Game 3 of Hornets-Spurs is in the immediate future (8:30p.m. Central on ESPN), and we've got the usual dose of news, notes, quotes and anecdotes form around the web. You gotta love technology.

To start, Tommy Beer has nothing less than a fascinating read over at HoopsWorld.com, giving you about nine billion statistical reasons why Chris Paul should have won MVP this season (hat tip to TrueHoop for the find). I could quote so much from that article, but I'll just whet your appetite with these two...  read more »

Game 6 goes down this evening in San Antonio, with the Spurs needing a win to avoid elimination at the hands of our Hornets. Here's the usual bunch of notes, quotes and anecdotes from around the web...

Let's start it off with updates on the injuries to Tyson Chandler and David West. Here's words from Tyson himself, who blogged his ass off on NBA.com yesterday...  read more »

I just got back from watching a near-flawless performance by our New Orleans Hornets in Game 2 of the NBA Playoffs. They came out breathing fire in the first quarter and dumped 39 points on the freshly adjusted Mavericks. A nice start indeed, but a basketball game is made up of four of those period thingys, and not even the NBA's computers could remember the last time the Hornets had put together 48 minutes of great basketball. Surely the fantasticness couldn't last all game.

But yes, it did. The Hornets kept the pedal to the metal and refused to let Dallas make any kind of run to get back in it, maintaining a double-digit lead all through the second half, and building the advantage as high 28 points in the fourth quarter. The 17,855 fans in attendance were prepared for a let down after that exhilarating finish to Game 1 on Saturday, but instead they were treated to another four quarters of dominance by the home team.  read more »

On December 5th last, I attended my first Hornets game. The Detroit Pistons, one of the top-tier teams in the NBA the last half decade, were in town on a Wednesday night and just over 10,000 people showed up to see them take on the home team. There wasn't much noise when the Hornets raced out to an early 15-point lead, and the Pistons fought back to win, 91-76.

It was a frequent occurrence early in the season; few fans showing up to see the Hornets battle the cream of the NBA. There was a Friday night showdown with the defending champion Spurs in November, when the Arena was 2,000 bodies shy of a sellout. Only 12,223 were on hand to witness the Hornets put an end to their 21-game losing streak against the Mavericks on a Saturday evening in early November, when Peja Stojakovic nailed a triple with 2.9 seconds remaining to force overtime. Two weeks later, the fantastic-to-watch Phoenix Suns were in town, and just 13,705 saw Chris Paul drop a 20-10 on Steve Nash and lead the Hornets to a three-point victory.  read more »

It's game day, and with it comes a massive dose of news articles and blog posts. Some highlights...

To start, here's an observation from Elias over a ESPN.com...

• Paul is the first player in league history to have at least 35 points and at least 10 assists in his first NBA playoff game.

Nice.

Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com recalls the Nets firing Byron Scott in 2004, and essentially calls Jason Kidd a damn fool for instigating the whole thing...  read more »

The Hornets took a 3-1 series lead over the Mavericks last night, and to follow up we've got more news, notes and quotes from around the funky interwebs. Enjoy. Oh, and don't forget to check Ryan's game recap, right here. 

First we have Dirk Nowitzki, who was already putting this series in the past tense after the loss. From Tim McMahon at the DMN Mavs' blog...  read more »

The regular season is dunzo. 56-26, a new franchise record, and we head into the Playoffs as the number two seed, ready to do battle with those same Dallas Mavericks who just beat us down in Texas.

Final score was 111-98 tonight ( recap | box score | standings ). Our guys actually came out of the gate with some intensity for a change, and strong starts from Chris Paul and David West helped us build an early double-digit lead. But the Mavs fought back like you knew they would, and it was a two-point game at halftime. Third quarter, the Hornets raced out to an 11-point lead, but then got blitzed by a 30-6 Mavs run spanning into the fourth. With Chris Paul on the bench in foul trouble, David West led a bunch of reserves to close the gap to four points down the stretch. Then Jason Terry continued to rain jumpers and the Mavs finished with a flourish.  read more »

Last regular season game of the year for us, folks.  Talk about an amazing ride.  Early in the season I was hoping for health and 45-50 wins.  Instead, I was treated to at least 56 wins, an amazing Western Conference race, and a ball club that seems to have set every Franchise Record in the books.  Every game it seems like a new record has been broken, with Tyson taking the crown for most rebounds in a season by a Hornet in last night's game against the Clips.

It's also been a pretty incredible season for me.  Six months ago I decided to start a blog, two months later I got the opportunity to party with Ron here at Hornets247, and together the two of us have seen the Hornets247 community and traffic grow in leaps and bounds.  According to our most recent stats, our low traffic days are now higher than our peak days back at the start of the year.  According to several different sites like lowpost.net, we're one of the 15 most influential basketball blogs out there.  read more »

For all the talk about how young and inexperienced Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets are, they've been here before. It was in the first round. The Hornets went up 2-0 on the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the playoffs, then lost by double digits on the road in Game 3. So far, it's been the same against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.  read more »