NBA in OKC NewsOK.com Blogging Community

DALLAS — Tim MacMahon of the Dallas Morning News has an interesting blog post where he ranks the West’s best point guards. If you look here about halfway down, he ranks Chris Paul ahead of Steve Nash.

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DALLAS — The fans here aren’t overly enthusiastic throughout the entire game like crowds were inside the Ford Center. But this building can get awfully loud whenever the Mavs go on a run. The place erupted when Bobby Jackson had his fast-break layup blocked by Josh Howard and Jason Terry nailed a three on the other end. Whenever the crowd gets into it like that this is one of the loudest arenas in the league. Then again, they have microphones on the rims that makes you hear every shot that’s put up. So you never know what kind of tools this arena is rigged with to make it loud.

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DALLAS — Peja Stojakovic just took a shot that hit the opposite side of the bottom of the backboard. He running gingerly and is grabbing his groin area. He looks like he just aggravated the injury. Rasual Butler came in for him just now and team trainer Terry Kofler immediately walked over to Peja as a he sat down to check on him. It doesn’t look good. Peja had to foul Josh Howard to get out of the game.

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DALLAS — Based on the halftime stats, the Hornets had no business being in the game at the break. And the Mavs are paying for not putting them away. The Hornets started the third quarter on a 17-8 run and took their first lead on Chris Paul’s pretty scoop layup. They seemed to have the momentum now and it’s going to be a great fourth quarter.

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DALLAS — Just saw a classic sign as I was walking back to my seat after halftime. A woman who looked to be in her 60s stood in the aisle and held up a sign that read, “Adam. I played basketball with your grandma.” The sign was directed at injured Hornets forward Adam Haluska, a former Iowa Hawkeye.

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DALLAS — Hard to believe that with 2:55 left in the first half David West hasn’t scored yet. He’s been great on the glass so far with seven. but he can’t get a decent look. I haven’t seen one pick and pop with him and Chris like they used to do that got David so many open shots. That could have a lot to do with it, especially since the Hornets still have only four assist. They’re working too hard for shots.

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DALLAS — After watching Chris play for one quarter you can see the difference between him the first two seasons in OKC and this year. He’s a lot more aggressive offensively. I don’t have stats in front of me, but I’m guessing he’s taken at least six shots in the first quarter. That rarely happened in either of the Hornets’ two seasons in OKC. Add to that, he only has one assist, which is the Hornets’ only assist in the quarter. That also rarely happened. There were several games where Chris wouldn’t have a shot attempt in the first quarter but he’d have five, six or seven assists. We would always ask Chris when he would become more aggressive and it looks like this year he finally has.

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DALLAS — Hornets couldn’t buy a bucket. Tyson Chandler just made a layup to give the Hornets their first basket with 8:17 left in the first quarter. I keep forgetting that this is a much better team than they four times I made the trip here when they were based in OKC. I keep having flashbacks to a blowout beginning any minute.

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DALLAS — Looking around the arena, there is a lot of teal and gold sprinkled throughout the place. I wonder if many Oklahoma City fans made the drive to see the Hornets. There was a small group that Brandon Bass was nice enough to wait on and greet as they walked down the stands to meet him near the tunnel. After he finished signing autographs for them he told me they were from Oklahoma. But there are also a lot of Chris Paul jerseys and other Hornets gear in the building.

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DALLAS — Just got out of the locker rooms for both the Hornets and Mavs. As for the game, Peja and Morris Peterson are both playing. That’s should help the Hornets.

Coach Byron Scott was asked if he misses Oklahoma and had this to say.

“Not right now. Not with that storm they got over there.”

He later went on to talk about how he loves the state and still calls all the time because his daughter still lives in the state.  He said he called her this afternoon…..”I love the city of Oklahoma City,” Scott said. “The people treated us extremely well. And that’s something that we’re never going to forget.”

Coach Scott was always one to speak his mind about things. He said crowd support, or lack thereof, matters. As for the players, not many of them wanted to touch the attendance situation in New Orleans. Some said is doesn’t matter. Some admitted that it is a factor.

Peja did bring up what seemed to be a good point about professional athletes being locked in once the ball is thrown up and everything that’s not on the court is a blur. It sounds feasible, but obviously unless you’ve played the game you don’t know if it’s true.

I’ll be writing about the attendance topic for The Oklahoman in the next few days, and the article will have more quotes from Byron Scott and the players regarding their attendance situation this season.

I also got a chance to speak with Brandon Bass a minute ago. I’m working on an article on him as well. But he’s having his best season in his three-year career. He was always a easy-going guy and pretty much fun-loving. But he looked so much happier to be getting significant playing time.

I didn’t see Chris Paul before the game, but talked to most of his teammates about the season he’s having. They all said he’s grown and matured since last year and the proof is in his game. I’m looking forward to seeing him play tonight. He’s scored 29 points or more in four of the past five games and recorded 10 assists or more in three of the past five. Entering tonight’s game C.P. is averaging career-highs of 21.5 points and 10 assists to go with 4.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals.

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