by Matt Pinto

Home from a successful 2-1 road trip West, the Thunder begin a three game home stand tonight against the 32-32 Chris Paul-less New Orleans Hornets. A squad hanging by a thread to slim playoff hopes.  And on paper, this is a classic case of two teams that appear to be headed in decidedly different directions. 38-24 OKC upended Sacramento Sunday 108-102 for it's fifth win in the last six games and 14th in the last 17. New Orleans outscored lowly Golden State 135-131 Monday to snap a four game losing streak. The Hornets have won just twice in their last eight games and have dropped five in a row on the road.

The other area of this match-up that screams MISMATCH is the Thunder offense, which has scored 100 plus points in 13 of the last 17 games at 104.4ppg versus a Hornets defense that's surrendered 100 plus in five consecutive games at a 110ppg clip for the opposition. Given those numbers and the absence of New Orleans three-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul (20.4ppg, 11.2apg), who's still recovering from left knee surgery, New Orleans still possesses three significant sources of offense in rocket-quick rookie floor leader Darren Collison, who had 20 assists Monday versus Golden State, two-time All-Star power forward David West, an 18.5ppg, 7.7rpg contributor, and high scoring rookie reserve Marcus Thornton, who's averaging 23ppg over the last six. Russell Westbrook (16.7ppg, 7.9apg), Jeff Green (14.5ppg, 6.1rpg) and Thabo Sefolosha will be the three primarily called to defensively impact the effectiveness of the Collison, West, Thornton trio.

This is the finale of an abbreviated three game season series between these two Western Conference rivals with each team winning on the others home court in splitting the first two games. OKC posted a hard earned 103-99 victory in the most recent encounter February 3 in the Big Easy. But the Hornets won the Ford Center clash between the two 97-92 and has now won four in a row on the road at the expense of Oklahoma City.  In this game, the Thunder are the better, deeper and healthier team.  At night's end all three of those important facts will likely be evident on the scoreboard.