The Sport Column

A major shake-up is faced by the New Orleans Hornets, trying the largest playoff differential in NBA history. New Orleans scored only 24 points in the second half of Game 4, trying for the third fewest in the second half of a playoff game in NBA history.

In the game, Denver had seven players score in double digits. Hornets All-Star point guard Chris Paul was a terrible point guard with just four points and six assists as he was outplayed by Denver’s Chauncey Billups for the third time in the series.

Media reported that Paul has a banged-up knee but Paul claims he is healthy enough and could play. In fact, the coach of Nuggets thinks that Paul can play 100 percent for the game. This was why they had Paul join the game during the playoff.

In the four regular season meetings, Paul had 20 turnovers. The Hornets had turned over the ball 70 times in the postseason, and the Denver has converted those into 105 points.

But don’t blame it all on Paul. You still have Chandler who might be shipped out because he is obviously having issues with his ankle. It happens- sometimes it just isn’t the right time and the right place to make a win. The Hornets have lost five straight playoff games overall and are 0-7 ATS in their past seven as a playoff dog of 5.0-11 points. Oh well, maybe next season then.

Nationwide Arena is a sports and entertainment arena in Columbus, Ohio. It opened in 2000 and is the home of the Columbus Blue Jackets, a franchise in the National Hockey League, who were joined for the 2004 season by the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League. It was also home to the Columbus Landsharks of the National Lacrosse League from 2001–2003. And, in 2006 it began hosting the Ohio Junior Blue Jackets, a Tier 1 junior ice hockey team that is a part of the United States Hockey League (USHL). Nationwide Arena is also one of three facilities in Columbus (along with the Greater Columbus Convention Center and the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium) that hosts events as part of the annual Arnold Classic, a sports and fitness event hosted by former professional bodybuilder and current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The venue is named for the arena’s owner, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, whose world headquarters are located across the street. Nationwide’s real estate development affiliate, Nationwide Realty Investors, financed and developed the project—making it one of very few privately financed arenas in the nation.

The arena is of an attractive brick design and serves as the center of an entertainment district located about one half mile north of the Ohio State Capitol. Seating capacity is approximately 18,136 for hockey, 17,171 for arena football, 19,500 for basketball, and up to 20,000 for concerts. The death of 13 year-old Brittanie Cecil from injuries sustained from a hockey puck flying into the stands at a Blue Jackets game in 2002 led to the installation of nylon netting to catch pucks that fly over the acrylic glass at all professional ice hockey arenas in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL.

The area surrounding Nationwide Arena, appropriately called the Arena District, houses a variety of bars, clubs and a movie theater. Constructed as a seamless entity, Columbus uses the arena as a drawing point for the city with the various other establishments feeding off of the foot traffic. The Lifestyle Communities Pavilion concert venue, and Arena Grand Theatre adjacent to the Nationwide Arena property, completes the entertainment complex.

Nationwide Arena also houses a smaller ice rink called the Dispatch IceHaus (formerly named the CoreComm IceHaus). This facility serves as the practice rink for the Blue Jackets and is also used for youth hockey games and open skating times for the public. This facility makes Nationwide Arena the first NHL arena with an on-site practice facility and one of only two such facilities in NHL (the other being the Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils).

Nationwide Arena was built at the site of the abandoned Ohio Penitentiary. Although, believed to be built over the prison, the arena is actually built over the prison’s former parking lot. Nationwide’s parking lot is built where the prison formerly stood. Many prisoners were executed at the prison, and a fire killed 322 of prisoners locked in their cells. Some fans and employee who frequent Nationwide claim experiencing paranormal activities. Whether skeptics or not, some Blue Jackets fans jokingly blame supernatural beings for unsuccessful seasons since the team’s inception, as well as the death of Brittanie Cecil.