Back from the All-Star break, and the Hornets have a tough task to start the home stretch. The Utah Jazz are in town, ready to cause trouble at 7 Central.

The 33-19 Jazz have been playing extremely well of late, with the lone loss in their last eleven games coming against the Lakers last week. In those last ten wins, they’ve out-scored opponents by an average of 11.1 points. Last night in Houston they showed no signs of an All-Star hangover, as Mehmet Okur scored 21 points and Deron Williams managed 17 points and 15 assists in a 104-95 Jazz win.

Tonight marks the second of four meetings between the Jazz and Hornets this season. The Hornets came away with a rare win in Utah back on January 4th thanks in large part to 30 points from Devin Brown. In today’s Salt Lake Tribune, Deron Williams is quoted as saying “We owe them a game.”

Morris Peterson will be starting at 2-guard tonight for the Hornets, with Marcus Thornton again coming off the bench in his second game back from injury. Jim Eichenhofer also reports that Peja Stojakovic will be sporting a new look.

Numbers:

Pace: Jazz 95.5 (13th), Hornets 94.5 (19th)
Offensive Efficiency: Jazz 106.6 (9th), Hornets 104.9 (13th)
Defensive Efficiency: Jazz 102.2 (11th), Hornets 105.5 (20th)

Linkage:

• Earlier on the blog: Thoughts on JuJu’s Twitter trade talk | Rookie Report: Inside the Numbers
• Journals: Check out all the entries to our Journal Contest (ends at 7 Central this eve)
• Rival bloggers: Salt City Hoops (THN) | SLC Dunk | True Blue Jazz

(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.)