Instead, if things don't change, just lock up the Dallas Mavericks and any hope they have in this fast-developing face-smashing of a first-round series.

This Bourbon Street Blowout was thorough and humiliating. Chris Paul once again was otherworldly with 32 points and 17 assists as the New Orleans Hornets waxed the Mavericks, 127-103, Tuesday night at a rocking New Orleans Arena.

In going down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, the Mavs absorbed the fourth-worst playoff loss in their history. One of the three worse was a 25-point debacle in the Game 6 clincher last year at Golden State.

The last time a Mavericks team looked this dysfunctional was. . . OK, it was three days earlier in the second half of Game 1. Before that, you would have to go back to the Antoine Walker/Antawn Jamison days.

In the last three halves, the Mavericks have given up at least 60 points. They ran into a hot-shooting Hornets team Tuesday. But it didn't excuse the Mavericks' play, which was without any sense of urgency.

Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points, and he said coming home for Games 3 and 4 has to be an advantage.

''We've been down 2-0 before,'' he said, ''and we've even lost two home games before and came back to win the series. So hopefully that playoff experience will keep everybody level-headed. You've got to keep your chin up. That Game 3 is a Game 7 for us. We've got to find a way to win that Game 3, and I think once we got one win on the board, it's a different series.''

Only 12 times in NBA history has a team come back from a 2-0 hole to win a best-of-seven series. On the bright side, the Mavericks did it against Houston in 2005 after dropping two games at American Airlines Center in the first-round series.