Hornets Freeze Suns

Chris Paul's dominance was on display once again Wednesday night. The Hornets all-star point guard scored 26 points, had 3 steals, 5 rebounds, and dished out 9 assists to outplay Suns PG Steve Nash. In three games since his return from a mild concussion, Paul has averaged 28.7 points and 11.3 assists. Here is more from the AP and espn.com.

Chris Paul has decided to take a shoot-first, pass-later approach lately, and it's producing wins for a Hornets team that needs them to solidify its playoff hopes.

Paul had 26 points and nine assists, and New Orleans extended the Phoenix Suns' losing streak to four games, 100-95 on Wednesday night.

"I just try to be aggressive," Paul said. "I've learned, watching all the games, that if I'm aggressive early, it makes the defense collapse on me and it makes my teammates open even more."

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=310316003

Let's hope Chris continues to be aggresive. David West, the team's leading scorer this season, doesn't seem to mind that Paul has taken over in that department.

"He's being more aggressive, taking his shots and making himself a scoring threat," explained West. "He's putting pressure on guys to defend him."

West scored 16, including 12 in the fourth quarter. Emeka Okafor recorded his first double double in a month and a half. Trevor Ariza played 40 minutes of superb defense. Willie Green gave 35 solid minutes and dropped in 11 points of his own.

It was an all around solid performance by New Orleans, who moved a half game ahead of Portland for 6th place in the Western Conference standings.