Tonight we’ll see the first meeting of the season between New Orleans and division rivals Memphis, game tipping at 7 Central.

The Grizz have been turning a lot of heads lately, knocking off top teams, winning 12 of their last 15 games and now sitting a game ahead of the Hornets in the standings with a 22-18 record. All five starters have been having career seasons, Zach Randolph leading the way with averages of 20.7 points and 11.5 rebounds.

This will be game 41 of the regular season for the Hornets. They played poorly against the visiting Spurs on Monday, falling into an early hole and eventually losing 90-97. San Antonio dominated the boards in that one, and shot an incredible 38 free throws. The Hornets will be hoping to correct those issues in a hurry since the Grizzlies currently lead the league in rebound rate and are third in free-throw attempts per game.

Some numbers:

Pace: Grizzlies 96.5 (8th), Hornets 94.1 (21st)
Offensive Efficiency: Grizzlies 106.6 (9th), Hornets 103.9 (16th)
Defensive Efficiency: Grizzlies 107.6 (25th), Hornets 105.4 (20th)

Linkage:

• Earlier on the blog: Trading for the Future
• Hornets.com: New Honeybees site
• Lagniappe: Thornton irrepressible, Nash over CP and much more
  
• Rival blogger: 3 Shades of Blue

(Many thanks to Dariusz for today’s banner featuring Darren Collison. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz’s designs in our Wallpapers vault.)