NOH 99, DAL 94
Chris Paul led the New Orleans Hornets to a clinching victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of their best-of-seven series on Tuesday night.

Paul had 25 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds and Tyson Chandler tallied 10 points and 14 boards for the Hornets, who shot 49% from the floor and outrebounded Dallas by four.

Dirk Nowitzki ended his season with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists and Jason Kidd added 14 points and 6 assists for the Mavericks, who were eliminated in the first round for the second-straight season.

Jerry Stackhouse was ejected with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter after receiving his second technical foul of the contest.

The Hornets will face the winner of the Spurs/Suns series in the second round.

Game FIC Scores
Chris Paul, NOH - 33.0
David West, NOH - 21.9
Dirk Nowitzki, DAL - 19.4
Jason Kidd, DAL - 18.5

New Orleans? Byron Scott is the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2007-08 NBA Coach of the Year, the NBA announced today.

In his fourth season as the Hornets? head coach, Scott received 458 points, including 70 first-place votes, from a panel of 125 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote. Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers was second with 242 points (23 first-place votes) and the Houston Rockets? Rick Adelman was third with 193 points (17 first-place votes).  

Scott, the first coach in Hornets history to receive the honor, led the franchise to its first Southwest Division title and a franchise-best 56-win season. Scott guided the team to a 56-26 (.683) record, an 18-game improvement over last season (38-43, .463) and the second-best record in the highly competitive Western Conference. The Hornets also broke a franchise record with 26 road wins, finishing at 26-15 on the road and winning 17 of their final 26 road games. The Hornets were 15-26 away from home a year ago.

Byron Scott will be named the NBA Coach of the Year, according to multiple media reports, ESPN.com confirmed the reports on Monday night.

The Hornets finished the regular season with the second best record in the Western Conference.

The league reviewed Jason Kidd?s flagrant foul Monday morning but determined that no further action was warranted, according to a league spokesman that spoke with the New York Times.

Kidd was automatically ejected following a hard take down on Jannero Pargo in New Orleans' Game 4 win.

The New Orleans Hornets won a hot-contested Game Four against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night 97-84 to take a 3-1 series lead.

David West had 24 points and 9 rebounds and Chris Paul tallied 16 points, 9 boards and 8 assists for the Hornets, who turned the ball over just eight times while holding Dallas to just 36% shooting on the night.

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 22 points and 13 rebounds, while a majority of his teammates struggled at home. Josh Howard had just six points on 3-for-16 shooting.

Brandon Bass contributed 12 points and 9 boards off the bench in the loss, but Jason Terry (20 points) was the only Maverick other than Bass and Nowitzki to reach double figures in scoring.

Jason Kidd was ejected in the fourth quarter after receiving a flagrant-2 for dragging Jannero Pargo down by the neck during a lay-up attempt.

Soon after, a Hornets' fan was ejected for jawing wildly with Dallas owner Mark Cuban on the sideline.

Game Five will be Tuesday night in New Orleans as the Hornets look to eliminate the Mavericks from the playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks won a game that they had to on Friday night to keep themselves alive in the first round against the New Orleans Hornets, 97-87.

Dirk Nowitzki had 31 points and 16 rebounds and Jason Kidd tallied 8 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists for the Mavericks, who outrebounded New Orleans by six and shot 43% on the night.

Jannero Pargo led the Hornets with 31 points, as their stars struggled for a majority of the night in Dallas.

Chris Paul had 15 points and 9 assists in the loss, on 4-for-18 shooting, after posting tremendous stat lines in both Game One and Two.

David West had difficulties in Game Three as well. He scored 14 points on 6-for-20 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds.

The action turned much more physical in Dallas, with Kidd icing down an eye bruise in the fourth. Erick Dampier committed a flagrant foul on Paul with mere seconds left on the clock, which led to technical fouls on both Tyson Chandler and Dampier.

Game Four will be Sunday night in Dallas as the Mavs look even up the series.

- NOH 127, DAL 103
Chris Paul starred for the New Orleans Hornets as they took a 2-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night with an emphatic win.

Paul had 32 points, 17 assists and 5 rebounds and Tyson Chandler added 10 points and 11 boards for the Hornets, who shot 60% from the field and turned the ball over just six times.

Dirk Nowitzki posted 27 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists and Brandon Bass added 19 points and 8 boards off the bench for the Mavs, who hit 47% of their shots and outrebounded New Orleans by seven.

The Hornets outscored the Mavericks in every quarter on Tuesday night.

Game Three will be Friday night in Dallas.

Game FIC Scores
Chris Paul, NOH - 33.0
David West, NOH - 18.8
Dirk Nowitzki, DAL - 17.6
Brandon Bass, DAL - 15.6

George Karl admitted on Sunday that Denver was hoping to play the Hornets and not the top-seeded Lakers in the first round, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

"I'm not going to deny we were rooting to play New Orleans," he said. "We wanted to play the more inexperienced team."

Los Angeles easily won Game One on Sunday afternoon.

Karl added that he was hoping they would trade Kobe last summer.

Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith all criticized Dirk Nowitzki on Saturday night when he failed to respond after David West tapped him on the face several times, according to the Star-Telegram.

"You can't let a man put his hand on your face in the playoffs," Johnson said.

"I love Dirk Nowitzki," Barkley said. "Terrific, great player. But they're trying to say to you, 'We think you're soft.' That's what it means.... You've got to slap his hand down, and then you got to say, 'Hey, let that guy drive to the basket' and then you've got to knock the hell out of him."

The Mavericks seem to be happy that Dirk decided against retaliating.

"I love those guys, but they are living in 1998," Mark Cuban said. "In this year's NBA, you retaliate, you get suspended. That's happened to us too many times. The NBA saw it, and it's up to them to deal with it."

In the end Nowitzki was upset that a technical foul was even called on him, as he felt his restraint warranted a pass.

- NOH 104, DAL 92 Chris Paul had one of the best playoff debuts in NBA history on Saturday night in a big Hornets win over the Mavericks in Game One of their first-round series.

Paul notched 37 points, 10 assists, 4 steals and just one turnover for the Hornets, who trailed by twelve points entering the third quarter.

Dallas shot less than 30% in the second half and turned the ball over sixteen times on the night.

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavs with 31 points and 10 rebounds and Jason Kidd posted 11 points, 9 boards and 9 assists in the loss.

Tensions rose in the last few minutes, with Nowitzki and David West being assessed technical fouls after an altercation.

Game Two will be Tuesday night in New Orleans.

Game FIC Scores
Chris Paul, NOH - 30.6
David West, NOH - 19.0
Dirk Nowitzki, DAL - 18.6
Jason Kidd, DAL - 18.0