James Posey Wastes No Time Putting Hornets Over The Top

When a 31-year old NBA journeyman who averaged just a shade over seven points a game in his ninth year in the league switches teams in the offseason, it's not really supposed to register a blip on the NBA radar.

But when that said journeyman is James Posey - who has helped win two of the last three NBA championships - and he's going to New Orleans to complete the puzzle for a 56-win squad from a year ago, then you better start paying attention.

The Phoenix Suns got first dibs at it on Thursday night from the desert.

In a matchup of the NBA's most entertaining team (New Orleans) against the team that used to have that title (Phoenix), the Hornets spent most of the game showing the Suns just why they've replaced the former "seven seconds or less" juggernaut at the top of the Western Conference by staying in control most of the way.

If you are watching this game, you're thinking that there's no way that the Suns - a shell of what they used to be athletically with the defensive-minded Terry Porter calling the shots - could catch up with the NBA's new "Fastest Show on Earth" featuring Chris Paul. The Hornets raced out to a seven-point lead after the first quarter, went into the locker room at halftime up 12, and maintained that double-digit lead after three periods.

The Suns haven't won an NBA championship, but when you've spent much of the past several years being a 60-win juggernaut who regularly wins Pacific Division titles, you definitely have the heart of a champion. And the Suns definitely showed that by fighting and clawing against what seemed like a fluid and fundamentally sound Hornets group that was looking to make a statement in this nationally televised games.

Finally, with seven minutes to go in the game, the Suns, who were supposed to have been out of this thing a long time ago and were trailing, 79-65, in what seemed like brief moments ago, cut the Hornets lead to three at 83-80.

Their home crowd was sensing the comeback, and the Suns, who had dropped the Spurs two nights ago, were looking like they could be on their way to 2-0 if their run kept up. New Orleans, who had looked like a team on a mission all night, was suddenly finding it hard to buy a bucket, and with Phoenix's new-found energy, a collapse seemed imminent for coach Byron Scott's crew.

That's when the Hornets decided to flex one of their muscles known as James Posey.

All-Star power forward David West drew a double team on the low block and kicked it out to a wide-open Posey, who nailed a dagger of a trey right down the chute to make it an 86-80 game with 6:39 to go. About two minutes later and the Hornets leading, 89-83, with just under five minutes left to play, Paul kicked it out to the top of the arc to find Posey again, who was wide open and stuck yet another dagger in Phoenix's heart by mercilessly draining another three-ball and inflating New Orleans' lead to 92-83.

With just under two minutes to play, the ever-dangerous and potent Suns kept lingering around when former two-time MVP Steve Nash ripped the nets with a 3-pointer of his own to make it a seven point game at 97-90. The Hornets went back on the other end looking to keep their foot on Phoenix's throat, and that's when West found Posey again, who took Nash straight on by burying his third trey in a game span of five minutes.

Just like that, the Hornets had shown the Suns who was the hunter and the hunted in the new hierarchy of the loaded Western Conference.

The final score read Hornets 108, Suns 95, and if you are just a casual fan who woke up to read the box score, you'd think that the Hornets had cruised while outscoring the Suns in all but the third quarter, when the two teams tied. But the story of this game was told by the play of one gigantic free agent pickup that could put the young New Orleans Hornets over the top not just in October, but in May and June, as well.

Don't believe it? Just ask one of Posey's two championship rings from 2006 and 2008. And ask the Phoenix Suns.

They'll tell you.