By Joshua Coleman

The following is part of Jones on the NBA's celebration of NBA Stadium Blog Day.

The FedExForum. Located in the heart of downtown Memphis, it doesn't have the cache of Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden or the Fabulous Forum that was home to the Los Angeles Lakers for so many years. After all, it is barely 4 years old, so how much history could it have?  read more »

The Mavericks showed up to play tonight. Whether they were energized by their home crowd, or just desperate not to go down 0-3, they came out aggressive from the start on both ends of the floor, and that made all the difference.

Our Hornets took the Mavs' first punch pretty well, bouncing back from an 11-point first quarter deficit to take a three point lead midway through the second thanks to some nice bench play. It wouldn't last though, as the Mavs kept pounding the paint and running the ball, getting easy points from free throws and fast breaks. The Hornets kept the game from getting completely out of hand in the second half behind some Jannero Pargo heroics, and managed to cut the Mavs 17-point lead down to 7 with two minutes left in the fourth. Then Jason Terry knocked in a dagger three and it was all over.  read more »

With the Hornets up 2-0 against the Mavericks in the first round of the Playoffs, the series switches to Dallas for Game 3 on Friday. Here's a few things to keep an eye on...

1) The Hornets' reaction to a hostile crowd

The Hornets have managed to shut up just about every critic in the country after two impressive wins in New Orleans, but one big question remains: can they continue this level of play on the road?

It's been heavily publicized that New Orleans hasn't won a game in Dallas since 1998. However, the Hornets can boast one of the top four road records in the NBA this season, and Byron Scott has been quick to point out that this current squad is far superior to any Hornets team in the past decade. Additionally, New Orleans didn't exactly get their asses handed to them in two visits to Dallas this season, having been within five points in the final four minutes of both games.  read more »

This past Saturday, the Hornets dominated the second half of their Playoff opener against the Dallas Mavericks and came away with a 104-92 victory. Game 2 goes down tomorrow at the New Orleans Arena. Here's what to watch for...

1) The Mavericks' efforts to slow Chris Paul

The story of Game 1 was Dallas' inability to stop Chris Paul, who went off for 35 points and 10 assists in his Playoff debut, repeatedly blowing by Jason Kidd and escaping the Mavs' half-assed traps. Priority number one for Dallas will be to ensure that doesn't happen again.

I'd be surprised if Avery Johnson opts to have Kidd guard Paul as much in Game 2. Methinks Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and possibly even Eddie Jones are all more capable of slowing CP, so they may take turns defending the point. It will need to be a team effort by the Mavs though, so expect them to trap Chris more frequently and much more aggressively. They'll likely send two guys at him in the backcourt and hedge hard on pick and rolls. And if all that fails, expect to see the Mavs throw a zone at us.  read more »

I just have to throw in some comments here:

1) The Rockets had won 22 games in a row, but had only sold out 8 straight games. You know a fanbase sucks when the team is in the middle of an exciting playoff run when they could be the 1 seed or out of the playoffs and the team can't even sell out. What the hell.

2) T-Mac's comment that the Celtics play the best defense he's ever seen was a great compliment. First of all, T-Mac himself is a very, very good defender. Second, he has been a one-man show practically his whole career and is used to seeing tight defense every night. Third, remember what he did to Bruce Bowen back in the day?  read more »