January 17th, 2009 
Matt Loede 
Posted in 
Playing their first game without injured starter Delonte West, the Cavaliers picked up their game and put forth a solid 48 minutes, topping the New Orleans Hornets at home 92-78. The victory puts Cleveland at 31-7 overall, and now an amazing 20-0 at home, the best home record in the NBA.
LeBron James, who told the media in the pregame that he spent Friday nursing a cold at home with chicken soup, played like he was feeling just fine, putting in 29 points and 14 rebounds with 7 assists. Sasha Pavlovic, playing for the injured West, had 19 points in a starting role, and fellow guard Mo Williams had 17 points and four assists.
The Hornets, who fall to 23-13, were led by David West with 23 points, and superstar guard Chris Paul, who always seems to play well against the Cavs, had 18 points and seven rebounds. The Hornets though missed a number of key shots in the first half, and for the contest shot just 37 percent, while the Cavs were a bit better at 42 percent.
The Cavs trailed early 9-4, but then went on a solid first quarter run that would be an indication of how the night would go. With the game tied at 13 at the 3:19 mark of the first quarter, Cleveland went on a 15-4 run to end the quarter ahead 28-17.
New Orleans got it to four in the second quarter at 31-27, but again they started missing shots, and the Cavs started to go off, hitting for 20 to 9 run before the half to go up 51-36 at the half. Wally Szczerbiak had 14 in the first half for the Cavs, with Pavlovic hitting for 11.
The second half was played pretty much even, as the Hornets outscored the Cavs42-41, but with the issues in the first half, the Cavs were able to put it in cruise control for most of the last 24 minutes to secure the 14-point victory and seal their 31st win of the season.
The Cavs will now head out west, as they will play their next four on the left coast vs the Lakers (Monday), TrailBlazers (Wednesday), Warriors (Friday) and Jazz (Saturday). They won’t have a shot at 21-0 at home till Tuesday, the 27th of January when they take on the Kings of Sacramento.
