By Dave McMenamin, NBA.comLOS ANGELES -- The Hornets got their third shot to audition for the role of the Western Conference's supporting lead. This time, New Orleans came away with the part after a 116-105 victory over the Lakers on Tuesday night at Staples Center.
"I thought over there they probably felt that we couldn't beat them and I thought we had to try to prove a point to not only them, but to ourselves," Hornets coach Byron Scott said.
Not that you can blame Los Angeles for that arrogant line of thinking after it went into the Big Easy twice already this season and rode big early leads to two easy victories.
Counting those wins, L.A. was 19-1 against the West this season, having made quick work of Denver, Phoenix and Portland twice apiece and Dallas, Houston and Utah once each.
It was starting to look like the Lakers' only competition this season in the West would be the challenges that the 14 guys in purple and gold presented each other in practice.
Now they're 19-2 in the conference and maybe, just maybe, a worthy No. 2 has emerged.
"We try to tell our guys it's not a statement game, it's just a game," Scott said. "If we win the game we're still second best in the West right now, if we lose the game we're still second best, so really there was no pressure."
Sure, if the Hornets lost they would still have the second-best record in the West, but an 0-3 mark instead of a 1-2 showing against the Lakers would put New Orleans light years away from L.A., if only from a psychological standpoint.
During a stoppage of play in the first quarter, Chris Paul chatted to Jason Segal of Forgetting Sarah Marshall fame and went on to play like he had forgotten all about those previous two home losses to the Lakers.
Paul's 32 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers and David West's career-high 40 points and 11 rebounds might have been the lines that sealed it. But to be the team that's going to take the Lakers toe-to-toe when the rest of the conference has looked like not-quite-ready-for-prime-time players, it takes more than two guys.
"Their two All-Stars are going to do what they have to do, but they have complementary players around them that allow them to do what they do," said Kobe Bryant after his 39-point effort went to waste because of the Hornets' 22-6 run to finish the game.
New Orleans is fully equipped to contend with L.A. -- or any other team in the conference. From the transcendent star in Paul who finished second to Bryant in last season's MVP race; to the All-Star sidekick in West, whose 15 points in the fourth managed to somehow out-sparkle Kobe's 20 in the third; to the token feisty defender and the oop-end of the best alley-oop going these days in Tyson Chandler; to the guys who make the Hornets the third most accurate team (39.1 percent) from three in Peja Stojakovic and Rasual Butler; to the savvy ring-wearing vets in James Posey and Antonio Daniels. The pieces are there. Sure, they are thin in the depth department with their bargain-basement back-up big men bunch of Melvin Ely, Sean Marks and Hilton Armstrong. But even the Lakers' talent pool isn't looking quite as bottomless as it used to.
The recent rash of injuries -- including Jordan Farmar's torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, Luke Walton's sesamoiditis in his right foot and Lamar Odom's hyper extended right knee -- have transformed the Lakers' Bench Mob into the Bench Maladies.
The Hornets might not have started the season as sharp as last year when they snuck up on the league to the tune of 56 wins (the second-best record in the conference) and lost an epic seven-game series with San Antonio in the second round of the playoffs, but Lakers coach Phil Jackson still thinks they're a group that his team has to watch out for.
"I'm anticipating them somewhere in the [conference] semis or in the conference [finals]," Jackson said.
Los Angeles (27-6) was put on notice by New Orleans (21-10) and there's one more team in the conference the Lakers have to worry about: those perennial Spurs.
San Antonio (23-11) takes the casting couch against L.A. on Jan. 14 and will get its first chance to be the team to write in another main character into the West's script for this season.
"We know we're going to be chasing them the rest of the year," West said.
Before Tuesday, it wasn't much of a chase. But the Hornets just made their scene-stealing debut and the Western Conference should be real interesting until the end credits.
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