Plenty of buzz this morning about the Hornets-Lakers match-up, which goes down later today in New Orleans. Real quick…

• This is the final trip to New Orleans for the Hormets this season. Next year it's for keeps. Tick tock, Oklahoma.
• Kobe Bryant is the story in this one. Dude has scored 175 points in his last three games. 65, 50, 60. That's some crazy shit. I say we quadruple team him tonight. Keep Tyson at the rim as Plan B.
• The Lakers have won all three of those games, but lost seven in a row before that. Their win streak is fragile, as it took them OT to beat the Blazers last Friday, they beat the T-Wolves by seven on Sunday and only bested Memphis by a deuce last night. Only the Grizz game was on the road. But hey, wins are wins.
• LA were missing a few key guys recently — hence the losing streak — but Kwame Brown, Lamar Odom and Luke Walton are all back healthy. Rad Vlad and Chris Mihm are out for the season with serious boo-boos of an unresearched nature.
• As for the standings, the Lakers are 36-32 on the season, sixth in the conference, and seem a safe bet to make the Big Show. Our guys remain a game behind the eighth-place LA Clippers and a half-game behind the ninth-place Warriors. The Clips host the Jazz tonight, while G-State welcome the Wizards to Oakland.
• The Hornets are actually 2-0 against the Lakers this season. We beat them in LA back in December when the wins still outweighed the losses. Chris Paul had 26 and 11, while Rasual and Jannero combined for 43 in that one. We also beat them in OKC in mid-January, with David West going off for 26 and 12 and Rasual dropping 20.

  Kobe scored 24 and 23 in those games, but something tells me we won't get off so lightly this time around.

Hey, there's a bunch more stuff you should know about, like Bobby Jackson's status, Peja's recovery and all the New Orleans-related stuff. I'm running late for my extreme kickboxing class, so I haven't even had time to read through all the news stories myself. I'm handing that responsibility over to you today. You've earned it.

Tip is at 7 Central. Linkage:

• Lakers stats
• NBA.com's game preview
• LA Times
• Club Lakers
• Forum Blue and Gold
• Lakers Blog