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NEW ORLEANS -- So I talked plenty about the undefeated Lakers Wednesday night, and with good reason -- they're clearly the class of the league so far -- but there were two teams on the court.

For the Hornets, Wednesday night's result underscores an area that is likely to be an issue all season -- the depth at point guard and center. Once again, they got a rough outing off the pine from Mike James, whom coach Byron Scott had called out a day earlier, and ended up playing Chris Paul over 42 minutes at the point. James is only 8-for-25 from the floor on the season and has just seven assists in seven games. At the rate he's going, the D-League might have a point guard called up before its season even starts.

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Up front, the situation is just as dire. While James Posey can theoretically back up at the power forward spot, he's been used mostly on the wings to supplement the disappointing Morris Peterson. As a result, the Hornets have been leaning hard on David West -- he's averaging 40.6 minutes per game, including 44 on Wednesday, and that's from a player who has never played more than 76 games in a season.

The Hornets have tended to play their bench in the second quarter before riding Paul and West for nearly the entire second half, and you can see that in the team's quarterly scoring pattern -- the low point coming in a seven-point second stanza against Charlotte. Wednesday night against the Lakers, the Hornets mustered only 13 second-quarter points and fell behind by 21 at the break before a late rally fell short.

Looking at the bench, it's not hard to see why. James (7.24 PER), Hilton Armstrong (4.01), Melvin Ely (5.13) and Devin Brown (5.98) have struggled mightily -- calling them "replacement level" would be too kind a compliment -- negating some of the brilliance of Paul and West.

The return of Julian Wright might at least allow Posey to spell West more often at the 4; additionally, Sean Marks is working into shape and could take over some of the frontcourt minutes that Armstrong and Ely have been playing. However, solutions at the point seem more elusive -- both James and Brown have struggled in their cameos behind Paul and could send the Hornets to the trade market.

It also makes one wonder at the deal New Orleans made at the trade deadline last season that swapped Bobby Jackson for James and Bonzi Wells. It stuck the Hornets with the final two years and $12.5 million of James' contract while stripping them of a reliable backcourt sub in Jackson. Once Jannero Pargo flew the coop for Russia, New Orleans was left high and dry behind Paul, and now they're paying the price.

John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. To e-mail him, click here.