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Way back when the Hornets were the second seed in the Western Conference and everyone thought they may supplant the Saints in popularity, quite a few celebrities in town shooting movies came out to see Chris Paul and Co. light up the court. When said celebrities would be shown on the jumbo tron, I made a habit of finding them in the stands and conducting an interview (OK, I still do that on occasion). In any event, no interview I conducted was as sublimely bizarre Bruce Willis interview with Cox Sports Television during Monday’s game against the Lakers. Please, enjoy, it’s worth your time.

Photograph by Jonathan Bachman

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After the Hornets’ lopsided loss to the Portland Trailblazers - in a game they had to win to stay in playoff contention - it seemed as if the season had reached the end of its mortal coil and the Hornets players would coast to the finish line. And with the mighty Lakers in town Monday night, it wasn’t quite set up for a Hornets breakout performance.

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And then the Hornets did something that no one expected them to: they played lights out and took it to the defending NBA Champions, beating them 108-100 in front of a sold-out crowd at New Orleans Arena on Monday night. This team may be out of the playoffs but they are obviously not without some semblance of pride.

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For Hornets fans, this was as bittersweet as wins can get. Six hornets scored in double figures, Chris Paul added a double-double and the rookies combined for 35 points. All in a game that doesn’t matter. And it’s not like the Lakers just laid down and died. Kobe Bryant scored 31 points and Pau Gasol had 26 points and an ridiculous 22 rebounds. The Lakers out-rebounded the Hornets (48-40), had more second chance points (24-11), and had more points in the paint (42-34).

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So how did the Hornets do it? By shooting close to 50 percent from the floor, getting 40 bench points’ to Los Angeles’ 12 and by watching the Lakers miss 22 of 27 three-point attempts. Oh, and by not having one of those complete meltdowns that have defined this Hornets season. After jumping to a 13-point lead to start the second quarter, the Hornets let up their guard just once at the start of the second half when the Lakers brought the game within two. The Hornets, though, did not falter and finished the third quarter on a 20-5 that all but decided the game.

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And yet, after tonight, the Hornets don’t have anything to show for their win other than the possibility of having a slightly worse draft pick after the season is done. Maybe the Hornets, sans injuries, could have played like this all season. In the end, woulda, coulda, shoulda can only take you so far.

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Photograph by Jonathan Bachman

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The Hornets 112-101 loss to the Portland Trailblazers was just another listless effort from a New Orleans team seemingly coming to grips with the fact that they won’t play past the regular season. Sure, they could have kept their marginal playoff hopes alive with a win, but how much longer after that? Saturday night’s game was never really close and the only thrilling moments came when Sean Payton was shown on the jumbotron in the second half and when Spike Lee and Mos Def, who were sitting baseline, got up to leave in the fourth quarter.

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Though Lee and Mos Def were out before I could get them to comment on the game (biggest question on my mind had to do with why they waited until less than three minutes remaining in the game to leave), our Jonathan Bachman attests that the New York director was catching jokes on the Hornets play, at one point saying “I feel right at home, like I’m watching the Knicks.”

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If only the Hornets could be that good.

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Kidding! The Hornets are not nearly as bad as the Big Apple’s sorry-excuse of a team and, as bad as Portland made them look, New Orleans didn’t play as bad as to merit such a blowout. At least not on paper. Both teams were about even in shooting percentage, turnovers, and points in the paint. But the truth of the matter is that the Hornets played defense as intensely as team that’s been eliminated from the playoffs would play. Which is to say, they didn’t play good defense at all. The let LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy combine for 52 points, gave up 17 second-chance points and were out-rebounded 35-25.

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But, as is our wont, we’ll look at the positives. Chris Paul started the game and played 31 minutes, scoring seven points and dishing 10 assists. Not the CP3 we’re used to but clearly progressing since his return. Darren Collision continued his scoring binge with 22, David West remained consistent as ever with 18 points and…and…well they showed up, didn’t they? The only way the Hornets would have made the playoffs is if they went on a nine-game winning streak to end the season while everyone ahead of them went on a nine-game losing streak — and absurdly unlikely scenario.

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After all the ups and down of the season, it seems like the Hornets are at long last beginning to break down. Through the good and bad losses this team almost always played hard, tonight was an exception not the rule. But with just eight games left in the season and nothing to play for beyond that, it seems like the Hornets are losing even the will to play hard. Not that you could blame them.

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But as bad as the end of this season may seem, don’t listen to Spike Lee. The Hornets are not as bad as the Knicks. At least I don’t think they are.

Photograph by Jonathan Bachman

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The New Orleans Hornets have averaged 14,945 fans a game this season and that’s likely an inflated number considering how season ticket holders are counted whether they show up or not. Wednesday night against the Cavaliers, however, they got the Lebron boost and sold out every seat in the house as Cleveland beat the Hornets 105-92.

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The Hornets want to remain focused on the present. Head coach Jeff Bower has said time and again that he intends to coach his team through the season as if they still had a shot at the playoffs (mathematically, they do, but being 10 games out at this point in the season makes it all but impossible) but even then he can’t escape the fact that his hands are tied. Chris Paul is still not 100%, many Hornets players are entering the last year of their contracts and rookies Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton are still developing.

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The fact is that the Hornets’ present isn’t all that appealing. Sure, this is a team that’s shown it can play among and even beat the best in the league (as they did on Monday against the Mavericks), but they can’t do it with any consistency and they have a startling ability to let close games slip away in a matter of moments (against Cleveland they went from being down four to down 16 in just over four minutes in the third quarter)..

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New Orleans’ future is mired with uncertainty with this franchise but that’s no reason to be pessimistic. Collison and Thornton combined for 37 points and David West - who could or could not be a part of the Hornets future, depending on who you ask - added 20 points and 10 rebounds. And while New Orleans, as a team, seemed to fall apart in the second half, the fact is that they didn’t really deserve to keep the game as close as it was in the first two quarters.

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Lebron James scored 38 points, Antawn Jamison notched a double-double and Delonte West added 15 point off the bench for Cleveland. Many times Paul found himself covering James because his team didn’t have much in the way of defensive options. Playing a small lineup for much of the game, the Hornets are “still experimenting” in Bower’s words and you get the sense that, even though this team says it’s focused on the now, they’re taking some time to step back and look at the grand scheme.

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Right now, the Hornets’ grand scheme involves taking a hard look at what players will help them in the future. Surely Collison and Thornton make up a core of players along with Paul, Okafor and West. But with an excess of young guards and a dearth of front-line depth, trade rumors will abound. Right now it’s clear that the Hornets are too inconsistent to consider themselves playoffs threats. Injuries have played a party but more often than not New Orleans has just failed to find the right mix of energy, talent and desire to pull off wins consistently. As much as Bower may deny it, the Hornets brass is paying attention to who’s going to be with this team moving forward.

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That may mean the Hornets will continue to get outclassed by superior teams in front fans that packed the house to see an opposing player, but it could also point to brighter times ahead. Surely, Hornets fans can’t wait for next season to start.

Photograph by Jonathan Bachman

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It must be completely maddening to be a Hornets fan right now. As if teetering around .500 for most of the season isn’t enough, it seems as if every game that passes distances the Hornets even further from playoff contention (they’re currently 6.5 games back of the eighth seed). All this while David West puts up All-Star numbers and rookies Darren Collision and Marcus Thornton continue to produce in tough losses.

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Friday night’s 102-95 loss against the Denver Nuggets was almost like a microcosm of the Hornets’ season. David West put up 30 points and six rebounds, Thornton scored 23 points and Collison registered a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists. The Hornets were undermanned (only eight players dressed) and yet a game that had been close throughout fell apart in the span of around 2:30 minutes in the fourth quarter.

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“I think we made a couple of mistakes down the stretch offensively,” West said. “Then a couple of times on the defensive end, we had the rebound, then gave it back to Chauncey [Billups]. We just gave them extra possessions we didn’t need to give.”

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With the score tied at 86 with 6:05 left in the game, the Hornets proceeded to committed two fouls, two ridiculous turnovers and suddenly, with 2:46 left in the game, New Orleans was down by 10 and fans were walking dejectedly towards the exits. The Hornets are now falling completely out of the playoff picture, and every opportunity they have to build momentum seems to fall short. Granted, the Hornets have dealt with a slew of injuries, but they’re not using that as an excuse.

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“I don’t think it affected us,” Emeka Okafor said. “I think the guys knew we had to bring a little more energy. Everybody knew they were going to get more minutes.”

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Anyone who thinks that the Hornets are better than their record suggest are clearly deluding themselves into a better reality that what the rest of us see. Without Chris Paul in the lineup, the Hornets have steadily fallen farther and farther out of playoff contention. New Orleans has lost eight straight games against Western Conference teams that would be in the post-season if the playoffs started tomorrow. Their last win against a potentially playoff-bound team was January 30th against Memphis.

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“There are problem areas that we need to work on as with every game,” head coach Jeff Bower said. “We are definitely going to learn and grown form this game and make sure we apply what we learned into the next game coming up.”

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Despite what Bower said, this team has had a lot of troubler learning from their losses. As a playoff-less future comes closer to being the present, the Hornets are a team in limbo. Ever the competitor, Paul is dying to return to the court, even if it may be too late to rally his team to the post-season. Collison has played admirably in Paul’s absence and, having already played 40 or more minutes 18 times this season, letting him play out the season may be in the team’s best interest.

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There is also the issue of West. He’s playing head-and-shoulders above his teammates and, with the ability to opt-out of his contract after next season, rumors abound as to just how long he will be playing in the Crescent City. The Hornets are a relatively young team with an emerging core of players that could carry them in the years come, as well as a slew of contracts that expire after next season. As the present starts to slip away, you have to look toward the future. Then again, trying to figure out what’s in store for this team in the coming months may be as maddening and watching them play right now.