A little less than one year ago, the Hornets jumped out to a 2-0 lead over San Antonio in a second-round series, trouncing the Spurs in New Orleans by margins of 22 and 18 points. The sentiment that the Spurs were old, slow and unable to keep up with the young, vigorous Hornets began to spread. That is, until the series went back to San Antonio.

The Spurs evened it up with a pair of home wins. The home team wound up winning the first six games of that series, each time by double-digit margins, before the Spurs broke the cycle in the winner-take-all Game 7.

So after the Nuggets won Game 2 by 15 points on Wednesday night, three days after winning Game 1 by 19 points, Byron Scott downplayed the apparent stranglehold Denver seemed to have on the series as it moved to New Orleans.

"All they did was what they're supposed to do," Scott said of the Nuggets. "They took care of home. That's the bottom line.

"Our objective was to come here and win a game. We didn't get it done," Scott continued. "We have to go back home and do the same thing. We've played better in New Orleans, there's no doubt about that. Our fans have been fantastic all season long."

Hornets All-Star Chris Paul echoed those sentiments, pointing specifically to Spurs series last year.

"The games in that series weren't very close," Paul recalled, adding that he did not believe his squad would be "at all" demoralized by lopsided losses in Games 1 and 2.

It remains to be seen if a change of venue can somehow cause Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups to stop making just about every shot he takes. In the first two games of the series combined, Billups had 67 points and no turnovers. Hornets center Tyson Chandler questioned whether anything could be done defensively when a player performs the way Billups has lately.

"He's difficult to defend anyway," Chandler said. "He's stepping it up and is walking into 3-pointers. When people hit shots like that, it's almost impossible."

And while many see Paul as the best point guard in the world, Billups has outplayed him so far.

"I got a huge size advantage on Chris," said Billups, who at 6-foot-3 is three inches taller than Paul. "One thing I know is he doesn't want to get in foul trouble. He is very important to their team, so I try to attack him and make him play defense when he is guarding me because he is such a tough cover for us on the other end. I try to wear him down the best I can."

Meanwhile, the Nuggets have routinely trapped Paul with double teams, often forcing him to give the ball up before he can penetrate and otherwise making him work hard for everything.

Paul managed 21 points and 11 assists in Game 1, and 14 points and 13 assists in Game 2, but also has appeared frustrated, bottled up and out of synch more often than usual. Paul turned the ball over five times Wednesday night.

"He's got the ball in his hands 85, 90 percent of the time," Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said. "So all you can do is try to make it as difficult as possible and try to two bodies on him as much as we can."

And when Paul struggles, his team normally follows suit.

The Hornets had 17 turnovers altogether in Game 2, leading to 23 Denver points. By contrast, Denver turned the ball over only six times, leading to a single Hornets point.

"We're not being aggressive enough on the defensive end," Scott said. "But 23 points off turnovers, compared to one, that's the biggest difference in the game right there."

The Hornets flew back from Denver late Wednesday night and Scott decided to call off practice on Thursday, giving his players a brief chance to recharge mentally and physically before they return to practice on Friday.

Game 3 is Saturday afternoon, and for Denver coach George Karl, that game will be the true test of whether his team is truly in command of this first-round series.

"I am a believer that nothing really happens until you lose a home playoff game," Karl said.