I went out on a limb and made a bold prediction before the NBA season started. I said thanks to the addition of forward James Posey and the maturations of point guard Chris Paul and forward David West, the Hornets would play deep into the postseason and would have a real chance to win a championship.Guess what. I was wrong. Way wrong.On paper, the Hornets have everything you need to win big-time games in the NBA — a great point guard, cold-blooded shooters and solid post players.But games aren’t played on paper, and the Bees just haven’t gelled this season.The first reason for that is injuries.From Paul to center Tyson Chandler to forward Peja Stojakovic, darn near every Hornet rotation player has been nicked at some point in the season. The team just hasn’t developed the championship-level chemistry teams like the Lakers, Cavaliers and Celtics have established during their 82 games, pushing the Bees into the bottom half of the Western Conference playoff picture.The biggest concerns for New Orleans are Chandler’s toe and ankle.Chandler is simply not healthy, and watching him play through his injury has been as painful as an economics exam. I mean, let’s be real. The Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t even want him. Shouldn’t that tell you something right there?The burst that made him one of the league’s up-and-coming centers just isn’t there, and the second half of the Crescent City Connection just hasn’t been there all season.He answered some critics and came back and played Game 1 against Denver, but I apologize if I don’t consider six points and five rebounds in a game the peak level of production for an NBA center.Without him, the Hornets lack size and depth on the interior, and they have been victimized — especially as of late — by some of the West’s dominant big men like Yao Ming, Pau Gasol and Tim Duncan.The Nuggets got into the act Sunday — their center Nene Hilario ripped up the Hornets’ interior to the tune of 12 points and 14 boards.Bench production is sore thumb No. 2 for the Hornets.What do Sean Marks, Devin Brown and Morris Peterson have in common?They all aren’t very good basketball players who are asked to log 15-20 minutes per game off the Hornets bench — which ranked in the pits of the NBA in bench points per game this season.That puts tremendous pressure on the Hornets’ starters to be better than their opponents’ starters, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do — especially in the NBA playoffs.Case in point — in game one against the Nuggets, the Hornets bench scored 24 points. One player alone on the Nuggets bench — former Hornet J.R. Smith — had 19 points.The Nuggets’ reserves outscored the Hornets’ reserves, 41-24, in the game, and similar stats should be expected the rest of the series.It’s just unreasonable to expect the New Orleans starters to outscore the Denver starters by 17 points to make up that difference.Another reason the Hornets cannot win the NBA title is the team’s poor play in the New Orleans Arena.The Hornets average more than 16,968 fans per game this season, up from the 14,181 per game the team averaged in 2008.But increased support hasn’t translated into home-court dominance, and the Hornets finished the season just 28-13 on their home floor — a number that is just 13th among the 16 playoff teams.If you can’t protect your own home floor, how can you be expected to win a seven-game series against some of the West’s best?The answer is simple — you can’t.And that’s the dilemma the Hornets face right now as they now have to win four of the next six games against the Denver Nuggets — a team that just finished polishing them off by 29 points in the opening game of the playoffs.Have teams come from behind after losing game one before?Sure they have.But to play on the NBA marketing campaign — don’t expect too much amazing to happen in the Big Easy this year, because the only thing ‘big’ and ‘easy’ will be the ‘big’ disappointment the city will have when the Nuggets have an ‘easy’ time eliminating the Hornets.—-Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected] at