The Hornets continue to try to stay alive for the postseason while battling through the absence of three time All-Star Chris Paul. The Hornets lost to the Cavs last night bringing their record to 30-27 with 25 games to go. This is good enough for 3rd in the Southwest division and 9th place in the Western conference. Portland occupies the 8th and final playoff spot in the West and are two games ahead of the Hornets. Realistically, however, for the Hornets to have any hopes of actually winning a series, I think they need to finish at least 7th because the Lakers will sweep us. Denver might sweep us as well, so pretty much we need the 6th place spot occupied by Oklahoma City. The Thunder are four games ahead of the Hornets. I don’t think we can make the playoffs. While our team has been playing as well as can be expected without Chris Paul, inconsistency still plagues them. There have been a few bright spots to discuss, but they aren’t enough to overcome the struggles we will have going forward.

Darren Collison has done an excellent job leading the team at point guard. He continues to turn the ball over a bunch and his jumper still needs work , but his shot is improving with every game. His quickness and acceleration have allowed him to be the same mold of player that Chris Paul has been in his first four years. I think the same reasons that allowed Paul to be so successful and surpass expectations are also being seen with Collision’s improvement. He handles the ball well, is extremely quick, and can get to the basket off the dribble. Collison, like Paul, seems to translate into a better pro player than he was in college. Although Collison led UCLA to three Final Fours in his four years, he was never known as a truly dominate college player and was not thought of as a guy that was capable of impacting games in the NBA immediately. I think the longer 3-point line is the significant factor for this. Having the 3 line deeper, as well as having better shooters that knock down the 3 consistently, spreads out the floor and opens the lane. This gives smaller, quicker point guards that handle the ball well more room to maneuver in the lane and take advantage of dribble penetration. This also allows us to distinguish between Paul and Collison and break down why Paul is still a much better player–passing mindset and turnovers. Chris Paul’s true uniqueness stems from the amazing blend of athletic skill and his decision making. Paul has the ability to have an aggressively offensive mindset yet still have the pass as an option AT ALL TIMES. Even if he is in the air looking to to score he NEVER loses the ability to pass effectively. Collison can’t do that yet. When Collison makes up his mind to be aggressive offensively and go to the hoop, he closes off the ability to pass with accuracy. This leads to him getting caught in the air or turning the ball over because he can’t adjust mid-stride. I’ll give you two perfect examples. Against the Jazz, Collison entered the lane with speed looking to get to the basket or shoot a floater. When Boozer came up aggressively on defense, he left Emeka under the basket open, but Collison couldn’t adjust and threw the ball away to Kirilinko. Last night, he used a great ball fake to get Varejao in the air but then couldn’t make a decision on what to do and ended up traveling. These are small things that can be attributed to Collison’s age and hopefully when corrected will make him an even more dynamic player. I do not think they outweigh his good points, and it was amazing to see him have a triple-double against Indiana the other night. That said, he rebounds better than Paul, and with his knack for getting his hand on the ball on defense he reminds me a of a smaller Rondo but shoots 90% from the stripe instead on Rondo’s 58%. Overall, he has done a fantastic job and has far exceeded anyone’s expectations, and I am looking forward to seeing him progress.

The other half of the Hornets excellent draft class is Marcus Thornton. Last night Thornton set a Hornets team record with 23 points in a single quarter. He past Peja’s 22 point first quarter against Charlotte on Nov. 14th 2007, and he also tied Alonzo Mourning’s Hornets rookie record for points in a game with 37. Anyone who watched LSU last year knew this kid was special and that he could score from anywhere on the court no matter how tall he was. The problem arose when the Cavs actually woke up and put Lebron on Thornton with Jamison on the switch. These two excellent defenders locked up Thornton in the later stages of the 4th quarter, and he didn’t score in the last seven minutes of the ballgame. Thornton is a beast and will become one of the better catch and shoot players in the league. Think Eddie House but better and more energetic on defense and driving strength in the lane. Plus, Thornton has shown he has a knack of slipping in an offensive rebound and put back, as seen last night.

The problem, once again, is consistency. On a night when Hornets’ rookies totaled 59 points, no one else was anywhere to be found. D West had a very efficient 7-10 from the field and 3-3 from the line, but wasn’t nearly as assertive as he needed to be. He continued his Jekyll and Hyde effort. Even on a night when he shoots 70%, it seemed like his mind and effort were elsewhere. He seemed completely disinterested. He looked tired at times which was weird because he had limited minutes due to foul trouble. As usual, he made his patented one or two lazy plays of the day on the Jamison dunk where he tried to foul and even did that lazily, allowing Jamison to facial his ass and put his balls in his mouth as he hung on the rim. That C on your jersey stand for” Captain”, D West, but you certainly aren’t giving the night in and night out effort captains are supposed to. Maybe West is pissed his contract is known as one of the better contracts for an organization to have—meaning he is underpaid. Whatever it is, his defense and effort of late have been atrocious, and I can’t see how we can really improve as an organization with him at the 4. He is an ideal pick and pop guy, but the speed that Collison and Thornton bring to the table should be the gameplan and D West doesn’t want to run the floor. I don’t know what else to say. I love his offensive game and his clutch killer instinct when he is in the “mood” to attack, but I’m tired of getting hosed by his defense.

Okafor played absolutely terrible last night. Shaq made him look like a bitch and he played the part. He continues to be the pinnacle of inconsistency offensively but has been an excellent rebounder. His 5 year $63 million contract continues to be an eye sore we will have to live with for a few years to come. Mo Pete had been playing like his old self, but then again when we needed him to contribute in any meaningful way in a big game, he was nowhere to be found. Thanks for robbing us of our $6.5 million a year.

Peja though is the real reason we lost last night. On a night when Thornton and Collison played so well, all we needed was Peja to NOT disappear. What happened? Lebron and Jamison locked down Thornton and West and Peja played terrible. At least West shot well overall; he was 7-10. Peja was 3-12 and 1-5 from 3.

Posey needs to get his shot back. If he is shooting like he did earlier in the year, he is money and is able to step up in big moments.

I would like to see Juju getting a little more time with Thornton and Collison. He is a mess, but even his mistakes are done full speed. I think those three could have quite a tempo pushing the floor and maybe Julian would be rewarded on the breaks with easy buckets instead of trying to create his own shot.

We are missing Songaila. When West goes out we lose another player to knock down the 18-footer and allow Peja to stay on the wing; hopefully he will be back soon. (He is listed as day-to-day with an ankle injury.)

I hope we can finish strong and make a playoff push, but if we make it in as 8th seed, we get swept by the Lakers. If we make it in as 7th, Denver beats us 4-1. Maybe we should just tank and try to get a shot at the lottery. I just hope we can make up those four games on OKC, but we have the toughest division and most of those games are backloaded. Just doesn’t look good.

To finish on a brighter note the team has Chris Paul tentatively scheduled to come back in early March, which thanks to the short month is just a week away. He has said he has been on schedule, so we will see what the team says in the coming days about a specific timetable.