Halo

The team drew an obvious mismatch when it was paired against the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. The seventh-seeded Hornets, who had lost their last three regular-season games by an average of 22 points, drew the Pacific Division champions, a team that won 11 more regular-season games than New Orleans and swept the four head-to-head meetings by an average of 10.8 points.


Another set of four consecutive losses seemed likely as the Hornets entered the post-season without their leading scorer, David West, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in March. They seemed almost toothless as Chris Paul's numbers had dropped off significantly in the 10 games after West's injury.

They seemed outmanned against L.A.'s twin 7-footers – Paul Gasol and Andrew Bynum – and the soon-to-be-named Sixth Man of the Year – 6-11 Lamar Odom. The Hornets answers were 6-10 Emeka Okafor, 6-9 Carl Landry, and … somebody … off the bench.

But when the playoffs began New Orleans' team responded to the challenge much better than the city of New Orleans responded to the team's playoff push. The Hornets' disappointing losing streak to close the regular season was nothing compared to the ticket-buying public's performance down the stretch.

The announced attendance for the six home games in April was 13,878; undoubtedly there were fewer fans in the Arena. As soon as the Hornets' finished off a 108-96 home victory against Indiana on April 3 – the team's fourth victory in six games – everyone knew the next game, three days later against Houston in the Arena, would provide an opportunity for New Orleans to clinch a playoff berth.

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foreverfan

One more time....

GeauxForMore

Lets get it done Hornets

Halo

Every playoff win for the team sells hundreds of season ticket holders.

Keep winning Hornets, it's the best thing you can do for everyone right now...

Beastmode

The problem has less to do with the fans and more to do with bigger market teams hogging all the profits and good players. If I live in a smaller market I'm not going to invest in tickets knowing that the majority of the time my team will get run over.

Halo

I think the problem is MUCH bigger than this. I think the NBA is overdone and over expanded.

How many games do they play a year, like 1000? How many months a year do they NOT play? 2 or 3?

And the talent is spread THIN. How many good players are on each team? 3 on average?

I think the NBA is too big and over expanded and the experience is watered down. Regular season games have less meaning because they play them by the dozen each week.

And look at the track record of the NBA of moving teams. New Orleans is already on its 2nd franchise along with Charlotte. Doesn't give you much confidence in the product.