OPINION

By Steve Greenberg

updated 2:42 p.m. ET May 11, 2008

The best point guard alive crossed his man over, darted to his right alongside the foul line and flipped the ball toward the bottom right corner of the backboard square. It was a standard-issue Chris Paul lob pass — dead-on perfect — and Tyson Chandler roared down the baseline and flushed it, giving New Orleans a 35-34 lead in Game 1 against San Antonio.

'The Spurs being the Spurs, they responded with back-to-back 3s followed by — in what cried out as a "Get real, kiddies" moment — a four-point play by Paul's nemesis du jour, Bruce Bowen. The Hornets suddenly were down nine, not to mention hundreds of games of playoff experience and dozens of championship rings.

Get real, indeed. Eight minutes of game time later, Paul dribbled off a high screen, drew three defenders and zipped a pass to David West for a dunk that tied it at 54 early in the third quarter. Game on. Series on. The Hornets never trailed again.

The NBA's least-known and most routinely overlooked championship contender is wise beyond its years, and that is why the four-time champion Spurs are in danger of being bounced out of the playoffs by mid-May. Entering Game 4 of their series Sunday night, the Hornets hold a 2-1 series lead — and appear miles ahead if you're counting youthful energy.

If there is one player other than Kobe Bryant or LeBron James this postseason capable of dominating a series, it is Paul, a third-year pro who led the league with 11.6 assists this season — and who's finished standing in line behind Steve Nash, Tony Parker and Chauncey Billups among the game's best point guards.

Paul does it with skill and, yes, with maturity and wisdom. "We're not going to pop champagne bottles or anything like that," he said after the Hornets eliminated the Mavericks in the first round. "This isn't like a fairy tale for us." Who does he think he is, Gregg Popovich?

A rung down the ladder in New Orleans — or maybe two, if you count NBA coach of the year Byron Scott — is West, a fifth-year power forward who scored 30 against the Spurs in Game 1 and made his first All-Star appearance this season. Paul speaks for the Hornets with blunt confidence. ("They may, they may not. It doesn't matter," he says when asked if the league's more established teams respect the Hornets enough.) West does his thing more quietly, with a selflessness that has made him the most popular player in the locker room.

"Chris is the best point guard in the league. He has proven it," West says. "I'm probably at the bottom of the list of the best power forwards. I don't consider myself one of those guys who should be talked about with the best players in the league. I have so much more I have to do before I should be seen as being at the top of the food chain."

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Ask West how much better playing with Paul makes him, though, and his humility bears a cutting edge. The same is true of all the Hornets, who have been crafted by Scott into one of the most balanced and dynamic teams in the league. The main ingredient is, of course, the point guard.

"You can say all you want about how quick he is and how great he shoots the ball, but his IQ is off the charts," says Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy. "He makes everybody better. They run the pick-and-roll with (Peja) Stojakovic in the right corner, Chandler rolling to the rim for a lob-and-dunk, (Morris) Peterson on the other wing, West floating on the baseline. Paul makes the right decision every time."

The key to West's flourishing has been his readiness to shoot; against the Spurs in Game 1, he hit spot-up jumpers, step-backs and hooks with both hands, with no hesitation whatsoever. Perhaps he doesn't belong in their midst, but he played like Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett or Amare Stoudemire at their finest.

By comparison, the great Duncan, in one of the worst games of his career — five points on 1-of-9 shooting — looked completely unready for this second-round challenge.

We could be witnessing a changing of the guard (if not the power forward). To be sure, we are witnessing a Hornets team that more than belongs in the mix of contenders.

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