Hornets Win Third Straight

David West and Chris Paul led the way for the Hornets as they won their third straight game Monday night. Tenacious defense and timely scoring were the key as New Orleans beat the Philadelphia 76ers at the Hive by the score of 84-77.

West scored 17 points and New Orleans held on for an 84-77 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night.

Paul scored 15 points, using a speedy left-to-right dribble on a clutch driving layup off the glass with just under 20 seconds left to give the Hornets an 82-77 lead. Emeka Okafor had 13 points and former Sixer Willie Green added 11 for New Orleans, which saw a lead as large as 13 in the fourth quarter trimmed to three, at 78-75, on Elton Brand's layup with 3:09 to go.

However, the Sixers then missed six straight shots from the field.

Brand led Philadelphia with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Andres Nocioni had 13 points and Jrue Holiday and Marreese Speights each had 12 points.

Poor shooting for much of the game doomed Philadelphia, which was 5 of 23 from 3-point range and finished at 34.1 percent (30 of 88) from the field overall in the face of hustling defense by New Orleans, which has held all three opponents to 81 or fewer points during its current win streak.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=310103003

The most disappointing aspect of Monday's game was the attendance. 13,433 watched the home team win. After solid attendance in the last three home games, Hornet nation did not show up tonight. They must average 14,698 over the next 6 home games. Otherwise, the NBA will be able to move the franchise to another city and only have to play the State of Louisiana $10 million.