Hornets face Magic on national TV Monday
February 7, 2010
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
Twenty-four hours after the Saints clinched the first major professional sports championship in New Orleans history, the Hornets will play a couple hundred miles up the road in Florida, visiting the defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic. The 7 p.m. game is being broadcast nationally by TNT.
New Orleans (27-24) is currently in 10th place in the Western Conference, two games behind eighth-place Portland (30-23). By winning at Charlotte at Saturday, the Hornets guaranteed that they will enter the All-Star break with a plus-.500 record; only two games remain prior to the hiatus.
Beating the Magic on their home floor will be a daunting task, with Orlando (34-17) sporting the second-best record in the East. However, Orlando is playing a back-to-back after an impressive road victory at Boston today. The Magic had a perplexing loss in the most recent home game, against Washington.