Heat Face Competition Against Undefeated Hornets

The Miami Heat will actually face some competition tonight as they travel to face the very competent New Orleans Hornets tonight at 8pm.

The New Orleans Hornets offense starts and ends with the play of All-Star point guard Chris Paul. What makes Paul such a great basketball player is the same thing that makes LeBron James and Dwayne Wade great basketball players: unselfishness. Paul is the type of player that feeds off of setting up his teammates which makes him an ideal point guard. He currently leads the Hornets in scoring average (21.3) and assists (9.0) which makes him good for contributing close to 40 points a night.

Paul will have his hands full on the defensive side of the ball has James will be playing tonight after some speculation on his status due to a bruised right shin. With the Heat still trying to find their identity at the point guard position, Paul, an All-Defensive team player, may face up to three different players bringing the ball up the court as Wade and Carlos Arroyo will be playing the position along with James.This is one of the aspects that is going to make this Heat team so special is the different looks that they will presenting to each team. James at the point guard position makes an automatic mis-match at the position because of his sheer size. Wade's attacking nature also makes a difficult match up for any player at that position in the league. When Arroyo takes the ball up, expect him to set-up the two superstars.

This game will also serve as a good road test as the Heat foiled when they visited in Boston, while their other road game was against sub par New Jersey and Philadelphia. Expect the Hornets to be playing against a full house that will add energy to the defensive side of the ball as well as energize their offense. I am still currently working out the kinks on setting up live blogging. Look for announcements regarding this feature in the coming days.