Going to keep this recap short and sweet, because it’s late, and honestly, the basketball, on both sides, was terrible.

Darren Collison sat out the game with an injured knee.  Reportedly, it’s nothing serious and he should play again during Summer League, but they kept him out this game just to be sure.  That left the Hornets relying on Bassett, who couldn’t handle ball pressure, and Coleman, who isn’t a point guard, running the point.  Miami was also able to completely overload Marcus Thornton’s side of the floor when he got the ball, making it hard for him to do anything.

The result?  Though the team led for a lot of the game by forcing turnovers, the Hornets had no execution down the end of the game, and they lost in the last minute.

Quick observations:

• I’d like to see Brackins take a shot inside of 15 feet, please.  When I did my analysis of him, we saw he took like 85% of his shots from really far away from the basket.  Tonight, he tool every shot but one from really far away from the basket, and he only hit one of them.  Two of his three pointers were airballs, and one barely drew rim.  Last game he was Channing Frye.  This game, he was Antoine Walker.
• Shavlik Randolph had Brackins biting on every pump fake and spin in the post.  Okay, that’s not fair to Brackins – he had EVERYONE biting on them.  It is a bit depressing to watch your team make Shavlik Randolph look like Kevin McHale.
• Because of the defensive attention paid to him, Thornton never got free on cuts, and had to take a lot of tough shots.  I hope the Hornets keep that in mind when its time to pay him.  He’s an exceptional finishing in transition and as a complimentary piece to a penetrating ball-handler – as a primary option, he’s not optimum.
• Pondexter mostly just played intelligent, hustled, and gave what he could, including knocking down two threes from the wing.  If he can be an energy guy who can knock down the set three pointer, he’ll give me everything I was looking for from him.
• There were some other guys on the team.  None made me particularly want to see them again come October.

Have a good night.