XEcutioner's blog: "Interesting stories from the NET!"

First, let's give credit where credit is due. These are not your father's Denver Nuggets, not with Chauncey Billups setting the tone in the locker room and defensive stalwarts like Dahntay Jones and Kenyon Martin adding some substance to all that style, and they took care of business again tonight.

Denver looks for all the world like a legitimate conference finalist, especially if Carmelo Anthony has overcome his season-long shooting slump and can keep cooking like he was tonight (26 points, seven assists). They're deep, they're talented, and they have just enough quality size to play with the big boys.

Now that we've got that out of the way ... I'm sorry, but the New Orleans Hornets' performance was one of the most pathetic efforts I've ever seen, and the fact that it came in a home playoff game with a chance to even the series just makes it more shameful. The Hornets' 121-63 loss to Denver tied for the most lopsided in NBA history, and it was humiliating from the get-go.

On Denver's second possession of the game, David West left Kenyon Martin to double-team Nene, then stood there with his teammates and watched as Martin caught a pass near the 3-point line, dribbled down the middle of the lane and tomahawk dunked.

Nice D.

And things got worse from there.

Two minutes later, Rasual Butler handled the ball in the backcourt against Chauncey Billups -- no, we don't why -- and was picked clean. Billups missed the shot but Jones got the rebound and put it in because Chris Paul jogged back while Jones blew past him. Paul wouldn't score until his team was down by 13 and finished with his worst night as a pro: four points, six assists, and six turnovers.

And so it went. Denver scored 88 points in the first three quarters; instead of being "on a string," as coaches like to say, the Hornets' defenders were on codeine.

Some of the breakdowns were flat-out embarrassing, and if we're going to name names, West was particularly awful -- there was the play later in the first quarter where West met Billups on a switch, kindly stepped to the side and allowed him by for an easy lay-up; the one where he and Peja Stojakovic botched a switch for an Anthony dunk; the one where he left Nene wide open under the basket and James Posey screamed at him after another dunk; and the one where he could have taken a charge on Dahntay Jones's baseline drive but decided it wasn't worth the trouble and conceded a lay-up.

That wasn't a comprehensive list, mind you -- those are just my notes from the first quarter. It ended with Denver up 36-15 and degenerated from there, as the Nuggets ripped off an 11-0 run to start the third quarter and go up by 32, and a 6-0 run to close the quarter, putting them up by 38 and sending little-used subs on both sides scurrying to the scorer's table. Just to extend the embarrassment, the Hornets' scrubs then gave up a 23-2 run to Denver's scrubs, providing a perfect coda to a season where New Orleans' lack of depth has been a killer.

The Hornets couldn't even lose with class, confusing physical, playoff basketball with just getting angry and hitting people. Tyson Chandler seemed more focused on taking out Nene than defending him -- twice he swung elbows at him while defending the post; adding insult to non-injury, both times Nene made the shot anyway. Rasual Butler picked up a technical foul after Anthony Carter had the temerity to foul him on a breakaway, Posey contributed his de rigueur after-the-whistle foul for another tech, and Paul got an early T after taking exception to a legal Kenyon Martin screen.

"It was the worst we've played since I've been here," Hornets Coach Byron Scott said, making a dramatic understatement (and using the word "played" very loosely).

Unfortunately, Game 5 will be held in Denver on Wednesday anyway. If this were a fight, it would have been stopped already. The Nuggets have defeated New Orleans by 58, 29, and 15 in this series; I'm going to go out on a limb here and say they're the better team and will close it out.

In fairness to the Hornets, I should point out that they were dealing with some physical ailments. Paul (knee), West (back), Chandler (ankle), Stojakovic (ankle), and Posey (knee and shoulder) all were playing with injuries of one kind or another. That doesn't excuse their effort, but it does help explain why they've seemed so overmatched.

Nonetheless, if his starters can't be bothered to try, Scott might try to use the Hornets' final game -- which Game 5 certainly will be -- to send a message by playing some different faces. That is, if Monday's mail-in hasn't affected his own job security in the Big Easy.

Regardless of how the Hornets decide to proceed, tonight's result removes any doubt that there will be some changes in Nawlins this offseason. The Hornets aren't in a great economic position to begin with, and they certainly aren't going to be willing to pay the luxury tax to get their doors blown off in the first round of the playoffs.

We'll know more on Thursday, when the Hornets' front office begins its offseason. For the players, however, it apparently began three days earlier -- some time before the tip-off of Game 5.