2008 was quite a banner year for New Orleans Hornets coach  Byron Scott.  He won Coach of the Year,  and he led the New Orleans Hornets to 56-26 record, which was good for second in the Western Conference.  During the playoffs, his team pushed the then defending champion San Antonio Spurs to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals, and he accomplished all of this, while watching Chris Paul emerge as one of the best player in the NBA.

This season has been more of a challenge for Scott.  Given the success he and the Hornets had last  year, they no longer sneak up on teams, and that has made for much tougher games this year.  Despite adding forward James Posey from the NBA champion Boston Celtics, Scott has watched injuries to Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic keep his team from matching the success of last year’s team.  Despite these obstacles, the Hornets have won seven out of their last eight games, and, as of March 12th, they are fifth in the Western Conference with a record of  40-23.

Prior to the Hornets’ 109-98 victory against the Washington Wizards, Coach Scott discussed the health of Stojakovic, the ever-changing status of the Western Conference, and how Chandler’s trade, and then eventual return affected the locker room.

Reporter:  Will Sean[Marks] play tonight?
Byron Scott:  No, Sean is out.  He’s at the motel, he’s definitely out.

Reporter:  What’s his ailment?
BS:  Flu? Flu-like symptoms? I don’t know..sick?  That’s what they[team doctors] told me, flu-like symptoms.

Reporter:  He and Peja[Stojakovic] are not playing right?
BS:  He and Peja will be on the inactive list.

Reporter:  Anything new on Peja?
BS:   Well, he feels much better, but again, you know, for precautionary reasons, we’ll make sure we give him a couple more days.  Hopefully he can be ready Friday or Saturday, one of those days.  That’s what we were kind of banking on when we started this trip, so right now it’s no rush.  And he said this morning he feels a whole lot better which is a good sign obviously.  We’ll see how he feels at practice tomorrow, if he can just do the shooting drills and things like that.  That’ a big sign but not really going into any contact stuff.  We’ll just wait until Friday and see how he feels.

Reporter:  Last year when you had eight teams win 50 games out West, it was like an anomaly.  But now you don’t have that again, but you have so many teams two to seven(seeds) just squeezed in there tightly.  Can you just talk about how one game can drop you from second to seventh?
BS:  I don’t know if its one game, but I tell you what, I know less than a week ago Denver was at two and now they’re at seven.  It changes that quick within a three to four game span and like you said, if you lose one game you can drop from three to seven. I mean just that quick.  It’s the most competitive I’ve ever seen it.  I’ve never seen the West like this.  San Antonio at 2 is still only 3 games ahead of ourselves and Houston and Portland and Utah. So it’s going to be a race that comes down to the last game of the season, as far as what your position is going to be.  I think every game is important, everybody’s probably looking at each other to see where they’re playing and who they’re playing..checking their schedules. It’s getting to that time of year where winning games are at a premium, especially games you fell you should win.  You gotta’ really come out and take care of business.

Reporter: You have Houston next Monday (March 16th), the way they’ve been able to play since Tracy’s[McGrady] been down..seems like they’ve decided to focus on Yao[Ming] and then everybody else kind of finds their spot.  Can you talk about what they’ve been able to accomplish?
BS:  Well, I mean not only not having Tracy, but then making a trade with Rafer Alston to insert Aaron Brooks in the starting lineup was big.  He’s played extremely well and made some big shots for them.  Ron Artest has come up and he’s played well.  They’ve got a different purpose right now.  Their best player, arguably their best player, is out for the rest of the season, so they just kind of re-focused their attention on the big fella’ (Yao Ming).  Let him get it done, and when teams double he’s a very unselfish player and they got guys who can make shots.  With Houston it’s always been a team where guys understand their role.  Shane Battier and all those guys, they have a great understanding of what they’re supposed to do out there.  They’re not disillusioned about who should be their go-to-guy.  I think that’s why they’re so dangerous right now.

Reporter:  Are you eager to see Mo[Peterson] back?
BS:  I’m eager to see him in uniform, now as far as him playing right now, we have to wait and see how that goes but I’m glad that he’s back because he gives us a guy that can make shots number one.  And also he’s a guy who has big game experience so he can definitely help us.  But right now, I’m just trying to find a combination with the second unit that  can go out and be competitive and kind of just hold their ground instead of giving so much ground like we have been the last five games.

Reporter:   So he’s not guaranteed to play tonight?
BS:  No.

Reporter:  You talked about your second unit and expecting more and more and making changes.  How much do you try to balance making sure your bench is developed for the playoffs, but also that you don’t wear out Chris and David as the season wears down knowing so much is on the line?

BS:   That’s the double-edged sword.  You try to develop guys but not at the expense of not playing your starters or the guys you need to be out there the most a lot less minutes.  To be honest, I don’t worry about that.  The development part, you do all that stuff early in the season.  You hope during this point in the season, when you do have some practice time you can continue to work with guys like that. But right now, it’s all about trying to win, so obviously with our guys, Chris[Paul] and David[West] are going to play the bulk of the minutes, because they give us the best opportunity to win games.

Reporter:  Do you have to play kind of a mediator role between Tyson and management?  Obviously he’s happy to be back here with the team, but based on everything he’s said he’s obviously very angry at management.  Do you feel the need to be that mediator?
BS:  No not really.  To be honest with you, my job is to coach and to make sure I can put him in the position to keep helping us win and be successful.  So you know the feelings he has… we always say, everybody says the same thing. This is still a business, that’s the bottom line.  And at times feelings get hurt, but sometimes you got to put those feelings aside and still do your job.  And he’s been able to do that.  But as far as me having to mediate between that..that’s not my job.  My job is to coach.

Reporter:  Has he [Tyson Chandler]been restricted at all by the toe injury with you this year?
BS:  No, he hasn’t. Not so far. He’s been back eight games and hasn’t shown any effect with us.  Then again, he had 20 games of rest with the injury to the ankle.  But Tyson has been great in our locker room, great with the staff, but he was like that from day one, that hasn’t changed.

Reporter:  Just from reading the reports, the feeling went from being deflated about the trade to all of a sudden being optimistic about your chances for the season.  Is that a fair assessment?
BS: Pretty fair.  I think again, they were losing somebody they were very close to.  That’s a very close knit group that we have in there, it is like a family.  So it was the first time since I’ve been here that the locker room was like a morgue when I walked in.  And like I said, I had to tell them, because I felt the same way, but I had to tell them I still gotta’ coach and you still gotta’ play, that’s the bottom line.  Its a business and sometimes things happen that you don’t want to happen but your job is to play basketball–just like my job is to coach this team.  You know I think that’s how we go through that game (the February 27th, 95-94 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks without Chandler).  But you know it was a lot of guys who just weren’t that happy about it, but when he came back guys were excited.

Reporter:  Who do you think was the happiest to see him come back?
BS:  Chris Paul.