Okafor delivers for Hornets in home opener

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Oct 31, 2009

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NEW ORLEANS — Emeka Okafor made himself right at home in his first home game as a New Orleans Hornet on Friday night.

Okafor, who was acquired in an offseason trade and missed the entire preseason because of an injury, had his second consecutive double-double to start the season, scored the points that gave the Hornets the lead for good and blocked two shots to make the lead hold up.

It all added up to a wild 97-92 victory over the Sacramento Kings in front of a crowd 17,306 in the New Orleans Arena. The victory wasn’t overly impressive, but it represented progress from the 113-96 season-opening loss at San Antonio on Wednesday.

Okafor dominated the final minute, but it was Chris Paul who was the main reason the Hornets were in position to take advantage of Okafor’s heroics. Paul finished with 31 points, making 14-of-15 free throws.

Okafor rebounded a Paul missed and slammed the ball through the hoop to give the Hornets a 93-91 lead with 43 seconds remaining.

“It just came down to crunch time and I had to make a play,” Okafor said.

The Kings missed two shots, but David West committed a loose-ball foul against Jon Brockman, who made the first free throw and missed the second. Jason Thompson grabbed the offensive rebound, giving Sacramento a chance to take the lead.

After a timeout, the Kings cleared out so Tyreke Evans, who had made two crucial jumpers moments earlier, could go one-on-one on Julian Wright. Evans got into the lane, but Okafor came over and blocked his shot.

“I looked and I saw he was going to try and take it,” Okafor said, “so once I saw (Wright) was beat I had to slide over and just try to make it as difficult as possible for him to get off that shot.”

The ball wound up in the hands of Paul, who was fouled and made both free throws for a 95-92 lead with 5.9 seconds left.

Sacramento still had a chance to tie with a 3-pointer, but Okafor sprinted to the corner to lunge and tip Kevin Martin’s 3-pointer – “two big plays that had a big-time impact on the game,” coach Byron Scott said of Okafor’s blocks.

“The original plan was to stay with your man but I saw Chris got cracked,” Okafor said, “so I had to go out to the corner and I saw Martin heading for that 3 and I knew how much time was on the clock and he wasn’t going to pump fake. All he had time to do was turn around and shoot so I just had to time it.”

Okafor followed up his 18-point, 10-rebound effort in the season-opening 113-96 loss at San Antonio on Wednesday with an 11-point, 13-rebound night.