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Game On: Hornets @ Milwaukee

I’m a little worried about this game.  It is a classic letdown game.  It’s the second night of a back to back after a charged, emotional, and tough game against the Heat.  Add to that the fact the Hornets have already beat this team, and they may look past them and get caught.  You can’t look past any team in the NBA.

This preview isn’t long since Milwaukee hasn’t changed in the ten days since we last saw them.  There are some perceptions about the Bucks, however, that have changed.  Yes, they are still just as stingy on defense as they were last year, posting the 6th best defense in the league.  It’s their offense, however, that has struggled rather than improve like expected.  A lot of that blame is directed at Salmons, who was solid last year, but this team needs to share the blame.  Of the six players who take more than 5 shots per game, only one is averaging better than 1.2 points per shot.  To put that in perspective, 1.2 points per shot is below average for the league – so every one of the team’s primary offensive options other than Corey Maggette takes a lot of shots to get a few points.  The result is the 29th best offense.  Or maybe I should say the 2nd worst offense.

Oh and Brandon Jennings?  The much ballyhoo’ed up and coming point guard?  He’s still what we thought he is.  12.7 shots per game producing only 1.16 points per shot. 7 assists to 3 turnovers.  Even with solid defense, that’s not “franchise point guard.”  That’s Raymond Felton.

The Bucks beat Indiana by four last night,  so lets see if they can get a streak started, or if the Hornets own streak rolls on.

Enjoy the game!  Talk it up!

Ryan Schwan

108 responses to “Game On: Hornets @ Milwaukee”

  1. Agreed Ryan, I’m a bit worried about this one as well. Hopefully Monty will be able to get them focused and they’ll come out playing desperate like they have the last few games.

    On a side note I whipped together a little something this morning on how I assume the rest of the NBA must be feeling about the undefeated bees 🙂

    http://bit.ly/bL8yVK

    Enjoy!

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  2. My sentiments exactly … typical “Trap-Game”!

    … but, I’m still confident that the Hornets can win tonight, and continue building their “win-cushion” throughout this 82-game season in order to make the playoffs. I like to call it the “Race-To-50 Wins”!

    If they lose, they have proven to all of us that it will be very difficult for them to lose 2 in a row. So, a loss tonight against the Bucks means a thrashing against the Clippers on Tuesday … but … that thrashing was going to happen anyway! My bad!

    L_Reazy

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  3. While I am worried that this may be a classic trap game, I really don’t think we have to be concerned with this team looking past any game. Maybe the Hornets of yesteryear, but not modest Monty’s new Hornets.

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  4. I guess, for the most part -aside from winning enough games to make the playoffs- this season is serving as revenge against every Analyst and Commentator who didn’t do their research on this team, but decided, nevertheless, to include their 2-Cents about them during the ‘routine’, yet ‘tasteless’ NBA Preview. I mean, what do they get paid for over at ESPN, CNNSI, SPORTING-NEWS, TNT, and NBATV!

    Chris Webber and John Hollinger are like the ultimate haters of the Hornets … and of all people Kevin McHale and Rick Kamla from NBA TV were the only Analyst / Commentator who gave the Hornets props before the season started.

    If one does basic homework in regards to the Hornets success ‘then-and-now’ they’d realize that, ‘then’, when they won 56 games they had one-dimensional players like Peja, Mo-Pete, Chandler, and a mediocore bench (excluding Pargo of course).

    But, ‘now’, when you replace those guys with Belinelli, who is proving aside from his ability to shoot he can play solid team defense, Ariza, is the most athletic / defensive wing we’ve had since JR Smith, and Okafor, who is proving that he might be inept on offense at times, but is an upgrade over Chandler. You throw that in with talented bench of Smith, Green, Thornton, Bayless, & others VS Ely, Wells, Chris Andersen (fresh out of re-hab at the time), Pargo & not much else, and you’ve got a playoff team in the making.

    A lot of us knew what to expect, but for some reason a lot of the ‘experts’ didn’t. Well, I guess we’re the experts when it comes to Hornets basketball!

    L_Reazy

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  6. Haha… very nice peronas.

    Anyway… while the 5-0 start *is* a bit surprising (and delightfully so), any one who actually followed the team’s moves and analyzed the roster objectively knew the potential was there for this team to be quite good. The problem is most analysts didn’t do that….

    But we knew.

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    • Honestly guys, I’m not going to go revisionist. I had a lot of doubts about this team, and the pre-season seemed to lay them all bare. I didn’t think this team made the playoffs.

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      • I’m speaking for myself of course. I should not have said “anyone.”

        I understand that not everyone was confident. But personally… this roster looked pretty strong to me.

        I kept going back to the 07-08 roster, and comparing the two… and kept coming up with the conclusion that this roster is slightly better than that roster that won 56 games.

        Secondly, I had a gut feeling about the Monty & Demps staff that was very good. Nothing real objective there, it was just a feeling.

        Not saying I’m smart or anything like that… just saying that’s how I and a lot of other fans felt.

    • Not here. Gotta find a bar or something. The radio guys are good. 106.7 locally and there’s a list at hornets.com if you aren’t.

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      • Thanks. Yeah, I’m uptown. Just watched the gamecast while watching a bunch of ex-hornets in the mavs/nuggets game. Melvin Ely lives!!!

  9. Maybe this game will bring the first NBA playing time to our rookie Pondexter, it would be amazing if Monty and the boys could form him into a lock-down defender. Then with the lock-downer Ariza, along with the ferocious Willie Green, and Pondexter….we could have some serious one on one defense in the first and second team

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  12. Im sorry for those of u that cant watvh the game but the Milwaukee commentators just said the most rediculous thing.

    “Brandon Jennings will always have to go up against the best point guards regulary and tonight his going up against the 3rd or 4th best in the NBA.”

    Oh Im sorry, did Rajon only beat the Heat by himself. I could have sworn he had what was called a big three with him. And if it was Deron Williams in CP’s shoes last night than the Heat would have lost by 10 easily. There is no way to explain Utah’s loosing record, huh maybe its the fact that D-Will cant will his team to rise for big games.

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  15. By the way, I’m watching on channelsurfing and listening to 106.7. The radio is a minute or two behind the video, but its better than nothing.

    19-14 Hornets (12-0 run by the Hornets)

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  22. What’s going on with Jerryd Bayless????

    He looks lost out there, and sort of how Thronton looked during preseason.

    Put Marcus Thornton in! … here come the starters … good!

    L_Reazy

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  32. What a buzzer beater by Belinelli! I think his nickname should be “Rocky”. Give him a leather jacket and a black hat. That’s it. 🙂 I hope we will win the battle of two tired teams! Geaux Hornets!

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  33. awesome shot. hope that was a wakeup call. the intensity is lacking so bad. hope monty finds the right words

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  34. Monty Williams might say this to his players at halftime;

    “Cut down on the turnovers and we’ll be fine. We have 13 as a team to there 5. Marco you have 5 of those turnovers and Bayless you have 3 of them. Settle-the-hell-down! We’re beating them in every other department except for ‘ball-security’ / possesions.”

    L_Reazy

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  38. Really great BEE-fense happening right now – couple of timely threes from Trevor & Cookies and suddenly the lead is up to 10.

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  46. anyone else notice how loud these mics on the backboards are? You can hear alot more court chatter. I like it

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  53. This is the best starting lineup we have ever had. Everyone is fully capable of 20+ point nights. Pumped for this season

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  64. man were doing really good. and this shows that we can win those tough, grit it out games…. This team is doing a lot of impressive stuff… im still very disappointed in Bayless. And our bench is gonna have to have more of an impact, when we player better teams… but im just being pessimistic…

    6-0!!!!

    NO ONE was expecting this.

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  66. I feel like I’m about to be arrogant about our team’s success … lol …

    I just can’t help it. I’m on a natural high right now.

    I feel like talking stuff to people, and laughing in their faces about it!

    L_Reazy

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  70. What really impressed me in the 4th were the defensive stops we got. Pass after pass after pass the Bucks couldn’t find the open man, and if they got it down low, J Smith, D West, or Mek were there playing physical D. What got me more excited, though — other than going 6-0 — was getting a “what’s up” head-nod from MT5 when I was holding up my MT5 jersey during a timeout. What got me a little worried was how the lead started to slip through the 4th quarter. CP3, though, hit some great floaters in the lane. DWest got to the line. Remember when we couldn’t win on the road for anything!?

    Had hoped to see the whole game, but due to some circumstanced beyond my control (an electrical fire on the plane to Milwaukee), we made an emergency landing in Memphis and I got to Milwaukee 6 hours late. Going to stay positive — safetly landed and got to see the Bees live on the road for a quarter. 6-0, baby! Get ready, Clippers, it’s going to get loud in the Hive on Tuesday!

    Reply

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