etc. etc.
  
• Rival bloggers: Bullets Forever | The Wizznutzz | Truth About It | Wizards Insider

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

Matchup: Hornets(39-23) @ Wizards(15-49)

Off Efficiency: Hornets 106.9(9th), Wizards 101.4(26th)
Def Efficiency: Hornets 103.4(9th), Wizards 110.6(29th)

The Wizards are 3-7 in their last ten, which is pretty much the same winning percentage they've put up all year.  Four out of every five players on their team isn't interested in defense, and unlike the previous two years, their offense is unable to overcome that indifference.

The Hornets are 7-3 in their last ten, but just had a seven-game winning streak broken and are looking to commence another winning streak so they can stay in the mix for those all-important top seeds out west. The Hornets are feeling the pressure, and I expect that they will continue a recent tendency to punch teams in the mouth in the first quarter and race out to 8-10 point leads.

Of course, that lead will be gone halfway through the second, but hey, what can you do?  Peja should play - and I've heard nothing about Byron's planned lineup tonight.  I'll assume he'll go back into the starting five and Julian will return to the bench.

Injuries:

Hornets: Peterson may or may not be injured.  He also may or may not play if healthy.
Wizards: Etan Thomas is out

Positional Analysis

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