Detroit’s starters are kind of depressing. While Maxiel and Wallace worked hard here and there and Hamilton ran around alot there wasn’t a feeling that they were a team – or that they cared much. Most of their shots were of the sort where they let the defender square up on them, and then they took a fadeaway. All of them did that. Only Ben Gordon seemed to realize it’s easier to shoot when someone isn’t right on you.
The fadeaways dropped for a little while, but then they stopped, and the game was over – and Detroit seemed fine with it. The showed no real push or desire to get back into it. They did run a few plays to get open threes that had the potential to cut into the lead, but when those shots bricked, they seemed fine with that too. Kind of a lame game. The result was a 93-74(Box Score) win for the Hornets.
Still, the Hornets did what they needed to and brought the fire when they needed it to push the lead and keep it there.
Marco Belinelli
Marco found his way out of his slump by taking and making his open shots – and there were a lot of open shots for him to get. Rip Hamilton wasn’t much interested in chasing him through screens – or even closing out on him – and Belinelli took advantage. He was hitting his three’s, pump faking and dribbling his way to better shots, and even had a couple nice passes for easy looks. He also did a great job tracking Rip through all his screens defensively, and while he got hung up a few times, he helped harass Mr. McNamara’s favorite Piston into a 6-14 shooting night for 13 points. Marco went 8-12 for 22 points.
I’ll still say it would have been nice to Marco him come up with – I don’t know – ONE rebound in his 27 minutes. Just one? Baby steps?
Chris Paul
Ha! I bet you thought I’d say David West. Yeah, West abused the hell out of the powerless forwards of the Pistons – but Bob Licht said something I wanted to repeat. Name me a player in the league that could so thoroughly dominate a game while making only 2 field goals. Because he did. He carved up the Pistons like it was Thanksgiving. Sometimes, a single one of his drives would create two or three open shots. Yes, part of that was because the Pistons suck at defense, but part is just because he’s impossible to anticipate. He and Ariza ended +24 for the game, and boy did it feel like it.
Other Observations
- Fluffy wasn’t even trying that hard, and he still rumbled to 25 points. He also had some nice passes for easy baskets. Anyone notice, though, on that nice inbound play to Belinelli that ended with a dunk by Okafor that David West got bumped out of bounds by Maxiel and he just stood there, out of bounds, watching until the play was done? It was a good 7 seconds. I mean, what the hell?
- Jack shoots threes on tippy-toe. It’s weird. He missed both tonight. I wasn’t surprised.
- David Andersen kicks both his feet forward when he shoots a three. It’s weird. He hit his three tonight. I was surprised.
- I liked everything Pondexter was doing, but the kid has to finish those dunks – or switch to layups.
- During the first half Ariza quietly took turns shutting Prince, Villaneuva and Austin Daye down. It was like a game for him, I watched multiple plays where he simply cut and ran to where the other guy wanted the ball, and met him there, making it impossible for him to even receive it. In the second half, he caught Piston-itis and stopped caring as much though.
- Monty looked pretty pissed with about 6 minutes to go and the Pistons having cut the lead to 15. He inserted Ariza, Paul, Okafor, and a minute later, David West. 2:45 later, they left the game again up 23. I’m still trying to figure out what he was so mad about though.
- Jason Smith’s blocks to end the game were fun.
- The paucity of the crowd was not fun. Yeah, it’s the Pistons, but come on.
Anyways, more serious competition rolls into town Friday for a rematch. Let’s hope we pull out another Win. Have a good night.
31 responses to “The Hornets beat the Pistons”
I agree with just about all of those observations. I don’t know what Monty was mad about.
Monty had a great pass, cross-court, to the refs. I was impressed. It was Brees-like. This did will be doing some real damage if he ends up on a Mardi Gras Float.
I did not notice D standing there.
I was happy with Q, happy enough to take the mistakes. We should have a decent backup 3 come March.
We only had 91 points tonight but it easily could have been 105+. I knew Marco would show up just because people like to prove me wrong. TWENTY-NINE team assists tonight! Guys actually moved around on offense.
Only negative part for me was how miraculously soft someone with the upper body of Emeka Okafor can be. The dude didn’t miss tonight. However, he did get stripped twice and blocked twice. Jarrett Jack will come around. He’s too good not to.
Oh, and I’ve officially given up on Marcus being used in any serious capacity this season, which is quite frankly a crying shame. Just can’t get a coach around here that can develop young talent.
I heard on the pregame that Monty said that they took commitment and trust seriously, so they were going to stick by Marco during his tough time. He said no one had ever let him do that before.
I take that to mean, in the end, that they do not trust Marcus.
I’ll give it this. I had previously not thought MT5 to be one to have a terrible attitude, but I wonder if he is really a locker room misfit in the mold of Terrence Williams.
If he isn’t giving his all to be better, than it is his fault, not Monty’s.
I get the sense that Marcus has been discouraged by the treatment he is getting, and it’s only going to get worse if he takes that attitude.
On the flip side, I think Monty is too proud to admit he made mistakes.
Being an aussie, i was stoked to see Anderson hammer down that 3.
Great review and I agree, certainly not the most thrilling game of basketball I’ve seen. All the same, an important one.
OKC will be a challenge this Friday- but this game will hopefully bring the confidence levels up a bit.
Marco must consistently score with this efficiency- so important for the team.
The second unit looked a lot better tonight- Jason Smith is figuring out how to contribute in other ways than that david west length jumper- i like his game, despite his recent slump.
I don’t know a heck of a lot surrounding the NBA purchase topic- but surely wins are the best remedy at the moment. New Orleans without the Hornets is as useful as tits on a bull. Kidding, I love the city…but i also love basketball!
WIN WIN WIN
Yeah, definitely not one of the most exciting games of the season thus far, but a win’s a win nonetheless!
Also, when CP doesn’t have to take shots and try to score on his own is when the Hornets play the best.
In our 14 wins, Chris has taken a total of 146 shots, which is about 10.43 shots per game.
In our 7 losses, Chris has taken a total of 84 shots, which is 12 shots per game.
When we lost to the Thunder in OKC, he took 13 shots, so let’s hope he keeps that number a bit lower on Friday.
It’s the Steve Nash effect to a tee. However, I’d argue it is more important for CP3 to get going in games simply because PHX has a lot more offensive options that Nash has at his disposal.
Dwest stands a lot. It might just be me, but I bet he’d compete for the most 3 second violations in the league. I can’t find that stat anywhere though. It seems like he gets at least one every game.
All in all a good, boring, win. Thin crowd, although it was better attended than I expected.
# Attendance: 10823 says NBA.com.
Only 3 games with attendances lower than 13000 tonight, us, the Pacers at Bucks 12789, Wizards at Kings 12308.
10823 is way below the attendance benchmark. We need several sell-outs to make that attendance benchmarks. Can we make it? Not meeting that attendance benchmark does not necessarily mean that the Hornets would leave. But if they want the Hornets to leave, not meeting that benchmark will only make their case better and make it easier for them to move the Hornets.
We are owned by David Stern guys! He owns the Hornets. If he wants to move this team, nobody can stop him. Let us do something to show that he should leave this team in this city.
We do not need several sell outs unless these 11k-12k nights persist. We need about 15k per game to hit the target, as I understand it.
We have some sellout games coming up (Lakers, Orlando) that will help, and the holiday plans that each contain a game in the perio of interest, one of which has 2. They also have a choose a game feature which may help out too.
The Hornets weekend plans are popular, it seems, which is one reason why our weekend game numbers are a little higher. Plus it’s the weekend.
Time will tell. I’ll work out an updated target following each game.
14906 is the updated target based on
http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ssf/2010/11/apparently_the_attendance_benc.html
which isn’t entirely self-consistent. I’m taking the more conservative (I think) view on this in that I’m looking that first 13 homes games after 11/30 (publication date) vs all 16 games through 1/31, which seems like is also reasonable based on the article. I’ll get clarification.
The 3 extra games are the Spurs on a Saturday, Grizzlies on a Wednesday, and Thunder on a Monday. I would think those would be a net benefit to attendance if we are still playing well.
For reference, spotting a 17,188 for the Lakers and Magic (not guaranteed, of course), we need 14,335. The message being: we have basically used our mulligans. With 2 more Wednesday games in the next 2 weeks against the Kings and Nets . . . we’re going to need to be closer to the 15k number in those other games.
“In our 14 wins, Chris has taken a total of 146 shots, which is about 10.43 shots per game.
In our 7 losses, Chris has taken a total of 84 shots, which is 12 shots per game.”
The difference between those figures is pretty small, and the sample size is even smaller… so I’m really not sure we can say anything remotely conclusive from those numbers.
Per minute numbers for wins and for losses may be better. Throw is assists as well?
Forget about this game fellas. We should have won by 20 and we did. That’s the story. Here is the real story:
I feel bad at the arena for the first time ever. When I saw those empty stands tonight, I feel like I have started counting back. 31-Pistons! 30-Thunder! I have 30 LAST chances to watch the Hornets! Unless we do something!
Now I read the Seattle Sonics fan saying that there is someone wealthy there wanting to bring the Sonics back to their town. Nobody cares if the Sixers, Pacers, Kings, Nets or even Hawks have worse attendance records. Nobody cares if these lows are because of the bad record of last year and it is definitely going to be higher next year after this succesfull season. The wheels have starting turning guys! We fans are the only log that may stuck those wheels and make them break! We gotta show them that we want this team in New Orleans. We gotta fight as that Sonics fan says. Let us create something (page,cause, whatever) on facebook let us open up a webpage. Let’s make them hear our voice. Will it matter? The Sonics guy says they tried and it did not matter for them. But, if we don’t try this will be the last Pistons home game comments that we are writing here. Do we want to see New Orleans Hornets gone? NO! Do you want Hornets247 gone? I am just new here and NO! So? Let us start brainstorming to see what we can do? We gotta do our part to make that arena more and more crowded everyday, we gotta show our PASSION, PURPOSE and PRIDE.
I felt so so bad at the arena tonight. Is it really 30 last chances to watch my team in the arena? Then what?
Great post. I had similar feelings while sitting there. I went alone to this game, so I really had time to reflect on how much this team has meant to me the past few seasons and how badly they will be missed. Will live a big hole.
All I could envision as I scanned empty row after empty row was how in 15-20 years I’ll be mentioning the Hornets in conversation to younger folks who are not around yet to enjoy NBA in NOLA in the same mannor that people speak of the Jazz, Bucs, Voodoo, Brass, etc. today.
The Voodoo are back. They start in March, I believe. I have season tickets. Same price as their last year and the 9th home game is free (18 game schedule).
I joined a Facebook page out there called “Keep the Hornets in NOLA”. You may want to check that out. 🙂
It saddened me also to think that this could be the end of it.
What was so remarkable about Marco’s game was that the Pistons thought they could run their offense through Hamilton in the first quarter. They set screens and double screens to get him the ball time and time again. Marco in his usual high energy, over the top of the pick coverage did all he could to stay with him. Hamilton was mildly successful. Meanwhile, even after expending all that energy, Marco was on fire on the offensive end. Great commitment, conditioning, and performance.
In most games Marco does not get the advantage of screens for his shots. They are often desperation threes or he has to initiate a drive to the hoop on his own with no screens to ward off defenders. If the Hornets use this game to expand their offensive sets, developing plays that most shooting guards get, then we will see Marco deliver much more consistently and the team perform better overall.
Confidence is vital for any player.
Fun to see the Hornets manage the game from beginning to end.
Thanks to Monty for keeping Marcus Thornton on the bench.
Jarret Jack is starting to look more comfortable in the offense. Agree with the poster that he’ll start to help more, but he will never be a pass-first PG.
Didn’t stay up to watch as I suspected Pops is still on the inactive list.
How did Smith and Andersen play together? Number don’t look great but numbers aren’t everything.
I didn’t think they played like clones. Andersen looks a little smoother. Smith seems
More of a hustler. He can really get those big legs churning in a sprint down the court. Andersen does the gazelle thing more. Smith plays bigger, probably because he is.
Time will tell.
Beating the Pistons in New Orleans is an obligation, so I don’t think that is reason for us to be jumping for joy. Sadly it is the attendance was: less than 11 thousand people. Some people are saying that New Orleans doesn’t deserve to have the Hornets. But I think otherwise. New Orleans is unable to host two major league franchises. It’s a smaller market. San Antonio only has the Spurs, Portland only has the Blazers, Charlotte have only the Bobcats. And the New Orleans’ franchise is the Saints! The Hornets are left, and should go to Kansas City, San Diego or Canada. The public is not going to New Orleans Hornets games. Not worth it to keep the franchise in town, if the public continue leaving the empty arena. Financial losses will continue to happen …
Charlotte, a much bigger city and metro area, and with Bank of America, has the NFL’s Panthers.
Deserve doesn’t enter into it.
I don’t see anyone jumping for joy. I see people saying that they are glad we did what we are capable of doing.
Did the Carolina Panthers go somewhere? As usual, another outsider telling the people of New Orleans what they can’t do. Shut your piehole dude. LOL.
“Yet, Feldman says he believes New Orleans remains viable as a two-franchise professional sports town.”
“I think the Hornets are sustainable in New Orleans,†he said. “The question has been asked, ’Can New Orleans actually sustain two professional sports teams?’ And I think they can. I think perhaps a new (NBA) economic model will help, but I also think more favorable terms from the state and the arena will also help, as well.â€
http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ssf/2010/12/new_orleans_hornets_woes_consi.html
I agree. They can.
I think the evidence is there. I have some posts up about this, one explicity showing that since the storm, both saints and hornets attendance is up. Up! Not up per capita . . . up! It’s higher.
Don’t mix up Shinn and the city — 2 different things.
@Brazilian Hornet: You argument has a hole big enough for Aaron Gray to fit through! I won’t even touch Kansas City but Canada? If I remember correctly didn’t Canada HAVE 2 basketball teams. Well obviously they couldn’t support both of them. That is why the Grizzlies moved to Memphis. Canada couldn’t even support a baseball team either. Hockey does well but that is it for up North. That fact that you think they could even come close to supporting a SECOND team in Canada is almost laughable. I live in San Diego! Our baseball team has the second lowest payroll of any other team in the majors. Our football team almost has a foot out the door cause the city can’t figure out how or where to build a new stadium. Not to mention every Sunday is another battle to sell enough tickets for the Chargers to NOT be blacked out in our area. Three weeks ago the Chargers vs Broncos Monday Night game was almost the first game in NFL History to be blacked out on a Monday Night to their local audience. We had a basketball team (the Clippers) but well obviously that didn’t work out either. There’s a lot to do in SD but sports isn’t really the popular vote. If you would have mentioned more suitable cities for a basketball team like Seattle or Las Vegas maybe I can have a respectable debate with you but EVERYTHING you mentioned is asinine.
Glad the Horents got the win, I upset though cause I didn’t get to see it. (It was my 2 year anniversary) It was the first game that I didn’t watch/go to. A couple of things that I noticed watching the hight lights on NBA.com and reading what yall wrote in the post.
David West – my favorite player, he would probably be the best pf in the league if he tried on every play. Think about it he averages like 22 points per game and like 5 rebounds just standing around half the time. If he put in 100% effort. damn that would be scary.
Willie Green – on a fast break I noticed that Green actually PASSED the ball to Q who finished with the dunk. I was a little surprised to see that happen.
Marco- I was glad to see Marco actually shooting instead of pump faking a couple of times. This was the game he needed to get back on track. I’m glad he to see he is coming out of his shooting slump.
CP3- you know you have a great PG when he beats you with his passing instead of his scoring. (Something they always say on NBA 2k10 haha) its good to see CP penetrating creating shots for his teammates.
Aaron Gray- I know he wasn’t even active but if you aren’t going to play Mbenga either, you should at least give him a shot Monty
Jarret Jack – Good to see that yall saw him starting to get more comfortable, because in my franchise on 2k10 he drops like 16 points a game.
otherwise good game to get us back on track, hopefully it will help them focus on playing basketball and not all the distractions surrounding the team right now
Hey Ludiculous, NBA 2K11 has been out for months.
Get with the times buddy.
OT:Vote your Hornets for ASG!
Glad to see the defense play solid man-to-man D for about 90% of the game. A few times I saw the guys revert back to the unnecessary switching and it led it easy baskets for the Pistons.
Anonymous, I know it has haha but I have been to busy spending my money on hornets tickets instead of buying it. I would rather watch them play in real life then play with them on xbox. You know 🙂