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Hornets-Jazz Preview

Jan 3, 2010 - 9:46 PM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

New Orleans (15-16) at Utah (18-15), 9:00 p.m. EDT

The New Orleans Hornets haven't played like a last-place team at home, but their dismal road record has left them in the Southwest Division cellar.

Changing those fortunes might be difficult to do in Salt Lake City.

The Hornets have lost six straight at Utah by double digits, an ugly trend they will try to stop Monday night against a Jazz team hoping to avoid its first three-game losing streak.

New Orleans (15-16) has gone 13-3 at home, but is 2-13 on the road and has lost four in a row there.

The Hornets have struggled badly on defense away from New Orleans Arena, giving up 105.1 points per game compared to 96.7 at home. Road opponents are shooting 50.5 percent against New Orleans - worst in the NBA.

The Hornets have stayed near .500 thanks to an 11-1 home record since mid-November. New Orleans has grown accustomed to winning tight games, with none of its 13 home victories coming by double digits.

Chris Paul led the way to a fifth straight win in New Orleans on Saturday against Houston. He had 10 of his 28 points in the final period and rallied the Hornets from a seven-point deficit in the last three minutes for a 99-95 victory.

"When we're out there playing a game, I'm looking at the score like, whatever we got to do to make sure we got more than them at the end of the game, that's what I'm going to do," Paul said.

Paul and Utah's Deron Williams, drafted back-to-back in 2005, have emerged as two of the NBA's premier point guards. Williams and his team, however, have dominated the head-to-head matchups.

Williams has averaged 17.2 points versus New Orleans while shooting 55.5 percent, easily his best against any opponent. Paul's 15.9-point average and 42.0 percent shooting against the Jazz, meanwhile, are among his lowest career numbers versus any opponent.

The Hornets have only beaten Utah twice in Paul's 13 games against the Jazz.

Utah (18-15) swept three games from the Hornets last season by an average of 18.0 points. The Jazz's six consecutive home wins in the series have come by an average of 20.7 points.

Williams is third in the league with 9.7 assists per game - right behind Paul's 10.5 - but the Jazz have been extremely successful when their floor leader looks to shoot first. Utah has gone 13-4 when Williams scores at least 20 points, something he failed to do in his last two games.

Williams had 14 points in an 87-86 loss at Oklahoma City on Thursday, then scored 16 on Saturday as the Jazz fell 105-95 at home to a Denver team missing Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.

Utah committed a season-high 26 turnovers and gave up a season-high 64 points in the paint to the Nuggets.

"They did some kind of job defensively on us," coach Jerry Sloan said. "They got after us, made us take tough shots and they stayed after it."

The Jazz could use a big game from Mehmet Okur, whose average is down to 12.7 points from 17.0 last season. He scored 21.0 points per game versus New Orleans in 2008-09.

Peja Stojakovic's production has dropped off suddenly of late. The Hornets forward, averaging 11.4 points on the season, averaged 4.8 on 26.7 percent shooting in his last four games.

Stojakovic scored 7.0 points per game against Utah last season, when he averaged 13.3 overall.