It was a score that had to be a typo. A misprint.

But there at the bottom of the television screen, Monday night, was this partial score:

Denver 105, New Orleans 55.

It was mind-boggling … and it was true.

Final score: Denver 121, New Orleans 63.

What makes this so hard to accept is …

It duplicated the worst margin of defeat (58 points) in NBA playoffs history.

It was the worst defeat suffered by the Hornets in team history.

It came against a Hornets team with Chris Paul at point guard. Yes, the Chris Paul generally considered to be the best point guard in the game and one of the top five players in the NBA.

It came in New Orleans.

And it came in Game 4 of a series that was 2-1. That is, if the Hornets had won, it’s 2-2. It was a game really mattered, that called for a huge effort.

But the Hornets didn’t even show up. The Nuggets are good, but not that good.

What this seems about, more than anything else, is a team quitting. Q-u-i-t-t-i-n-g. Which means the coach, Byron Scott, has to be gone — or just about the whole team has to be gone. If the Hornets had put up any sort of effort, they don’t lose by 58. You could take the Lakers bench and put them against the Nuggets and they wouldn’t lose by 58.

There isn’t much media left in New Orleans, but one of the local columnists took them to task last night. You can read that piece here, along with comments from slack-jawed Hornets fans, down below.

So. Yeah. Lakers are weak at the point, Bynum is a year away from being useful and their bench is lousy … but at least they haven’t lost by 58. At home. That season-ending blowout at Boston, a year ago? A cliffhanger, compared to this.