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David West stumbled toward the sideline after hitting a fadeaway as he was fouled, then turned toward the bench and slapped the extended hand of Hornets coach Byron Scott.

It was an impromptu but fitting exchange between a player and coach who had plenty to celebrate on Tuesday night.

On the day Scott was named NBA coach of the year for the first time, he gave fans in New Orleans another first: an NBA playoff series victory.

Chris Paul had 24 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds, and the Hornets held on for a 99-94 victory over the Dallas Mavericks to win their first-round series in five games.

"That coach of the year award ... it wasn't a fluke," Paul said. "It's the frame of mind he puts us in. He gives us that ultimate confidence and he lets us play."

West scored 25 points for New Orleans and Jannero Pargo had 17, while Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 14 rebounds.

"A lot of people may be surprised with how this thing turned out, but we're not too surprised," West said.

"Coach has a lot to do with that, his mentality. It's a trickle-down effect. We go out and we pride ourselves on competing."

Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 22 points and 13 rebounds, and Devean George added 11 points in the fourth quarter as Dallas nearly pulled off an improbable comeback. The Mavs cut a 17-point deficit to three in the final seven minutes before Peja Stojakovic hit a pair of free throws to seal it with 5.7 seconds left.

Tempers flared near the end, and Jerry Stackhouse was ejected for a second technical foul with 1:47 left after slapping the ball out of Paul's hands during a stoppage in play, then getting in a face-to-face standoff with West.

Dallas never led and was hurt badly by an 11-1 Hornets run after Nowitzki's free throw had pulled the Mavs to 73-66 early in the fourth quarter.

Dallas played solid defense on New Orleans' next possession, keeping the ball on the perimeter, but Pargo hit a deflating 3 at the shot clock buzzer.

Pargo added a fast-break layup after rookie Julian Wright's steal on the other end. Paul then salvaged a botched alley-oop lob when he grabbed a loose ball and drained a baseline fade, and after West found Pargo cutting across the lane for a layup, New Orleans led 84-67 with seven minutes left.

While the crowd was celebrating, Dallas regrouped and stormed back. The Mavs got as close as 97-94 after Brandon Bass, who had 11 points, hit two free throws with 33 seconds left.

The Hornets ran down the shot clock before Paul missed a jumper. Chandler got a hand on the rebound and tapped it to the perimeter, where Paul corralled it and smartly got the ball quickly to Stojakovic, the Hornets' best free-throw shooter, who finished with 11 points.

Dallas was unable to score again, and the Hornets raised their arms as the buzzer sounded, the crowd went wild and streamers shot down from the rafters.

Dallas must now decide what to do after its blockbuster trade for Jason Kidd yielded only a noncompetitive first-round playoff exit. That could include deciding whether to retain coach Avery Johnson, who's never won fewer than 51 games in any of his three full regular seasons but whose squads have had two straight first-round playoff losses since losing to Miami in the finals three seasons ago.

Kidd finished with 14 points and nine assists, while Jason Terry had 13 points and Josh Howard 12 for the Mavericks. Stackhouse had 11 points.

"We're better than what we showed this series," Nowitzki said. "The summer is going to be long. ... You don't want to say stuff when you're emotional and disappointed. ... You've got to look at what you can do to make the team better. We've got to look at it this summer again, but it's not the time now."

Nowitzki gave mixed reviews to the Kidd trade, which cost the Mavericks young point guard Devin Harris, a former first-round draft choice.

"Honestly, things didn't look great before the trade. It would have been a struggle to get into the playoffs either way, so we just went for it," Nowitzki said. "Sometimes you have to take some risks in this business. We went for one of the best point guards ever to play this game. ... For some reason, we never got clicking the way we wanted to."

Johnson didn't say anything about his future with the team, other than to say he expects to be in meetings soon concerning how to improve the squad.

The Hornets shot nearly 54 percent in the first half and took their first double-digit lead in the first quarter at 24-13.

Dallas battled back to tie it at 32 when Stackhouse hit an acrobatic fast-break layup as he was being pulled to the floor on a hard foul by Pargo, but the Mavs never took the lead and the Hornets began to pull away again when Pargo hit a 3.

Pargo's jumper several possessions later ignited a 17-3 run to close the second quarter and the Hornets led 54-39 at halftime.

The Hornets' victory closed the latest happy chapter for a team that won only 18 games in the last full season it played in New Orleans before a two-year displacement to Oklahoma City because of Hurricane Katrina.

Yet, shortly after the game ended, so did the brief celebrations by Hornets players, who said they expected to get at least past the first round after a 56-26 regular season than earned them a Southwest Division crown and the second seed in the tough Western Conference.

"We're not going to pop champagne bottles anything like that," Paul said. "We're trying to set a new standard here with our organization. This isn't like a fairy tail for us. This is something that we're trying to keep going."

Notes: Shortly before tip-off, the Hornets presented Scott with the Red Auerbach trophy so fans could honor the first-time NBA coach of the year. The voting totals were released earlier in the day. ... Saints running back Reggie Bush was in a courtside seat and persuaded by the Hornets' mascot into signing a football and throwing it into the crowd. ... Paul had on triple double and three double-doubles in this series. ... Attendance was 18,260. The Hornets sold out all three home playoff games in the series. ... Bass hit his first 21 free throws of the series before missing one with 8:56 left in the game. ... The Mavs are 8-6 all time in first-round playoff series.

David West and Chris Paul were on the bench, smiling as they watched thousands of fans headed to their cars.

They were soaking it all in because it might be their last glimpse of Dallas for a while.

West bounced back from a miserable Game 3 with a determined effort in Game 4, scoring 10 points in an early second half rally that sent the Hornets surging past the Mavericks 97-84 on Sunday night, giving them a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.

West had 24 points and nine rebounds, Paul had 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and the Hornets ended an 0-for-14 drought in Dallas that dated to January 1998. Now they're headed to New Orleans, hoping to win Game 5 on Tuesday night and avoid coming back to Big D until next season. The Mavericks are on the brink of a second straight first-round exit.

"It's a great feeling to be up 3-1, but it doesn't mean too much right now,'' Paul said. "It's tough to close out a team, to get that fourth win. That's what coach has been preaching to us. We feel pretty confident going back in front of our fans.''

Dirk Nowitzki had 22 points and 13 rebounds and Jason Terry scored 20 points, but they didn't get much help. Josh Howard was 3-for-16 and Jason Kidd had only three points, three assists and four rebounds before getting ejected with 7:16 left for a flagrant foul on Jannero Pargo. The exodus in the aisles came soon after, even before Hornets coach Byron Scott pulled his starters.

"At that point, we'd done close to what we needed to get the result we wanted,'' West said.

The Mavs went from scoring 30 points in the first quarter to 14 in the second quarter, then 40 in the entire second half.

Dallas' meltdown - in this game, in this series and since being up 2-0 on Miami in the finals two years ago - might end up costing coach Avery Johnson his job. Nowitzki already was using the past tense in his postgame comments, saying they just didn't have enough offense in the series.

"I don't really have an answer for it,'' said Nowitzki, exhaling loudly and running a hand through his hair in frustration. "All season long, we've lost leads way too quick. ... Everybody has to be in attack mode. You have to make shots to win in this league.''

New Orleans did, hitting 50 percent. Peja Stojakovic scored 19 points and Julian Wright added 11, including a tremendous dunk off a midcourt steal of Jerry Stackhouse, a play that emphasized the difference in the age and agility of these teams.

"I thought Julian was athletic enough to match up with Josh and Jerry,'' Scott said. "He didn't play like a rookie. He's active, he runs the floor. He's a pretty good player.''

Pargo also scored 11 and Morris Peterson had 10.

West was 10-of-21, but the most important part came at the start of the second half, when New Orleans turned a 48-44 halftime lead into a 64-51 advantage.

West made all four shots he took in that spurt and added a pair of free throws. All came against Erick Dampier, including a 1-hander that prompted an immediate timeout by Johnson and a huge chest bump from Paul. West never hit anything like that in Game 3, when he started 3-of-14 and finished 6-of-20.

The big guy was practically silent since then, stewing over his performance. Scott considered that a good thing.

"Everything was stirring up in him,'' Scott said. "He wasn't going to play the way he played in Game 3. We were banking on that. He was in an aggressive mind-set from the start and he came up big.''

Several Hornets said Saturday they thought they'd taken Dallas' best shot in Game 3 and could handle it from here. It sure didn't seem like it when the Mavericks came out taking turns going to the basket and getting out in transition. They didn't take many jumpers, but hit most they did take, and were up 32-23 early in the second quarter. Then Johnson had to dip deeper into his bench and it all fell apart.

Even with Pargo running the offense instead of Paul, the Hornets went on a 15-2 run to regain the lead, with Wright's big dunk coming in that spurt.

"I thought after the first quarter, everything we talked about worked,'' Scott said. "Our running game got going and that's why we won this game.''

Johnson went back to his starters, but they played the rest of the half as if they'd used up their allotment of time in the paint during the first quarter, settling for jumpers. The best evidence was their free throws - not a single one in the period. They shot just 16 for the game, after averaging 38.3 over the first three games.

"We just got kind of got stuck in the second quarter,'' Johnson said. "They were more aggressive and we went to old habits and we paid for it.''

Notes: New Orleans' Mardi Gras-esque yellow road uniforms made their postseason debut, a low point in fashion history. ... Weird start: Both centers whiffed on the opening tip, forcing a do over, then midway through the first quarter Paul and Nowitzki traded airballs.

Even with Jason Terry guarding him, the crowd booing him and Dirk Nowitzki setting the tone for a renewed intensity among the Dallas Mavericks, Chris Paul insisted being on the road in the playoffs wasn't much different than being at home.

Well, except for that whole thing about him and his New Orleans Hornets teammates putting the ball in the basket with ease.

"I think we got a lot of shots we wanted,'' Paul said. "We just missed them.''

With 13 of Paul's first 16 shots falling out instead of in, and fellow All-Star David West clanging 11 of his first 14, the Hornets couldn't get into a groove until it was too late. Nowitzki and Terry came up big on both ends of the court, pulling Dallas right back into this first-round series with a 97-87 victory in Game 3 on Friday night.

Nowitzki had 32 points, 19 rebounds and six assists to get the Mavericks within 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday night in Dallas, where the Hornets haven't won since January 1998.

"We wanted to make sure we made it a series and win this first one,'' Nowitzki said. "They're going to keep coming. It's going to take the same effort, the same intensity.''

And, very likely, the same new lineup.

Terry replaced Jerry Stackhouse as a starter and replaced Jason Kidd as Paul's primary defender. The MVP candidate went from ringing up consecutive games with at least 30 points and 10 assists - something nobody had ever done in his first two playoff games - to having 16 points and 10 assists.

Terry cut off Paul's first step early and the speedster seemed a lot more content running the offense from the 3-point line. He kept getting the ball to West in hopes he would find his touch, but that didn't work either.

"Jet had a lot of energy. It takes lot energy to guard Paul,'' Dallas coach Avery Johnson said.

Paul finished 4-of-18 and West was 6-of-20 for 14 points. His late surge helped New Orleans cut a 17-point deficit to 90-83 with 2 minutes left, but the Hornets couldn't close the gap.

"We can't have the type of stretches I had to start the game off,'' West said. "That really put us in a hole.''

New Orleans' only consistent scorer was Jannero Pargo, who had 30 points, his most of the season and most ever in a playoff game. Peja Stojakovic was the only other double-digit scorer with 13. The Hornets shot just 38 percent.

"They came out with a Game 7 mentality, we came out with a Game 3 mentality,'' New Orleans coach Byron Scott said. "From the start, they outworked us. They were more physical, more aggressive.''

Terry gave the offense a lift, too, with 22 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:39 left to help hold off the Hornets' final surge. He had six assists. Kidd had eight points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

Josh Howard scored 18 points for Dallas, but was only 5-of-16.

With all their playoff experience, the Mavs opened the series with two strong quarters. Then came six poor ones, which happened to coincide with the six best for the Hornets. Dallas players insisted they'd be better simply by being home - and they were right.

The Mavericks led by 11 points in the first quarter and were up by seven at halftime. Then came a third quarter that might get NBA conspiracy theorists going.

Dallas took 22 free throws in the period, compared to just seven for New Orleans. Yes, the Mavericks went to the rim harder than the Hornets. They also were aided by getting into the bonus just 3:17 into the quarter.

"They shot more in one quarter than we did for the game,'' Paul said - accurately. The Hornets took only 13 free throws, making them all. Dallas made 15 in the third quarter alone.

The game, and series, nearly turned midway through the third quarter. With Dallas up 62-54, Nowitzki was conked from behind by Tyson Chandler, then run into by Pargo. He was sprawled on the court, the crowd silenced.

Then last season's MVP got up and hit four straight free throws, then a jumper.

"You could tell from the start he was really into it,'' Scott said.

So, how did Paul's first road game and his first playoff loss change his mind-set?

"Now we're trying to win it in five games,'' he said. "This is fun. I love this. We lost tonight, but we get to see them again Sunday. This isn't the end of the road.''

Notes: Dallas won for only the third time in its last 13 playoff games. ... Paul missed shots at the end of the first two quarters, then couldn't get one off at the end of the third, with a bump by Kidd helping prevent it. ... Pargo's first miss came with 3:21 left in the third quarter. His second miss came a half-minute later. ... Johnson was tightlipped about lineup changes before the game, joking that Juwan Howard would be at point guard. Told about it, Howard grinned and bragged about his point-forward skills.

Associated Press

April 24, 2008 at 7:53 AM EDT

DALLAS — Dirk Nowitzki has it all figured out.

To snap out of their funk, and start climbing out of an 0-2 hole against the New Orleans Hornets, all the Dallas Mavericks have to do is get on the court Friday night in front of their home fans.

OK, he acknowledged, they also need to "play in attack mode," which means getting more physical on both ends of the court.

And it would be great if they could play better defence and hit a few more open shots.

Turning to specifics, he mentioned needing to contain Chris Paul, needing to find ways to turn Jason Kidd into the playmaker he's supposed to be and needing a reliable second option on offense.

But despite all those pesky, basketball-related issues, Nowitzki repeatedly returned Wednesday to the notion that being back in Dallas — where the Hornets haven't won since January 1998 — will cure all that ails the Mavs.

"We've got to believe that," he said. "I think if we win on Friday, then everything will already look a lot better. Right now, it doesn't look that good. But if we do all the things we did at home all year long — that's play together, push the ball, make some shots and actually get some stops — we should be all right."

Dallas led by the opener by 12 at halftime, but it's been all New Orleans since.

The Hornets wound up taking Game 1 by 12, then doubled the margin in Game 2. The real eye-popping numbers have been put up by Paul, who went from 35 points and 10 assists in the first playoff game of his career to 32 points and 17 assists.

"The last six quarters on both ends of the court have probably been the best six quarters we've had all season long," Hornets coach Byron Scott said.

Nowitzki is right about how much of a different one win could make. Being down 2-1, but coming off a win, is a world apart from being down 3-0 and hearing talk build about blowing up the team, firing the coach and all other doomsday scenarios.

The Mavs are at that kind of a crossroads.

Since being up 2-0 to the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA finals, Dallas has lost 10 of its last 12 playoff games. The skid includes losing 4-2 to Golden State in the first round last year, wasting a 67-win regular season, and going down 2-0 in the first round this year.

"The guys are not happy with the way they've played," coach Avery Johnson said. "They came in this morning and I saw some angry looks, but I hope we take that disappointment and controlled anger into practice tomorrow and iron out a couple of things and then take it out on our opponents."

The anger seemed to subside by the time guys reached reporters.

Perpetually upbeat Jason Terry came out smiling "because we are back home where we are loved, away from all of that voodoo down there in New Orleans." Then he echoed Nowitzki's themes about the comfort of being cheered by their fans and about a Game 3 win changing everything.

Kidd talked about "taking a page from them in understanding to keep attacking." The logic is fine, but it's strange that a team filled with finals-tested veterans would have to learn about playoff poise from a group of postseason novices.

"You can always play with passion and have fun with it," Kidd said. "We just need to relax, we're at home, and use that to our advantage."

The last time the Hornets played in Dallas was the season finale. They were pulling away in the second half until Kidd and Terry fueled a 32-8 surge.

Although New Orleans was locked into the No. 2 seed, the Hornets went all out to beat the Mavs to keep open the chance of drawing Denver in the first round. Dallas went all out to win and avoid a first-round matchup with the Lakers. Nowitzki even said so after that game.

Oops.

New Orleans players had some fun using those quotes as bulletin-board material coming into the series. Now they can have even more fun by winning Friday and Sunday, then returning home to get ready for the second round.

Paul insists the Hornets aren't thinking about a sweep. They just want to keep doing all those things on Nowitzki's list of frustrations.

"The best part about it is we won two games, but at the same time it means absolutely nothing," Paul said. "It's the first team to four."

Center Tyson Chandler, who has dominated Dallas' big men, also sounded like a grizzled playoff vet, talking about "picking our spots, allowing the game to come to us individually."

"The thing I like is everybody's aggressive offensively and defensively," he said. "I think we've gotten in a flow. Everybody's in rhythm."

New Orleans 127, Dallas 103

NEW ORLEANS, April 22 (AP) -- Dirk Nowitzki skipped out to the perimeter, joining Jason Kidd as they attempted to trap Chris Paul.

Paul promptly let them know they were in for long night, knifing into the lane on the dribble and dropping in a pretty floater.

As brilliant as Paul was in his playoff debut last weekend, his encore was better.

Paul had 32 points and a franchise playoff-record 17 assists, leading New Orleans to a 127-103 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night that gave the Hornets a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.

The old record was 15 assists, set by Muggsy Bogues in 1993.

"Sitting there watching Chris really develop into the best point guard in this league, it's amazing to watch how he's really (taken) his game to another level," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "But that's what great players do. He's definitely one of the best on this league right now."

David West scored 27 points and Peja Stojakovic 22 for New Orleans, which took a double-digit lead in the second quarter, led by as much as 25 in the third and never looked back.

Tyson Chandler had his second double-double of the series with 10 points and 11 rebounds, despite playing with foul trouble. Morris Peterson added 12 points and reserve guard Jannero Pargo had 10 for New Orleans, which was 10-of-18 on 3-pointers, with Stojakovic hitting 5-of-7.

"They were going to try some gimmick stuff" against Paul, West said. "It was key that we had the confidence with the ball out of his hands for us to make plays. Peja hit shots, Mo was able to hit some shots. It really disrupted what they were trying to do."

The series now moves to Dallas, where the Hornets have not won since January 1998. But that streak will end if the Mavericks don't figure out how to slow down Paul and a supporting cast that has been playing with enormous confidence since the Hornets stormed back from a 12-point hole to win the series opener.

"We'll take a look at some things, but we've got to have a better effort," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said. "We've got to go home and get some home cooking. ... They protected their home court; we have a chance to go home and do the same thing. Like I've been saying all along, they are a No. 2 seed that deserves to be No. 2 and we've got to play much better."

Nowitzki led Dallas with 27 points, but spent most of the night looking frustrated, yelling at no one in particular after he threw one pass out of bounds. Brandon Bass was a bright spot for Dallas, muscling inside for 19 points. Reserve Jason Terry added 16 points and Josh Howard scored 10.

"We just got outplayed and outfought. They outworked us on both ends of the floor," Terry said. "We have to play a lot harder and just fight. We have a lot of guys with pride in this locker room. When you take a butt-kicking like that, you can only dig deep and come out swinging."

The Mavs hoped Kidd would be a bigger factor in this game, but he finished with only seven points and eight assists. Johnson, however, declined to single out Kidd or anyone else.

"It's not one person," he said "It's a team game, and collectively the team has to do a better job on both ends."

After Paul's dazzling 35-point, 10-assist performance in Game 1, Johnson said the Mavs would throw more double-teams at Paul, hoping to get the ball out of the star point guard's hands.

The strategy backfired badly from the start. Paul easily split or dribbled around double-teams, scoring six points and assisting on eight baskets in the first quarter.

His crossover, between-the-legs and behind-the-back dribbles set up an array of running floaters, fades and jumpers. He found West for several open jumpers and a dunk. He twice found Chandler for alley-oop dunks. The Hornets shot a whopping 71 percent and set a franchise playoff record with 39 first-quarter points.

"They put the ball in Paul's hands. We tried to trap him some early, but if West is going to be wide open at the top of the key, he's making the shot," Nowitzki said. "It's tough to get the ball out of his hands if the shooters are shooting like that."

Dallas got its deficit briefly back to single digits behind 16 first-half points from Nowitzki and 10 from Howard.

But the Mavs hurt themselves with seven turnovers in the second period, which the Hornets converted into 10 points, often in transition, as they widened their lead to 67-51 by halftime.

Whatever adjustments the Mavs made at the break, their plight only got worse.

Paul scored six quick points on two free throws, a driving layup and a running floater, then Stojakovic hit two jumpers, the second for his fourth 3 of the game, giving New Orleans an 80-58 lead.

Peterson then got involved with two 3s and jumper, and the Hornets, who shot 64 percent through three quarters, led 90-66 after West scored while backing in on Bass.

Bass, a force inside during this game, responded with nine points during the remainder of the period, making it 99-79 heading into the final period.

Early in the fourth, Paul scored six quick points on a runner in the lane, an off-balance floater off the glass and a pull-up jumper, putting the Hornets in the clear.

When asked if there was a way for Dallas to stop him, Paul replied, "I'm sure there is, but to me, I hope not."

"One thing I've learned through this season and watching these games is that you have to be aggressive," Paul continued. "If I just sit back and let them trap me, then they succeed in what they had to do. I know I have to pick my spots when I get the ball and let other guys go, but at the same time I have to be aggressive and attack and that's what we did."

Notes: The Hornets scored 17 fast-break points in the first half, when they shot 62 percent. ... Paul had a double-double by halftime with 12 points and 10 assists. ... New Orleans finished with a 29-13 edge in fast-break points. ... Dallas outrebounded New Orleans 38-31. ... The Hornets also set team playoff records for first-half points and 3-pointers made.

Copyright 2007 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Chris Paul had 35 points and 10 assists in his first career playoff game Saturday night, lifting the New Orleans Hornets to a 104-92 come-from-behind victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their first-round series.

David West in his first playoff game since he was a rookie reserve, scored 23 points, and Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 15 rebounds to help New Orleans storm back from a 12-point halftime deficit and win going away.