The Hornets will have an opportunity to stay at home and rest before they begin their Western Conference semifinal playoff series Saturday against defending champion San Antonio.
They finished off the Dallas Mavericks, 4-1, with a 99-94 victory at home Tuesday night, advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the fifth time in franchise history and first time since moving to New Orleans in 2002. They will have the home-court advantage against the Spurs. "We came into this postseason expecting to win," Hornets forward David West said. "We put it on ourselves to win this series. We felt all along that we had enough to do that. A lot of people might be surprised by how this thing turned out, but we're not too surprised."
The Hornets, who had lost 21 consecutive games against the Mavericks coming into this season, won six of nine against them in the regular season and postseason, including a 5-0 record at home.
"We're excited, but we're not popping any champagne bottles," point guard Chris Paul said. "We don't look at this as some sort of fairytale. We're going to try to keep it going."
HORNETS 99, MAVERICKS 94: Point guard Chris Paul had his second triple-double of the season and the fifth of his career -- 24 points, 15 assists, and 11 rebounds -- as the Hornets wrapped up the first-round series Tuesday night in the New Orleans Arena.
The Hornets never trailed in the game and led by as many as 17 before the Mavericks mounted a late charge. Dallas made nine straight shots, including five 3-pointers, to pull within three with half a minute to play.
Paul missed a jumper, but Tyson Chandler tipped the rebound to Paul, who passed to Peja Stojakovic. After being fouled by Dirk Nowitzki, Stojakovic made two free throws. Nowitzki missed a jumper and Paul rebounded and dribbled out the clock.
"That was probably the toughest game we played," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "Dallas had no quit in them. They kept coming and coming. But we did what we had to do -- take care of business at home."
