The Bobcats built up a ten point lead over the Hornets in the first half, but gave it all away, and more, in the third quarter, when they gave up 36 points. New Orleans would hold on in the fourth, winning 104-99. That puts the Bobcats under .500, at 24-25 for the season.

The Cats gave away Gerald Wallace figurines to first several thousand fans, but, apparently, that wasn't enough to overcome the Hornets' garish purple and green uniforms. On the plus side, the unis featured Mardi Gras beads in the detailing.

Game thread comments, highlights, and lowlights after the jump.

Stevarino -- I just wish Peja would shave every once in a while.

Ourdaywillcome -- Ten years from now this is still gonna be the season Nazr’s talking about when he’s breaking glory days at the local watering hole.

BAD

-- I sang Darren Collison's praises before the game, but I didn't expect him to perform that well. He's solid, but it's very likely Raymond Felton just had an off night on defense, and that's why the rook ended up with 24 points. It would have been nice had Felton cut into that gap with some offense, but he ended up shooting 2-9 for only 8 points to go with his 7 assists and 4 rebounds.

-- The defense, in general, just wasn't there, especially in the second half. For the game, New Orleans shot 50% and 9-22 from three (41%). With our offense, we can't give a mediocre defensive performance and expect to win.

-- Is Stephen Graham the worst NBA player to get at least 450 minutes this season? I'm sure we can find guys who've played at his level over the course of the season, in sum, but most, if not all, of those guys probably are like D.J. Augustin, who have played part of the season poorly and the rest of the season better than Graham, who's basically been this bad all season long. It's not ridiculous that he's on an NBA roster. It's ridiculous he's in an NBA rotation.

GOOD

-- Stephen Jackson picked up some of the slack from a hobbled Gerald Wallace, scoring 26 points on 17 attempts. In addition, he pulled down 4 rebounds and dished 6 assists. We even got a glimpse of him making love to pressure, hitting a runner while getting fouled in the waning seconds of the game, then sinking the free throw.

-- D.J. Augustin didn't do anything to help stop Collison, but on offense, he was effective, shooting 5-6, scoring 13 points, and getting 5 assists in his 19 minutes.