The Hornets won their fifth straight home game yesterday with a 94-83 triumph over the visiting Jazz. Utah were a bit shorthanded, entering the game without Andrei Kirilenko, then losing Carlos Boozer to a knee injury about four minutes in. Boo-fucking-hoo.

No prizes for guessing what's next… 

• Linkage: box | recap | video | photos

• This one was different in that the Hornets had a double-digit lead heading into the fourth stanza, and were able to hold it for pretty much the entire quarter. Bobby Jackson and Rasual Butler made some big plays down the stretch to stave off the Jazz.
• After coming out strong in his first three games back from injury, David West struggled against Toronto, Sacramento and Utah this week. He's shot 10-of-34 from the field in those last three, and had just ten rebounds in the last two combined.

  West says an ankle injury he picked up against the Raptors has been limiting him. More on that story from John Reid here.

• Some nice individual performances last night. Desmond Mason sank 7-of-11 for 20 points. Bobby Jackson knocked down all three of his triples and finished with 21 points. Tyson Chandler was perhaps most impressive, scoring only 8 points, but nabbing 15 boards and blocking a career-high 7 shots.
• For the Jazz, Deron Williams kicked ass to the tune of 27 points and 8 assists, making me really really miss Chris Paul out there. Second-round rookie Paul Millsap also came up big for Utah, breaking loose for 15 points and 17 rebounds.
• Check the note low here about some dude who filled out 5,717 All-Star ballots to win a personalized Hornets jersey and a tour of the locker room. I guess I'm not the most freakishly obsessed fan on the planet after all.
• This new Jazz blog I found wraps it up from the other side.
• Marc Jackson was a DNP-CD for the second consecutive game.
• Darnell Mayberry is still thinking the Playoffs are a possibility. I'm still being an asshole about it.

That win gives the Hornets an 18-25 record, with three games left on the current homestand, all against sub-500 teams. Great news too that Chris Paul is set to return to full-on practice on Tuesday, meaning he should be back pretty soon.

Next up for the Hornets are the visiting Blazers tomorrow at 7pm Central. Preview in due time. I'm out.