Hornets at Mavericks
THE STORY: The New Orleans Hornets have a lot of work to do in their final regular-season game to convince people the club won’t be an easy out in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Hornets close the campaign Wednesday with a road game against the Dallas Mavericks amid fears they will be entering the playoffs on a deep downswing. New Orleans was soundly beaten in its last two games and is struggling without leading scorer David West, done for the season after a serious knee injury. The Hornets will either be the seventh or eighth seed in the West as they are tied with Memphis entering the season’s final day. Dallas is tied for second in the West with the Los Angeles Lakers and is one game ahead of fourth-place Oklahoma City.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSSW.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (56-25): Dallas has won three consecutive contests following a stretch in which the Mavericks lost four straight games. Dallas notched a 98-91 overtime victory on Monday with Dirk Nowitzki contributing 23 points and 12 rebounds and Jason Terry and Shawn Marion scoring 21 points apiece. Center Tyson Chandler appears to be over the back woes that forced him to miss two games earlier this month. Chandler is averaging nine points and 10.3 rebounds while shooting 84.6 percent (11 of 13) over the last three games. Dallas is just 7-8 against fellow Southwest Division rivals.
ABOUT THE HORNETS (46-35): New Orleans is coming off its lowest-scoring home game of the season in Monday’s 90-78 loss to the struggling Utah Jazz. The Hornets never led in the contest, shot a porous 37.8 percent and allowed Utah to shoot 55.2 percent. New Orleans’ highest-scoring quarter topped out at 21 points. The debacle occurred one night after the Memphis Grizzlies rolled to a 111-89 victory over the Hornets. Chris Paul led New Orleans with a modest 15 points against Utah. This ranked as a vast improvement compared to the seven points Paul scored over the previous two contests. After scoring 18 or more points in five straight games following West’s injury, Carl Landry has scored five points in two of the past four games, averaging just 9.5 points during that span.
WHO'S HOT/WHO’S NOT: Marion is averaging 18.8 points, eight rebounds and shooting 60.5 percent in six games in April. Hornets guard Marco Belinelli is averaging 15.5 points and shooting 60 percent over the last two contests. Dallas guard Jason Kidd is just 1-of-20 from 3-point range over his last four outings. New Orleans guard Jarrett Jack has made just 3 of 15 shots over the past two games.
KEY STATISTIC: New Orleans is averaging just 83.4 points in its last five losses. The Hornets average 95 points, fourth-lowest in the NBA. Dallas allows 96.1 points per outing.
SEASON SERIES: New Orleans leads 2-1, winning at home 99-97 on Nov. 17 and 93-92 on March 9. The Mavericks won in Dallas, 98-95 on Nov. 15.
KEY INJURIES: NEW ORLEANS: F David West (knee). DALLAS: G Dominique Jones (foot); F Caron Butler (knee).
LAST WORD: “It is something that happens in an NBA season. You hate it when you just don’t have the energy or the focus that an NBA team should have … A lot of this falls on me because you have to get your team ready every night.” – New Orleans coach Monty Williams after his team’s poor showing against the Utah Jazz on Monday.