Half-assed Preview: Knicks @ Hornets


Plenty of storylines ahead of tonight's game against the Knicks. Let's dive in…

Whatever

  • As noted yesterday, Peja Stojakovic won't be making his return tonight. Bobby Jackson is questionable, although we knew that when he signed last summer.
  • The Knicks will likely be missing key contributors named Steve Francis (ankle), Quentin Richardson (back surgery), David Lee (leg) and Jamal Crawford (ankle). Ouch.
  • Last night in Dallas, Stephon Marbury scored 43 points but couldn't stop the Knicks falling to the Mavericks, 105-103.
  • On the season, New York are 31-41. They're two games behind the Nets for the eighth and final Playoff spot in the East. The Knicks have lost seven of their last nine, are 12-23 on the road, and 5-11 on the second night of back-to-backs.
  • The Hornets escaped New York with a win two weeks ago, after the Knicks missed three times in the final fifteen seconds. Final score was 92-90. Refresh.
  • Old teammates Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry will go at it again. Chandler didn't practice yesterday, sitting it out to rest a sore toe. Two weeks ago, Curry dropped 18 points and 6 boards on us. Chandler had 6 points and 11 rebounds. Curry has averaged 21.5 points in his last four games.
  • The Hornets will honor Willis Reed during the game tonight. Reed is due to retire as VP of basketball operations at the end of the season. Cedit where it's due: Berry Tramel has a good piece on this today.
  • Looks like Devin Brown will be back with the Hornets next season. (Also a great analogy of the Spurs from Byron Scott at that link.)

Tip tonight is at your usual 7 Central. Relevant linkage below. The Clippers, who are now three games ahead of the Hornets in the standings, are also in action later, playing the Blazers in Portland at 9 Central.

Moving on to the real important stuff: today you can vote for the Honeybees in that NBA Dance Team Bracket thing over at NBA.com. Their opponent? The Mavs Dancers!

This could be our only chance to beat the damn Mavericks, so I urge each and every one of you to vote for the Honeybees at least several thousand times in the next few hours.


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