Baron Davis brought pro basketball back to the Big Easy with a dribbling, passing and shooting exhibition reminiscent of "Pistol Pete" Maravich.

Despite back spasms that caused him to sit out much of the preseason, Davis had 21 points and 10 assists as the Hornets beat New Orleans' old team, the Utah Jazz, 100-75 Wednesday night in the regular season opener for both teams.

"In the NBA you've got to play through a lot of things and that's what I did," Davis said. "We needed a spark and I thought it was my time to step up."

The game marked the regular season return of the NBA to New Orleans for the first time since the Jazz left for Utah in 1979. A standing-room only crowd of 17,668 was into the game from beginning to end.