TMJF: Hornets 97, Wolves 96

Stat Line: 33 minutes, 4-9 FG, 1-3 3FG, 5-7 FT, 14 pts, 2 rebs, 9 assts, 1 stl, 2 TOs.

For the second straight night, Jonny Flynn had to go to bed thinking about a late crucial play that may have cost his team the game.

Unlike Tuesday's crucial turnover, however, last night mis-step was almost entirely Flynn's fault. Just a tick under four seconds remaining, the Wolves up, and the Hornets inbounding the ball on the sideline. Chris Paul was the trigger man, and given that he's the Bees' best playmaker (indeed, one of the NBA's best), you just knew the ball was going back to him. Paul inbounded to David West, took a step like he was going to go around West to take a handoff, then cut to the basket.

The wire story says that Flynn turned his head to look at West; I don't think he did. I think Flynn was, for whatever reason, unconcerned with Paul cutting to the basket and was concentrating on keeping the ball out of hands up top. Maybe he thought he had help behind him (which he should have). I don't know. It was just a bad defensive play, and the Wolves lost.

It's too bad, too, because it overshadowed a very nice defensive play that Flynn made a few possessions earlier on a New Orleans fast break that preserved the would-be victory. Flynn stripped Peja Stojakovic and then saved the ball to a teammate while flying out of bounds.

For a while, Flynn had his first double-double, but a late Corey Brewer jumper was (correctly) taken off the board because it came a split-second after the shot clock buzzer went off. Flynn's seven first-half assits included a beautiful, one-handed forty-foot bounce pass -- probably the toughest pass to throw in basketball -- to a streaking Ryan Hollins. Flynn also paid homage to Paul on a pick-and-roll with Hollins, arcing a lob between two defenders that Hollins, every bit the leaper Tyson Chandler was with New Orleans when he and Paul ran this play to perfection over and over, skied for and rammed home.