Basketball Daily

The Los Angeles Lakers has only lost 4 games this year at home and one of the teams that beat them was the New Orleans Hornets.  They met up once again and the Lakers had to fight tooth and nail to get the win, but they did in overtime.  The Lakers had a commanding lead heading into the fourth quarter but the Hornets shot lights out and held L.A. to only 19 points.  This sent the game into OT where the determination of the Lakers prevailed and they came away with a victory with the final score ending at 115-111.

All 5 starters for the Lakers ended up in double figures with Kobe Bryant leading the way with 39 points on 13 for 30 field goal shooting.  Pau Gasol contributed 20 points and Luke Walton had 14 points.  The high man off the bench was Trevor Ariza with 7 points.  The Lakers continue their dominance in the Western Conference and improve their record to 45 wins and 10 losses.

Chris “CP3″ Paul was blazing hot on Wednesday night when the Orlando Magic came into town of the New Orleans Hornets home.  Right off the bat the Hornets made a statement shooting the ball extremely well and locking in on their defensive tactics limiting the Magic from scoring.  Paul threw up 16 points in the first quarter that inevitably led to an impressive blowout where the Hornets won easily with a final score of 117-85.

CP3 was the high scorer for the Hornets with 36 points on 14 for 22 field goal shooting.  Paul also had 10 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals.  The New Orleans team also had 5 other players in double figures including Rasual Butler, David West, Melvin Ely, Devin Brown and Peja Stojakovic.  Lets see if the Hornets can make a strong push in the second half of the year and end up in one of the top 4 slots in the Western Conference.

On Friday, the visiting Golden State Warriors and the home town New Orleans Hornets played an exciting and quick up and down game where a lot of three pointers were shot.  The Warriors attempted 21 threes and the Hornets attempted 26 threes, and both teams shot an abysmal 23% from beyond the arc.  Golden State did come away with a victory though, as it was their first win on the road against a 500+ team this season.  The final score ended was 91-87.

The four top scorers for the Warriors were Corey Maggette with 19 points, Jamal Crawford with 17 points and Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis both had 15 points.  The bright spot for Golden State was they shot it well at the free throw line at 86%, which in a game this close, it was the deciding factor.  The Warriors are at the bottom of the barrel in the West this season, but they improved their record slightly to 15 wins and 32 losses.