New Orleans Hornets 117, Orlando Magic 85

Well, consider the favor returned. After the Magic decimated the Hornets on national television on Christmas Day, New Orleans came home and returned it to Orlando.

It was a dominating game from start to finish as the Hornets ran away with a 117-85 win at New Orleans Arena.

The big difference was Chris Paul. Orlando simply had no answer for him.

The plan was to duck under screens and let him shoot. Paul not only made his shots, but like a surgeon, cut delicately into the Orlando defense. Really it seemed like the Magic did not have their legs under them and the Hornets cut apart the defense. Paul is incredibly efficient and was a this best tonight. He finished with 36 points and 10 assists.

With no Tyson Chandler for the second time since the trade, New Orleans was happy to foul Dwight Howard. He had 10 points in the first quarter on a strong performance from the line (he took only two or three shots). But New Orleans did a good job denying the big man and keeping him from taking shots. The Hornets forced him to get his points from the line.

And with a big performance last night -- and logging a lot of minutes -- he clearly could not maintain a high level of play tonight.

The Hornets shot the lights out and the Magic were playing catch up the entire night.

The bigger source of concern is offensively. Howard dominated the first quarter, but he could only keep them in the game for so long. The offense looked absolutely lost tonight. Usually you can attribute that to something random on one single night.

But this felt very different. The ball movement just is not there. More importantly, the penetration that frees up space for Howard and the perimeter shooters is not there. Every shot becomes contested without this penetration from the point guard.

That was something Jameer Nelson was very very good at. That is something Anthony Johnson is not good at it. That is something Hedo Turkoglu cannot consistently do.

The penetration from the point guard position is key to this offense and it is clear that Orlando is not getting it like the team used to. It has made Orlando mediocre.

I bring this up not only because this was my first chance to actually watch the Magic since Nelson's injury, but also because it seems like this is something that happened in another game -- the Denver game.

Hopefully it is not a pattern. The Hornets were a much better team tonight. They caught fire and caught the Magic on an off night.

Stan Van Gundy said it best over ESPN's microphones: even the coaches failed to make the correct adjustments. No reason to yell at them.

Let's not make a habit of this though.