It's obvious that Chris Paul has had a storybook season. He's one of the best point guards in the league right now and his team has entered the ranks of the elite primarily because he is such a great decision maker on the floor and gets his teammates involved in ways that make it easy for them to put the ball in the bucket.

In a nutshell, he's a 6-foot-2 Magic Johnson. And he performs like him because he's being coached by Magic's former teammate Byron Scott, who's instilled a little bit of Showtime in the New Orleans Hornets' system.

But what makes the Hornets great? What makes them difficult to defend? And above all, what makes them the complete and balanced team that they are, causing the defending champions to dig deeper into their strategic arsenal more than ever before?

A lot of it is due to Paul's floor leadership and a lot of it can also be attributed to the emergence of power forward David West as an All-Star performer. Paul and West provide the offense with that perfect inside-outside combo.  A one-two punch, a la John Stockton-Karl Malone, if you will.

West can hit the mid range. He has a low post game. He can dribble drive. Meanwhile, Paul is all over the floor doing his thing. And his outside shot is vastly improving. Then you add a high flying center like Tyson Chandler and all of a sudden you have someone to take the load off your Big Two who grabs all the rebounds, blocks all the shots, solidifies the paint, and catches all the alley-oops.

But the player who brings it all together is Peja Stojakovic. While CP3, West, and Chandler fulfill their roles on a nightly basis, it's Peja who stretches opponents' defenses. It's Peja whom you have to chase around to make sure he doesn't drop three point daggers all night long. It's Peja whom you have to worry about because once he gets going, it opens up the entire floor for CP3 to create and find his other players for even easier buckets.

But when you stop Peja from doing his thing, chances are you'll defeat the Hornets with little problem. The Hornets have lost 11 games this season (including last night's loss to the Spurs) to some of the most competitive teams in the NBA and the numbers are revealing.

11/9/07: San Antonio 97, Hornets 85 - Peja 2 pts on 1-6 shooting; Paul 18 pts and 9 assists

11/7/07: Portland 93, Hornets 90 - Peja 5 pts on 2-13 shooting; Paul 18 pts and 12 assists

11/23/07: Utah 99, Hornets 71 - Peja 3 pts on 1-6 shooting; Paul 15 pts and 6 assists

12/14/07: Dallas 89, Hornets 80 - Peja 10 pts on 4-11 shooting; Paul 22 pts and 3 assists

1/9/08: Lakers 109, Hornets 80 - Peja 9 pts on 4-11 shooting; Paul 32 pts and 5 assists

2/4/08: Utah 110, Hornets 88 - Peja 10 pts on 5-9 shooting, Paul 6 pts and 6 assists

2/22/08: Houston 100, Hornets 80 - Peja 8 pts on 3-10 shooting; Paul 14 pts and 11 assists

2/23/08: San Antonio 98, Hornets 89 - Peja 11 pts on 3-9 shooting; Paul 27 pts and 4 assists

2/25/08: Washington 95, Hornets 92 - Peja 11 pts on 4-16 shooting; Paul 22 pts and 8 assists

3/8/08: Houston 106, Hornets 96 - Peja 13 pts on 5-14 shooting; Paul 37 pts and 11 assists

5/8/08: San Antonio 110, Hornets 99 - Peja 8 pts on 2-7 shooting; Paul 35 pts and 9 assists

Final Tally: 11 losses - Peja 8.1 ppg, 35-112 field goals, 31% versus season averages of 16.1 ppg and 44% FG's

Meanwhile Chris Paul, who averaged 21.1 ppg and 11.6 apg during the season, still averaged 22.4 ppg and 7.6 apg in those 11 losses, which were games against very solid teams. 

Notice how the Hornets only averaged 86 pts per game in those losses, which is down significantly from their regular season team average of 100.9 ppg. They gave up 100.5 in the 11 games, suggesting that if opponents contain Peja the Hornets' offense staggers and become a little more predictable and easier to defend.

Also notice that in the losses, Chris Paul's assist production slipped by 4 per game. Well... surprise, surprise!! In this case, the numbers sure don't lie! Those four assists that Paul lost each game add up to be about 8-10 Stojakovic points. Add those 8-10 points to Peja's average of 8.1 ppg in those losses and wala, you wind up with Peja's normal averages of 16-18 points per contest when the Hornets win games.

This observation is not a coincidence folks. I'm sure the San Antonio Spurs' coaching staff noticed this trend from their scouting reports and especially after analyzing their  first two games of the series.

Next thing you know, Coach Gregg Popovich makes the adjustment of the series and switches defender deluxe Bruce Bowen back on Stojakovic. Coincidentally enough (or not) Peja has a bad game.

The defending champions have finally  won a game. They have figured some things out. They have exposed the major weakness of the New Orleans Hornets . The Spurs have now forced their young challengers to make an adjustment and rethink their strategy. 

We have a series. It's playoff time.