Mo Pete Returns As Hornets Sting Raptors

Chris Paul showed why he’s a contender for league MVP honours this season, finishing with 20 points and 16 assists to lead the New Orleans Hornets to a 118-111 win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.

Chris Bosh had 21 points and seven rebounds to top the Raptors (37-36), whose loss capped a four-game homestand.

Carlos Delfino added 18 points for the Raptors, while Rasho Nesterovic finished with 14 points, and Jamario Moon had 13. T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon finished with 10 points apiece, while Calderon added 11 assists, and Kris Humphries had 10 points.

David West led all scorers with 32 points, while Peja Stojakovic added 25 points for New Orleans (50-22).

Former Raptor Morris Peterson finished with eight points in his first trip back to the Air Canada Centre since he departed last summer for New Orleans.

The first quarter proved costly to the Raptors on Sunday. West scored 16 points in the frame and the Raptors found themselves trailing by 14 points, a deficit that turned out to be insurmountable against the No. 1 team in the Western Conference.

Toronto managed to pull within eight points early in the third quarter, but the Hornets sucked the air out of any real hopes of a Raptors win with an 18-2 run that put the visitors up by 24. The Hornets led 101-79 with a quarter left in the game.

A three-pointer by Moon with 2:58 to go — and the second units for both teams on the floor — had the Raptors within 10 points. Kris Humphries and Jose Calderon scored on consecutive baskets to make it a six-point game with 1:34 left, bringing the capacity crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre to its feet.

But a basket by West and an emphatic alley-oop dunk by Tyson Chandler with 37 seconds left had the crowd heading for the exits, as the Raptors lost a crucial matchup with just nine games left in the regular-season.

Peterson, who played all seven seasons of his NBA career in Toronto before signing as a free agent with the Hornets last summer, received a standing ovation during team introductions and then kneeled down to kiss the floor at centre court. Numerous fans were wearing Peterson’s No. 24 Raptors jersey.

Peterson spent Saturday in Toronto doing some shopping and having dinner with friends.

“It’s nice to see some familiar faces, on the court that I started my career with so it should be fun,” Peterson said before the game.

Linton Johnson, signed to a 10-day contract by Toronto on Thursday, saw his first action, entering the game with 7:46 left. He finished with six points.

The Raptors briefly held the lead in the early going Sunday, but the Hornets used a 16-2 run to take an 11-point lead midway through the first quarter. New Orleans would stretch it to14 points before taking a 37-28 advantage into the second.

The Hornets controlled the second quarter, leading by 14 points several times. A three-pointer by Bosh pulled Toronto within eight points but Paul responded with a three of his own with five seconds left in the half and the Hornets were up 69-58 at the break.

A three-pointer by Peterson with 5:38 left in the third quarter had the Hornets up 87-63, their biggest lead of the game to that point. They took a 101-79 advantage into the fourth.