Can 1 man save the NBA in New Orleans?

NEW ORLEANS — A woman at the cash register of a sports-themed shop frowned, shaking her head when asked how a new batch of New Orleans Hornets hats were selling.

Then she pointed to a rack of Chris Paul jerseys.

"We are selling some of those," she said.

The Hornets might need a transcendent star — like the Pittsburgh Penguins of the 1980s needed Mario Lemieux — to succeed in small-market New Orleans for longer than just a couple more years.

That could be Paul, the polite, engaging, baby-faced point guard whose torrid start to the season has begun to generate buzz around the NBA.

His numbers arguably are better than any other point guard in the league, and the upstart team he leads has kept pace with the giants of the Western Conference through half of this season.

"He's one of the guys in the NBA that people want to see," said Hornets forward David West, who's noticed growing numbers of fans wearing No. 3 jerseys and swarming for Paul's autograph, even when New Orleans plays on the road.

"The tempo he plays and the pace that he pushes the game, he makes the brand of basketball that we play a good style to watch," West added.

Paul and the Hornets will make their second and final visit of the season to Salt Lake City to face the Jazz on Monday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

The Hornets (32-13 through Thursday), who first joined the NBA in Charlotte for the 1988-89 season, have never been this good through 45 games. The 6-foot Paul, now in his third season, is the unquestioned leader, averaging 20.8 points, 10.7 assists and 2.6 steals.

Moreover, frontcourt players like West (19.6 point per game) and center Tyson Chandler (12.1 ppg) are flourishing in the up-tempo system Paul runs under the tutelage of head coach Byron Scott.

When the Hornets drafted Paul, it was primarily for the ability he showed at Wake Forest to help frontcourt players get good looks at the basket, general manager Jeff Bower said.

"He's got the ability as a guard to impact your front-line players dramatically with the plays that he makes that lead to many times dunks or 3-foot shots," Bower said.

Never mind his ability to dribble in traffic and create his own shots.