REPORTING FROM ... THE ALARIO CENTER IN NEW ORLEANS

So what do you do on the first practice before gearing up for a second-round playoff match-up against the defending NBA Champions? Well, if you're the New Orleans Hornets, you take part in some trick shot action.

For 45 minutes at the New Orleans practice facility this morning, players were taking half-court shots, behind the basket shots and seemingly impossible, 30-foot wall bank shots. I filmed as much as possible, catching mostly airballs and near misses on video. I just missed Bonzi Wells hitting a behind-the-back half-court shot.

Determined to film something amazing, I adjusted my position and turned to the players trying to bank in balls off the 30-foot wall behind the basket. After about 1000 or so misses—and one Hornets P.R. rep saying "they're never going to hit it"—Morris Peterson came through.

"That shot is in my arsenal," he said afterwards.

So why did it take so long to hit it?

"I wanted to throw off the other guys, make them think that I'm mortal," he joked.

Really, it should have come as no surprise. Although the smart money was on Julian Wright, who clanged the rim four or five times, it was Mo Pete who graced the cover of last night's Game 5 program, not to mention he's in a ridiculous commercial for New Orleans attorney Morris Bart, where the latter makes an impossible full-court behind-the-back shot.

"Well, he actually didn't make it," Peterson clarified, as there were some camera tricks employed in the commercial. None, however, were employed in Peterson's shot. Or else he would've made it on his first try.

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