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It's almost impossible to not feel like this is the end.  I know that all New Orleans did was protect home court, and the Mavs could still have two more chances to get the necessary road win.  I know it, but I can't feel it.

It's bizarre watching this team right now.  Avery Johnson is just in his third season as a coach.  He's only 43 years old and has coached a team to NBA Finals and to a 67 win regular season.  Yet somehow it feels like the league has already passed him by...

Or is it the players.  Avery had the right plan coming into the game.

"Early on I'd like to see us get some stops and run, hopefully get the ball to the basket, score some points in the paint.  I'd like to see us do a much better job than what we did on Chris Paul, individual defense, team defense; I'd like to see us do a better job on the boards and just -- I thought we had a lot of enthusiasm to start the game, we just couldn't sustain it."

"More than anything, our offense keys a lot of what we do defensively, we've just got to have better ball movement. We have to be in attack mode."

We know ho that worked out.  New Orleans scored 37 in the first half and took advantage of open looks to shoot 17-24.  Chris Paul finished with 32 points and 17 assists.  Dallas had just 13 fast break points the whole game and the defense forced New Orleans into just 7 turnovers that resulted in only five points.

So the players can't execute?  Or the coach can't get them too?

And beyond execution, the effort looked pretty awful.  The players couldn't even deny it.

"We just got out-played, out-fought, and out-worked. They out-worked us on both ends of the floor." - Jason Terry

"We just didn't go for it. They out-hustled us for some balls," - Dirk Nowitzki

So can Avery no longer motivate this team?  Should the players need him to?

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	AT
51-32		57-26

How It Stands:
New Orleans Leads 1-0

Game Links:
Sefko Preview | AP Preview | Avery's Plan |  Hornets247 | Chandler: Hornets Better at Every Position | At The Hive | Official Game Notes (PDF) | Hornets favored by 4.0 | Over/Under 193

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