New Orleans Hornets Roll to 6-0 As Stingy Defense Stymies Milwaukee Bucks

On Friday night, the New Orleans Hornets (6-0) set a franchise record by starting off the season with a 5-0 record. Saturday night in Milwaukee, they made that record even a little bit harder to ever break.

David West led the Hornets with 25 points en route to an 87-81 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks (2-5). The win kept the Hornets as one of only three undefeated teams left in the NBA (Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers are both also 6-0).

It was yet another great defensive effort by the Hornets, who ended the evening with six steals and five blocks while overcoming 19 turnovers of their own. Milwaukee was limited to a mere 38.6 percent field-goal shooting.

Defense wasn't the only plus side for New Orleans as all five starters finished in double figures with West leading the way. Chris Paul and Marco Belinelli both had 14 points as rookie coach Monty Williams has yet to lose a game in his NBA coaching career.

One night after leading the way with a 26-point, 13-rebound effort, Emeka Okafor was close to another double-double with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Milwaukee saw a great night by center Andrew Bogut go wasted. Scoring 19 points and hauling in 14 rebounds, Bogut barely got any help from his starting frontcourt mates Drew Gooden and Carlos Delfino, who could only produce 10 points combined.

The Bucks fell to 2-5 on the season and just couldn't get anything going against a Hornets team that took down the Miami Heat and their "big three" only 24 hours before. Yet Milwaukee still seemed to stay in the game throughout and was only down by six points at halftime thanks to a three-quarter shot buzzer beater by Belinelli.

The Bucks trailed 84-81 with 1:09 left, but Gooden missed two free throws to potentially cut the deficit to one. On the Hornets' next possession, West grabbed John Salmons' wild pass and got it to Paul, who sealed the game with a jumper with 21.5 seconds remaining.

New Orleans has already swept the two-game series this season with Milwaukee. The Hornets return home for their next game on Tuesday, November 9 to face the Los Angeles Clippers (1-5).

Read more from Danny Cox at Examiner.com.