http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1083490098105300.xml A win today just delays inevitable for Hornets Sunday, May 02, 2004 John DeShazier Today's game will be the Hornets' last of the season or their last at home this playoff series. It doesn't require genius to know that the Hornets prefer the latter scenario, because it means they'll move to the next round. And no abundance of smarts is needed to know that more likely, the other scenario reveals the more realistic picture -- the Hornets will lose today or Tuesday night in Miami. Having been repetitively disciplined into obedience like Pavlov's dog by letdown after letdown, we understand that there must be parameters accompanying the enthusiasm and expectancy with which New Orleans is met. The season is 87 games old -- 82 regular season, five postseason -- and still, all that is certain of a team so experienced that Ben Gay should be as prominent on the training table as Gatorade is that it can't be awarded unending hope, that its successes must be approached tepidly because they have been fleeting. There's not a sense of "if" the season will end, but "when." Maybe it's today or Tuesday night against the Heat or, if it comes to it, Indiana gets to administer the whacking in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Either way, there seems to be a feeling of inevitability to it, and it's a feeling that has been created and fostered by the Hornets. New Orleans is in deep trouble against the Heat, trailing 3-2, needing two games against an opponent that must feel if it can't close today it surely can at home Tuesday. And, really, it's more than a little unnerving to acknowledge it has come to this. Miami has tried to give the advantage, if not the series, away. The Heat had a drought in Game 1, scoring two points in a span of 7:26 in the fourth quarter before pulling out an 81-79 win. In Game 5, Miami was rattled, nervous and uncomfortable for the first three quarters. And still, the Heat managed an 87-83 win. The Hornets' brain cramped in those games the way you'd expect of teams not often described as clear-minded, with high basketball IQs and willpower. They flat-lined under the stress of faulty direction or execution or both, and it's disheartening that 87 games deep into the season, we still are discussing the Hornets' propensity to melt under pressure. C'mon, folks. With all due respect to the gentlemen from Miami, it's not as if the Hornets are folding against the Lakers or Spurs, who have combined to win the last five NBA championships. Or the Nets or Pacers, who have represented the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals three of the past four years. This is the Heat, a team so young it wears a milk mustache and smokes bubble-gum cigars. A team whose best players, power forward Lamar Odom and point guard Dwyane Wade, play out of position -- Odom had been a small forward before this season, and Wade will be a hellacious shooting guard when he moves to his more natural position. A team that finished in sixth and seventh place in its division the two seasons prior to this one, almost never beats good teams on the road and spasms when lured into a half-court game for more than two or three consecutive possessions. In other words, a team that finds itself matched against an opponent that seems to be the perfect tonic for Miami, which returned to the postseason after a two-year drought. Today's game will be the Hornets' last this season or their last at home this playoff series. Honestly, based on all the evidence New Orleans has presented, which scenario appears least likely? . . . . . . . John DeShazier can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3410. --

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