His numbers reinforce the notion.

Paul had his second straight sub-par outing of the season against the Jazz, finishing with six points and six assists during Utah's easy 110-88 win over the Hornets on Monday night.

"The fans make this one of the hardest places to play," he said. "You never know what you are going to hear from them."

Asked if anything he heard during this game that could be printed in a newspaper, Paul smiled and said, "You probably can't. But I'd like to think the fans in Utah love me."

Paul, who entered the game averaging 20.7 points and 10.9 assists, picked up two fouls in the first 5:29 and never got into a groove. His missed eight of his 11 field-goal attempts and turned the ball over five times.

Did his early foul trouble contribute to his troubles?

"I just think Utah did a great job," he said. "They run their offense. They do what they are going to do. We couldn't stop them. They shot the ball extremely well."

Coach Byron Scott agreed: "When they shoot the ball like that, they are going to be hard to beat. But I don't think we put up much resistance."

Asked about Paul's foul trouble, Scott said, "Any time you get into foul trouble early, it messes you up a little bit. It takes away from your rhythm. But the second foul he got, he was out of position.

"He just wasn't ready and the one thing we talked about was, when you play the Jazz, you just cannot relax. . . . If you relax against them, you are going to get beat. And our guards relaxed too much tonight."

Against the Hornets, the Jazz shot exactly the same from the three-point line as the free-throw line - 14 of 22.

"For a minute, I thought our attention was there - that we understood what we talked about, guarding this team," Scott said. "But we just didn't come out and do it with a purpose, for whatever reason."

luhm@sltrib.com

Chris miss

Min. FGs 3-Pt FTs Rebs Asts. Pts. Result

Nov. 23 @ Utah 35:11 5-12 0-2 5-5 6 6 15 L, 99-71

Feb. 4 @ Utah 26:55 3-11 0-2 0-1 4 6 6 L, 110-88

Totals 62:06 8-23 0-4 5-6 10 12 21 -