The Hornets are back in New Orleans tonight, aiming to shake off those two road losses. They’ll have their work cut out doing that against the 39-19 Orlando Magic. Game tipping later than usual (8:30 p.m.) since it’s being broadcast on ESPN.

The Magic are 17-13 on the road this season and have won six of their past eight. Earlier this week they beat the Cavs in Orlando, then blew out the Rockets in Houston on Wednesday. In the latter, Dwight Howard delivered 30 points and 16 rebounds, hitting all 11 of his field goal attempts.

You may recall the last meeting between the Hornets and Magic, in Orlando back on February 8: Vince Carter scored 48 points as the Magic won 123-117. Emeka Okafor proved ineffective in that game trying to slow Dwight Howard, but the baskets were coming easy for the Hornets as David West, Darren Collison and Peja Stojakovic scored 27, 27 and 29 respectively.

Morris Peterson is questionable for the Hornets tonight after straining his hamstring Wednesday in Milwaukee. If he can’t play, Marcus Thornton is expected to start at shooting guard. That leaves the bench pretty thin though, as noted by Jim Eichenhofer over at Hornets.com:

Without Peterson and Songaila, the Hornets would be down to nine available players against Orlando and a bench consisting of James Posey, Julian Wright, Sean Marks and Aaron Gray.

Another result of all these injuries is Collison playing a lot of minutes. This from Elias over at ESPN.com:

Collison scored 22 points in 42 minutes in the Hornets’ loss at Milwaukee, the ninth straight game in which he logged at least 40 minutes. The only other current NBA players who had streaks of at least nine straight 40-minute games during their rookie season are Grant Hill (1994-95), Michael Finley (1995-96), Allen Iverson (1996-97) and Shane Battier (2001-02).

Numbers:

Pace: Magic 95.1 (14th), Hornets 94.8 (17th)
Offensive Efficiency: Magic 107.1 (7th), Hornets 104.4 (14th)
Defensive Efficiency: Magic 99.8 (3rd), Hornets 105.5 (19th)

Linkage:

• Journals: Hornets Broadcast Drinking Game | Analyzing Tyson Chandler’s Impact | Okafor v Chandler: Another look
• Lagniappe: Collison the hottest rookie and some Gerry V audio
  
• Standings: Hornets three games back from the 8th-place Blazers
• Rival bloggers: Orlando Magic Daily (THN) | Orlando Pinstriped Post

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