The New Orleans Times-Picayune is reporting Tyson Chandler will be out 1-2 more Weeks with that bad ankle.   This isn’t too surprising considering how slow that ankle has been at healing, and I’d rather have him miss the next couple weeks and come back 100% than try to push it and come back still hurt.

What does this do to the Hornets chances?  I think it kills hope for a top 4 seed.  The Hornets have been feasting on a weak schedule to stay in the conversation, but after tonight, that schedule gets very, very hard.  I felt that Tyson was pretty much a requirement for the Hornets to remain in the hunt, and I just don’t think the Hornets will have enough juice to push through without him.

Will the Hornets miss the playoffs entirely?  I really doubt it.  Pheonix may be surging, but the reality in the West is most of the non-Hornet teams ranked 3-9 have their full complements of players right now and still can’t make decisive pushes.  I expect that to continue.  The Hornets have way too much of an edge over Pheonix.  Even if Phoenix went an unlikely 9-1 over their final 10, the Hornets would have to go 4-8 the rest of the way to slip out of the playoffs.  That’s not going to happen with Paul, West and Butler still around.

I’ve also said this before, and will say it again, I expect we may hear that Peja is also more injured that they have been reporting.  When Peja had his herniated disk two years ago, they kept saying he’d be back shortly for about three weeks.  Then they accepted it wasn’t going to change and shut him down.

There are two similarities between this time and the last – The Hornet’s comments about the injury are all positive, and every quote you get from Peja is unequivocally not.  Peja has stated over and over this time that he continues to have stabbing pain down his legs – and that it even happens after receiving cortisone shots.  That’s not good.

With that said, go read the Knicks Game Preview!