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Hornets bounce back against the Celtics, keep hope alive
By Jonathan Bellah
The New Orleans Hornets rebounded from their close loss to the Magic last week with a 93-85 win of the Boston Celtics in their last game before the All-Star break. The Hornets, who are without All-Star point guard Chris Paul, are four-and-a-half games behind the Dallas Mavericks for control of the Southwest Division and only three games back from the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Hornets this season have struggled with inconsistency. They have regularly shown flashes of brilliance, but soon follow them with moments of incompetence.
The Hornets have fallen short of the expectations of fans the last few seasons thanks in large part to being continuously plagued by injury and at times uninspiring play.
Darren Collison, the rookie point guard from UCLA, took advantage of Chris Paul's absence and stole the show against the Celtics. Collison scored a game-high 25 points and added nine assists and four steals just a couple nights removed from a similar game against the Orlando Magic in which he toped 27 points and nine assists.
Former Tiger Marcus Thornton has been a big contributor for the Hornets off the bench. Thornton is averaging 10 points per game on the season but averaging close to 20 points per game in the contests in which he has started while making big plays both on offense and defense for the Hornets
Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson have been less than impressive this season and with the strong play of their backups, James Posey and Marcus Thornton respectively, the Bees would love to find a partner and trade them away this offseason to relieve the Hornets of their large contracts.
The Hornets have a difficult week ahead of them, beginning tonight at 7 PM when they take the court against the Utah Jazz. The Jazz sit second in the Northwest Division and currently hold the third seed for the Western Conference.
Carlos Boozer is having a great season down low for the Jazz, averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds a game. Deron Williams is also putting up big numbers this season on the offensive side of the ball.
The Jazz have been on fire having won 13 of their last 15 games. The Utah offense has been steamrolling their opponents. David West will need a big game tonight offensively and defensively he has to put forth an effort to keep Boozer from having another colossal game.
New Orleans won the only other meeting between these two teams this season; however, Chris Paul came up with the big plays at the end of that game to win it. Darren Collison has big shoes to fill if he wants to lead the Hornets to a victory.
The Hornets are well within striking distance of the Western Conference playoffs. This will be a good week to see how they measure up to some of the best teams in the league, as they will be hosting the Houston Rockets on Sunday.
The Hornets have another big game set for next Tuesday when they travel to Cleveland to take on LeBron James and his crew.
If the Hornets can weather the storm of games that are on their schedule until Chris Paul returns, the Bees have a strong chance of pulling themselves into playoff position.
Originally Published: February 17, 2010