It was a bad scene for the Mavericks in New Orleans Arena last night, as they got their asses handed to them by the Hornets, who totally outperformed the Mavs on every front. Chris Paul once again was unbelievable with 32 points and 17 assists as the New Orleans Hornets waxed the Mavericks, 127-103. In the last three halves, the Mavericks have given up at least 60 points. They ran into a hot-shooting Hornets team Tuesday. But it didn’t excuse the Mavericks’ play, which was coma-like to say the least. This is the Mavericks fourth-worst playoff loss in their history. One of the three worse was a 25-point debacle in the Game 6 clincher last year at Golden State.
Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points, and has now said (made the excuse) that coming home for Games 3 and 4 will give them a much needed advantage. Only twelve times in NBA history has a team come back from a 2-0 hole to win a best-of-seven series.

Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs is the winner of the NBA Sixth Man Award given by Kia Motors. In order to be eligible for this award, players had to have come off the bench in more games than they started. Although Ginobili has started a number of games for the Spurs this season, he was eligible for the award because he came off of the bench far more frequently. He was moved earlier in the season from a starting role to a back-up role to give the Spurs’ reserves some extra offensive firepower.

Spurs officials say Ginobili received 615 out of a possible 620 points, including 123 of a possible 124 first-place votes, from a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Leandro Barbosa of the Phoenix Suns finished second with 283 points and Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks finished third with 44 points. Ginobili was the only player in the NBA to average at least 17 points in less than 32 minutes of playing time per game.

Saturday

* Game 1: Washington at Cleveland - 12:30 p.m. ET/ESPN
* Game 1: Phoenix at San Antonio - 3 p.m. ET/ABC
* Game 1: Dallas at New Orleans - 7 p.m. ET/ESPN
* Game 1: Utah at Houston - 9:30 p.m. ET/ESPN

Sunday

* Game 1: Toronto at Orlando - 12:30 p.m. ET/TNT
* Game 1: Denver at LA Lakers - 3 p.m. ET/ABC
* Game 1: Philadelphia at Detroit - 6 p.m. ET/TNT
* Game 1: Atlanta at Boston - 8:30 p.m. ET/TNT

NBA owners approved the Sonics’ relocation bid to Oklahoma City by an overwhelming 28-2 vote today by the league’s Board of Governors. Th two votes against the move came from Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks and Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers.

NBA commissioner David Stern said in an interview “The support for the NBA demonstrated by the fans, government leaders and business community of Oklahoma City over the last three years has been extraordinary, the Board of Governors is confident that the level of local support will result in success for the Sonics franchise in Oklahoma.”

The Sonics will become the fourth franchise to relocate since 1985. The Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento, the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis and the Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans. With the Sonics’ departure after 41 years Seattle would rank as the longest-tenured NBA city ever to lose a team.