NEW ORLEANS – Normally, this sort of whipping comes with jail time for the party inflicting the pain.

Instead, if things don't change, just lock up the Mavericks and any hope they have in this fast-developing face-smashing of a first-round series.

This Bourbon Street Blowout was thorough and humiliating. Chris Paul once again was otherworldly with 32 points and 17 assists as the New Orleans Hornets waxed the Mavericks, 127-103, Tuesday night at a rocking New Orleans Arena.

In going down 2-0 in the best-of-7 series, the Mavs absorbed the fourth-worst playoff loss in their history. One of the three worse was a 25-point debacle in the Game 6 clincher last year at Golden State.

The last time a Mavericks team looked this dysfunctional was ... OK, it was three days earlier in the second half of Game 1. Before that, you would have to go back to the Antoine Walker/Antawn Jamison days.

In the last three halves, the Mavericks have given up at least 60 points. They ran into a hot-shooting Hornets team Tuesday. But it didn't excuse the Mavericks' play, which was without any sense of urgency.

Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points, and he said coming home for Games 3 and 4 has to be an advantage.

"We've been down 2-0 before," he said, "and we've even lost two home games before and came back to win the series. So hopefully that playoff experience will keep everybody level-headed. You've got to keep your chin up. That Game 3 is a Game 7 for us. We've got to find a way to win that Game 3, and I think once we got one win on the board, it's a different series."

Only 12 times in NBA history has a team come back from a 2-0 hole to win a best-of-7 series. On the bright side, the Mavericks did it against Houston in 2005 after dropping two games at American Airlines Center in the first-round series.

Also, the Hornets haven't won a game in Dallas since Jan. 24, 1998. But these are different bees. They sting hard.

On Tuesday, they went down by 10 at the end of the first quarter, when they gave up a ridiculously easy, buzzer-beating jumper to Paul. From there, it was a dreadful, downhill slide. The Mavs were never closer than 14 after halftime.

"Tonight was just an awful first quarter," coach Avery Johnson said. "And they pretty much had us on our heels the rest of the way."

Paul continued his demolition show. The Mavericks tried to trap him early in the game but looked old and slow in doing so. Paul found teammates, who made shots. Then, when the double team wasn't strong enough – which was often – Paul made 10 of 16 shots.

When the carnage was done, the Mavericks were left to take stock.

"We're a good team, man, whether it looks like it now or not," said Jason Terry, who had 16 points. "We're not stunned. They're a good team. They won two here. We've got to go home and take care of business."

The Mavs got nothing from Jason Kidd, Jerry Stackhouse and Josh Howard. They were beaten at every position for the second game in a row.

"Obviously, we wanted to come in here and get a win," Stackhouse said. "We've been in a worse situation. It's not ideal, but it can be done. We'd like to try to even this series coming back here."

A tall order for a team that looks overmatched through two games.