Climbing back to the .500 mark with a home win versus the Detroit Pistons, the Toronto Raptors are confidently entering a seven-game road trip. Thus, Chris Bosh and company will head to Louisiana to face the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday at 1 a.m. GMT.

Albeit the Hornets got off to a slow start, the team around All-Stars Chris Paul and David West managed to bounce back with a crucial overtime win versus the Dallas Mavericks. Being down by 3 with nine seconds remaining in regulation, Peja Stojakovic sent the game to overtime with a clutch three pointer and helped the Hornets to build a positive momentum. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the Mavs were shorthanded with Josh Howard, Quinton Ross and Tim Thomas injured as well as Dirk Nowitzki having fouled out halfway through the fourth quarter. Either way, Byron Scott’s squad is hoping to hold on to their newly found confidence and will try to make it back to the upper echelon of the Western Conference.

Similarly, Toronto also managed to snap a two-game losing streak as they rallied to a 110-99 win over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. So far, Chris Bosh and the Raptors performed well offensively but were unable to bring the same effort at the defensive end of the floor night in and night out. More specifically, Jay Triano’s squad was able to put up 108.5 points per game but also allowed their opponents to score 107.5. Offensively, All-Star Chris Bosh was exceptionally dominant as he averaged 29.5 points and 13.0 rebounds per contest in the first week of action. Likewise, Andrea Bargnani continued to elevate his level of play, putting up 22.0 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 52% from beyond the arc. Taking everything into consideration, both teams could find themselves on a level playing field when the game between the Raptors and Hornets gets underway on Saturday night. Where as the Raps have more depth and a very capable second unit, New Orleans will be counting on Chris Paul to break down the defense and find the open teammate.

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