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Photograph by Jonathan Bachman
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OK, so that headline isn’t really fair to Tyson Chandler, who’s actually coming back to the Hornets, But after last night’s squeaker against the Oklahoma City Thunder and tonight’s complete domination of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, you gotta at least start to believe that this Hornets team could be OK without Chandler in the low post.
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It seems like in the last 48 hours from when the rumors started to circulate that Chandler would be on the move, people were making all sorts of comments about how the Hornets were no longer contenders for the Western Conference title. Apparently, those people forgot about the unstoppable force of nature that is Chris Paul. The New Orleans point guard had a game-high 36 points (just two shy of his career high) and added 10 assists and six rebounds. Just listen to what the opposition had to say about Paul.
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“He was on fire tonight,” Dwight Howard said. “When a guy is having a night like that, it’s hard to stop him.”
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Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy put it simply: “He destroyed us.”
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Officially, though, the Hornets are sticking with their original story that the trade was a basketball decision intended to give New Orleans depth in the front. As coach Byron Scott pointed out after tonight’s game, “we’re still dead last in the league in rebounds. That’s something that we weren’t last year.”
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Yet against arguably the league’s best big man, the Hornets completely dominated the paint, scoring 44 points inside compared to Orlando’s 18. The Hornets also out-rebounded the Magic (46-35) and held Howard to 12 points (nine below his season average) and eight rebounds (six below his season average). David West, who scored 14 points and three rebounds, said that this kind of dominating win, in which he and his teammates believed they no longer had Chandler, helps their confidence.
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“The time that he’s been out, it’s been an opportunity for guys to step up and improve a little bit,” he said. “Guys got after it.”
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Considering the circumstances the past few days and how beloved Chandler is inside and out of the Hornets locker room, you have to be impressed with the way New Orleans came out tonight. Chris Paul said that he and West talked before the game about making sure that this team would not let up because people were saying that the team was done without Chandler.
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“We wanted to make sure that if we go down we go down fighting,” he said.
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Ironically enough, the Hornets now face the challenge of improving their play with Chandler back. The big man is still injured and New Orleans still lacks front-court depth. Now with the trade that had so many people scratching their heads non-existent, the Hornets have to make sure they don’t suffer a let down in the coming weeks.
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“It’s gotta be a collective effort even with Tyson coming back in here,” West said. “Guys got to light a fire. When he gets back in here we can’t relax.”
