I can't be mad at the Hornets last night. No Peja, no D-West, no Bojangles, no Tyson, no fucking chance. Benjamin Hochman summed it up perfectly in today's T-P with the following…

Including Chandler's 11.9 rebounds per game — fifth in the NBA — the Hornets were without 65.5 percent of their rebounding against the Spurs, and 56.4 percent of their scoring.

That's how bad it is right now. And there's not a damn thing that can be done about it. Sucks, doesn't it?

News and notes and stuff…

• Linkage: box | recap | video | photos
• Chris Paul being about the only healthy Hornet with more than one dimension to his game last night, the Spurs focused all their energy on containing him. The result was just 6 points on 2-of-11 shooting. That's only the second time this season he's failed to score in fouble digures double figures. However, CP did of course drop more dimes than a bad banker, finishing with a dozen.
• I won't rag on anyone for playing crap, because pretty much everyone did. Amazing that Rasual Butler knocked down 8-of-11 shots. Desmond Mason also came through with 16 points and 9 boards, but John Hollinger's brain says he sucks. (No idea what that PER shit is about, btw.)
• From the San Antonio Express-News…
  
  The Spurs didn't arrive in town until noon, about six hours before they had to report to the arena. The team's flight here after Wednesday's victory over Minnesota was canceled because fog would have made it too difficult to land at the local airport.

• Manu Ginobili led the Spurs attack with more points than any other Spur.
  
  
• Spurs chief Gregg With Two G's Popovich post-game…

  "It is tough for them with all the injuries. They play hard, they’re for real. Byron has them executing, they are one of the best rebounding teams in the league. We caught a break tonight."
  

• As for TNT's coverage, I think we all learned just how intelligent Reggie Miller is last night. I'm not going to get into it, because this dude already did.

Always the optimist, I think the best thing to be said about the game last night is that nobody else got hurt. Could you imagine if Chris Paul was injured too? Hello, D-League!

In other news, the latest All-Star votes are in, and CP is looking like Steve Nash's back-up. Gotta wonder will he get bumped back a spot if AI gets traded to the Left Coast.

So, it's Hornets vs. Mavs tomorrow. Gets no easier. Preview in due time. Oh, and if anyone can give me a good reason to go get drunk at a random party tomorrow night, I'd really appreciate it.