November 19.

After a day of rest, the Magic will also challenge the Hornets at the New Orleans Arena today.

In the past two years, the Hornets have successfully helped the team to squeeze into the Western Conference Strongest Group with Chris Paul and David West.

Last season, the Hornets even ranked second in the Western Conference with a record of 56 wins and 26 losses.

In the first round of the playoffs, the young Hornets also eliminated the Mavericks led by King No. 4:1 with a total score of Chris Paul.

But in the Western Conference semi-finals, the young Hornets eventually lost to the experienced Spurs in a tiebreak 3:4.

This game also allowed Chris Paul to miss the Western Conference Finals.

If the Hornets could advance to the Western Conference Finals last season, then the classic drama of Kobe vs. Paul will be staged in the Western Conference Finals.

And no one expected that just when everyone thought that Paul's career peak had just begun, this time it became the closest season in the rest of his career to the Western Conference Finals...

Although the loss in the playoffs last season made this young Hornets a bit a pity, it also made the players look forward to the team's future.

Therefore, this season's Hornets also brought in James Percy to add another point to the team's offensive firepower while retaining their original lineup.

Just as the young Hornets were planning to roll up their sleeves and make a big fight at the beginning of the season, they ignored the ups and downs of the players' own condition.

With the start of the new season, former All-Star player Peja Stoyakovic, who had a very fierce offensive firepower in the last season, has indeed experienced a significant decline in his personal form.

Peja, who was already in his 30s, has already made some physical regressions, and the Hornets' performance is very good, which has led to Peja in the offseason focusing on eating, drinking and having fun, so he did not conduct systematic training.

So at the beginning of the season, Peja's shooting percentage directly broke his career low.

Peja's absence also directly affected the offensive efficiency of the entire Hornets. The pick-and-roll of Chris Paul and David West in the high position was very threatening last season.

Because David West can both go down after pick-and-roll and shoot at a high position, this also leads to the combination of multiple offensive changes that can be produced by using one pick-and-roll on the offensive end.

Chris Paul and David West's outstanding and efficient performance also forced other teams to focus their defense on both sides.

In this case, Peja Stoyakovic can get a good catch opportunity when standing outside the three-point line. After all, Chris Paul's passing vision is among the top in the entire league at present.

This season, when faced with these empty seats, Peja frequently made irons and instantly turned into a blacksmith on the court, presenting music after music to the audience at home.

This also caused the entire Hornets' offense to become a bit chaotic.

In addition, boxing champion Chandler has also suffered from waist injuries this season, so attendance has always been difficult to guarantee.

Therefore, the Hornets, which were originally bound to win the championship this season, have so far only ranked sixth in the West.

However, so far, although Peja's average score per game has dropped to 13 points per game, there is not no good news for the Hornets.

That is, Rasol Butler, who had only been able to play as a substitute last season, has ushered in an explosion in his career this season.

This season, Rasol Butler has raised his personal average score to 11.3 points and has 3.4 rebounds.

If he averaged 0.7 assists per game, he would be a very outstanding role player.

The assist ratio is so low, not entirely because most of the Hornets' ball rights are in the hands of Chris Paul, and also because although Rasol Butler is not as good as Kobe's life, he happened to have Kobe's disease...

Fortunately, his hardworking defensive attitude on the court, coupled with Peja Stoyakovic's poor defensiveness, also made Rasol Butler directly mentioned to the starting lineup by the head coach, becoming a temporarily indispensable part of the team.

However, the Hornets were able to successfully gain a foothold in the West, which is full of strong teams, thanks to the outstanding performance of Chris Paul and David West.

After a break during the offseason, the two's personal performance not only did not decline, but instead improved slightly.

Until now, Chris Paul has been able to contribute 23 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists per game.

As Chris Paul's old partner, David West was able to contribute 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists.

It can be said that the proportion of the two people's scoring and assists on the offensive end is basically equivalent to half of the team's score.

In addition, the team's third shot, Peja Stoyakovic's not very powerful, which also allows other teams this season to always be able to unscrupulously defend this pair of combinations more strictly when facing the Hornets.

This is also the main reason why the Hornets' performance has not only not improved since the start of the season, but has also declined.

You know, in the NBA league, if a team does not make progress in the new season, then this is equivalent to a regression.

Because the lineups of other teams will change greatly every year, not to mention that the Hornets has already experienced a great decline compared to last season's offensive level.

If it weren't for Rasol Butler's personal outbreak, I'm afraid the Hornets will basically bid farewell to the playoffs this season.

Before the game began, the players on both sides also warmed up shooting in the half.

Compared with the Magic team who played consecutive away games, the Hornets in this game were not feeling well.

Although the Hornets did not fight back to back in this game, the Hornets fought three overtimes with the Lakers, currently ranked No. 1 in the West, and finally lost to the Lakers with a slight disadvantage of two points.

In this case, the Hornets' physical strength is not much better than the Magic. The only advantage is that they are very familiar with the basket of this stadium.

"Hey Chris, I really like watching you play, and I was your idol until I entered the league."

"Ph!! No..., I mean you have always been my fan!!"

"Uh, not... well... I mean, you like watching me play ball..."
Chapter completed!