Big, big game for the Hornets tonight as they host the Nuggets at the Ford Center. A loss effectively ends our season, while a win lets us live to fight another day. Of equal importance will be the Warriors-Kings matchup in Sacramento. It would be nice if birthday boy Baron Davis was to lose that one.

Aside from the Playoff implications, tonight's game is also significant because it will be the Hornets' last regular season appearance in Oklahoma City. Any Playoff games will of course be played there, but for all intents and purposes, tonight's the night we say goodbye to Bricktown. Byron Scott will be all teary-eyed…

"(Tonight is) a lot more than a game. The game is just the climax of the evening. You're talking about more than people's lives. When you come to fall in love with a city and a city falls in love with you, it's much more than a game."

I fell in love with a city once. The sex was awkward. Moving on to some notes and stuff…

• First, them Nuggets. What are we up against?

  Well, we're in serious shit if recent history is any indication. The Nuggets are riding an NBA-best seven-game winning streak. Their last four wins have come vs. Dallas, at Clippers, vs. Lakers and at Utah. The silver lining is that they're not blowing anybody out, winning by an average of 6 points during the streak. Maybe if we could just get this one into overtime?

• The danger dudes for Denver are of course Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. They're averaging a combined 53.3 points in their last four games. JR Smith hasn't been much of a factor for them lately. He played just five scoreless minutes against the Jazz on Wednesday. Watch out for Marcus Camby, who could be a pain in the ass tonight if Tyson Chandler doesn't play (and it sounds like he won't).
• We're 2-1 against the Nuggets this season. A depleted bunch of Hornets beat them by a dime at the Ford back in December. Then there was that Desmond Mason gamer to snatch a 112-114 OT win in Denver back in February. A month later, the Nuggets got revenge, blowing us out 106-91 in Denver and sending me to my unhappy place.
• The Nuggets have clinched a Playoff spot. They are 42-36 on the season, 20-18 on the road.
• NBA Commish David Stern will be in attendance tonight. He may or may not join the Honeybees for a dance routine at halftime.
• The Nuggets just signed Von Wafer. Where's Kirk Snyder when you need him?
• Former Oklahoma Sooner and current Nuggets forward Eduardo Najera likes the Oklahoma City:

  "It's a great city. They've got a lot of restaurants and wealthy people."

  Thank you, Eduardo. You can go away now.

• Found that quote in this story by Chris Tomasson in the RMN. The article also states that the Hornets averaged 4,221 fans per game in 2004-05 in New Orleans. I couldn't find attendance figures online, but I'm sure that number is way off. I thought it was at least a five-figure average.
• Cool Q&A with Ced Simmons over at The Official. The best part:

  There was one day in training camp when myself, Hilton (Armstrong) and Marquinhos (Marcus Vinicius) forgot to bring the donuts, so the next day our vehicles were all filled with popcorn.

  I guess it looked something like this.

• Found this site off a mention in today's Oklahoman. The site calculates the Playoff probabilities for each team, and right now they're giving the Hornets only an 11% chance to make the cut. Que sad face.
• Bad publicity alert: The Hornets made a bunch of children cry. You're not alone kids: they disappoint me all the time.
• The Clippers beat the Lakers last night. I'm not sure what that means anymore.

All the talk about magic numbers and different scenarios for the Hornets making the Playoffs have left my brain retarded, so I'm not going to try break it down too much anymore. Just taking it one day at a time, I know that first and foremost, we need the Hornets to win tonight and the Warriors to lose.

We'll pick it up from there tomorrow. Linkage…

• Latest standings
• NBA.com's game preview
• Nuggets team stats
• The Nugg Doctor
• Denver Post
• Rocky Mountain News