What can the Hornets do for an encore?

We witnessed perhaps their best game of the season in Chris Paul’s return against the Mavericks on Monday, and now the NBA’s best team comes to town with a comeback story of their own. Game tips a 7 Central. Should be fun.

The Cavs are 56-15 on the season, 25-11 on the road and are riding a 7-game winning streak. They blew out the Pistons in Cleveland on Sunday with LeBron James barely breaking a sweat. Tonight they’ll have Zydrunas Ilgauskas back and available to play, despite trading him away at the deadline (that’s called a loophole, kids). Shaquille O’Neal is still out with a thumb injury.

These two teams met in Cleveland last month, with the Cavs winning 105-95 despite a 37-point explosion from Marcus Thornton that surely left some scout reconsidering his job security. The LeBron’s have not won in New Orleans since 2006, which is the longest they’ve gone without winning on another team’s home floor.

Numbers:

Pace: Cavaliers 93.2 (25th), Hornets 95.0 (15th)
Offensive Efficiency: Cavaliers 109.2 (3rd), Hornets 104.5 (16th)
Defensive Efficiency: Cavaliers 100.8 (7th), Hornets 106.6 (19th)

Linkage:

• Journals: Prospects for Next Year
• Lagniappe: West dishing, Thornton rising, and less pink please
• Rival bloggers: And One | Cavs: The Blog (THN) | Fear The Sword | WaitingForNextYear

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