Power Ranking: THE ASCENSION

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Published: November 8, 2010

Sooooo has anyone checked out the new power rankings from NBA.com? Honestly, I barely keep up with them.  It’s just a fat head NBA analyst throwing a bunch of teams on a chart and saying “well this ones better”.  The rankings mean essentially nothing…

 

BBUUUUUTTTTTTTTT…

 

In this weeks essentially useless power rankings the Hornets are…wait for it…wait for it….waaaaiiiittttt…. THIRD.  Thats right.  I don’t care who wrote the article, SOMEBODY THINKS THE HORNETS ARE THIRD BEST IN THE LEAGUE!!!!!  ffhhhhheewwww. Ok, now that the excitement is all out and finished, lets get to the point of this journal and talk about how the Hornets got here and where they’re going.  

There’s only one word to describe this 3rd ranked Hornets team and it is the staple of their game.  DEFENSE.  It’s as simple as that.  This defense I speak of has been so efficient that it has been rated 4th in the league with only the likes of Boston, Miami, and Orlando placing ahead.  This defense has been anchored by the NEW (new because it only came about this year) dynamic duo of Chris Paul on the perimeter and Emeka Okafor in the paint.  Their energy and determination fuel this team and simply rubs off on all the other players.  The Hornets offense has also been fairly effective and is ranked 11th in the league at 105.1 ppts/100 possessions.  One key reason for the Hornets ranking at 3rd, however, is of course the victory over the hall-of-fame-studded Miami Heat.  This win brought the national spotlight on the Hornets and pushed them over the edge and into the elite pool of teams (I dont care how early in the season it is!!!).  This win could have also inflated hopes for the team because the probability that the Hornets will be rated above the Miami heat at the end of the season (when all the cylinders of the three headed beast are firing) is highly unlikely.

Now that we’ve looked at  where we are lets predict where we’ll be bye next Monday.  Our first game this week will come against the stumbling, but talented, LA Clippers.  They could give us some trouble with athletic match ups but all in all I expect a win by 10+ points and maybe our first blowout of the season.  Our only other game of the week comes Saturday against an extremely talented Portland Trailblazers.  With a star combination of Roy and Aldridge (much like Paul and West) I expect a close match fought down to the wire.  Honestly this game could go either way, but because it’s at the Hive I see our Hornets getting another win.  Also the Blazers have been stumbling down the rankings lately as their defense has faltered from 4th in the league all the way to 16th.  With the momentum in our favor all signs lead to a Hornet win and a third straight week in the undefeated club.  Hopefully it will V.I.P.’s only by then and at some point L.A. fell asleep and was kicked out by some punk (do you see the metaphor?! do ya?!??)

In the end this looks to be another happy week for NOLA fans.  The only danger is if the Hornets get cocky, but with Monty, CP3, and DWest at the helm i expect no such thing to happen.  Ill be back next week with another power rankings breakdown.  hopefully the title will include something along the lines of “nothing moved” or “Celtics and Lakers fall making room for the Hornets!!!”

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