Although Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks won’t have any implications on the heated Western Conference playoff race, it marks the final home contest in the 25-year history of a club that has been known as the “Hornets” since debuting in 1988. This October, the renamed New Orleans Pelicans will commence their inaugural season.
Perhaps it’s fitting that over the next four days, New Orleans will wrap up its 2012-13 schedule with a pair of games against Dallas, one the team’s biggest rivals since the franchise moved to Louisiana in 2002. Several of the Hornets’ most memorable victories over the past 11 seasons have come at the expense of the Mavericks, including a first-round Western Conference playoff triumph in 2008. New Orleans’ 4-1 series elimination of Dallas in ’08 will stand in the NBA history books as the only Hornets playoff advancement during the aforementioned 11-year span (New Orleans also qualified for the postseason in 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2011).
Later this week, New Orleans and Dallas will play game No. 82 of this season for both on Wednesday in Texas.
In the most recent meeting between the Southwest Division foes, the Mavericks dealt the Hornets one of their most heartbreaking losses of 2012-13. New Orleans grabbed a 100-96 lead when Ryan Anderson drilled a three-pointer with 56 seconds left, but Dallas scored the game’s final eight points for a 104-100 win. Vince Carter buried an ultra-clutch three-pointer with just 6.5 seconds to go, putting Dallas in front 102-100.
On Jan. 5 in Dallas, New Orleans broke through first in the season series with a dramatic 99-96 overtime victory. Eric Gordon’s conventional three-point play in the final seconds of OT proved to be the game-winner.
