At 22-22, in 8th place playoff slot since last Saturday’s game with Memphis, the Hornets host the 20-23 Chicago Bulls Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Ford Center.

The game is on Cox. The game is NOT a sellout as this is written.

The Hornets have won 7 of their last 10, most recently, Milwaukee, yesterday ( Monday) in Oklahoma City. In that game, David West had 24 points and 15 rebounds; Speedy Claxton had 19; Chris Paul had 16; Desmond Mason 12; and PJ Brown and Kirk Snyder had 8 apiece. See http://www.hornetscentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=949 for more detail. They are 12-6 at the Ford Center.

Here are the current Western Conference standings:



The Bulls are better on the road (10-10) than they are at home (10-13). The are in 5th place in the mighty Central Division of the Eastern Conference, and are just a hair away from holding the 8th playoff slot: Detroit (37-5); Cleveland (26-17); Milwaukee (23-21); Indiana (21-20); and Chicago (20-23). They had a miserable December (5-11) but a much better January (8-6) and they are riding a 4 game win streak (@ Indiana, 101-89; @ Toronto, 104-88; Washington, 90-79; and, last Saturday, Atalanta, 111-99). They play at Dallas tonight.

In their last (Atlanta) game, the starters were Ben Gordon (#7, 6-3, Connecticut; 15.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.8 apg - 23 points last game); Luol Deng (#9, 6-9, Duke; 13.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 1.7 apg - 18 points last game); Kirk Hinrich (#12, 6-3, Kansas; 14.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 6.5 apg - 22 points last game); Tyson Chandler (#3, 7-1, Domingues HS, CA; 5.1 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.1 apg - 10 points last game); and Othella Harrington (#24, 6-9, Georgetown; 4.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 0.5 apg -started but only played 12:13, scoring 4). Good bench support from Darius Songaila (#25, 6-8, Wake Forest; 9.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.5 apg - 10 points last game) and Andres Nocioni (#5, 6-7, Argentina; 12.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.4 apg - 11 points last game).



Fan support in Chicago is excellent, #2 in the NBA, averaging 21,177 in the 21,711 capacity United Center.



The next game for the Hornets is this Saturday, 2/4, when we host the Lakers. If you’re lucky, you have tickets for that already sold-out game.