The Hornets beat the Oklahoma City in an instant classic, 91-89 behind late game heroics from Chris Paul and David West. Paul came up with a steal with 10 seconds to go that allowed David West to take a game winning shot in the closing second, which he calmly nailed. It was a bittersweet victory, however, as Paul appeared to injure his ankle on the steal. He was noticeably limping in the aftermath, and did not take the floor on defense when OKC had their last possession with .5 seconds to go.
Oklahoma City came out with a lot of energy early, likely in an effort to avoid becoming the third team slaughtered by the Hornets consecutively. As soon as David West picked up his second foul only a few minutes into the game, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be a Hornets blowout. Instead, the Thunder threatened to pull away early.
Fortunately for the Hornets, Marcus Thornton played well as soon as he touched the floor (as he often does at home), scoring eight points on six shots to fuel the Hornets bench. If not Thornton’s offense, Chris Paul would have had to come back on the floor much earlier than he did, and the Hornets would have had a much larger hole to crawl out of.
Also, Quincy Pondexter and DJ MBenga were eating up boards. MBenga in particular has looked a lot better of late, and is making the gaping hole on the bench look less, well, giant. All in all the Hornets dominated the second quarter, outscoring the Thunder 31-12, and taking a 50-45 lead into halftime.
Ariza was playing some poor defense early on Durant. He wasn’t fighting through screens, left him open repeatedly, and just didn’r seem to realize that he was guarding one of the most dangerous wingmen not only in the league, but in the history of the league. There are some nights when he just doesn’t seem to care all that much on defense, and tonight was one of them. It’s what keeps him from being considered an elite defender. The second half was exactly the opposite. He was awesome.
The second half started with a very angry crowd. As call after call seemed to go against the Hornets, the boos grew louder and louder. I even heard the rare “bull$@#^†chant, which is normally reserved for Saints games, and repeated calls of “cheatersâ€. Despite the calls (which didn’t seem as bad to me as they did to the rest of the crowd), the team managed to hold on to a slight lead in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Given their four turnovers and a three second violation, it could have been a lot worse.
The teams would trade points the remainder of the quarter, and even though the Hornets were missing more than their share of free throws, they would start the fourth quarter tied at 71.
After five minutes of uninspired ball by Jack, Green, and Pondexter, Coach Williams made the move and replaced them with Paul, Thornton, and Ariza. That lineup would play the Thunder to a dead heat until 3:00 to go in the fourth quarter, and then it was crunch time. Down two, the Hornets had a bad possession, which was followed by a brick by Oklahoma. David West then knocked home a jumper, tying the game.
Another brick by Oklahoma, and the Hornets had the ball. Despite a strong move to the hoop, Marcus wasn’t rewarded with either points or a whistle. On the other end, Westbrook jumped 12 feet in the air over Paul (who didn’t box out properly), and gave the thunder a two point lead on a tip in. West answered on the other end with a jumper and the score was tied at 89 with 57 seconds left.
After a two shot possession by the Thunder that resulted in zero points, Thornton missed a jumper on the other end that would have given the Hornets the lead. A defensive rebound by Oklahoma City gave them the ball with 14 seconds left and the game tied.
Again the crowd made noise. They were rewarded by a huge Chris Paul steal (who else?), but it wasn’t all gravy. Paul seemed to injure his ankle on the play and when he did eventually get up, he was noticeably limping. I’ll try to get an update after the game.
Back to basketball- Ten seconds left, Hornets ball. Last time against the Thunder they went to David West repeatedly as the game drew to a close. Durant shut him down then, but tonight they went with Serrge Ibaka. BAD MOVE.
DAVID WEST FADEAWAY JUMPER SMASH!
Celebrate!
Game Notes
- The defensive rotations tonight were a far cry where they were in the last two games. The thunder took open layup after open jumper, and the Hornets just sat by and watch for most of the game. Scott Brooks’ offense had the upper hand on Monty’s defense tonight for most of the game.
- Samuel L. Jackson, Bobby Jindal and Mitch Landrieu were in the house, continuing the streak of famous people courtside.
- The Thunder tried to use Krstic to trap Chris Paul a half a dozen times or so throughout the game. It wasn’t particularly effective, mostly because Krystic is so unathletic that he can’t really do anything except get in Paul’s way a little bit.
- Speaking of Krstic, Okafor had a very tough night against him.
- Speaking of Okafor, he had his best dunk as a Hornet, and his block with just over nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter was pretty sweet.
- When Hugo got hurt riding a scooter, it was pretty hilarious that the paramedics helped the scooter instead of him. Everyone knew it was coming, but like a pie to the face, it was funny nonetheless.
- Attendance was announced at 17,233, an official sellout for some reason that I don’t quite understand.
- Chris Paul passed Larry Johnson for fourth place on the Hornets all time scoring list
- The Hornets are now 20-1 when their opponent scores less than 90 points. 18 of those games have been at home. Beefense, anyone?
- Hornets are third in the West.
- Hornets have won nine in a row
- Hornets are awesome.
Nation, meet New Orleans.
(update- right now on ESPN, the Hornets are the lead basketball story)
Monty’s Postgame
- He started off discussing how the team sticks together, even when things don’t go there way early. That’s something that is visibly apparent this year.
- He adressed players getting bumps and bruises, specifically Chris Paul because of his playing style. It doesn’t seem as though Paul’s injury is anything serious (knock on wood).
Player Quotes
- West speaking about the game winner- “I wanted to get the last shot and get it off to where they couldn’t get a good look on the other end. I told coach in the huddle just give it to me I saw CP was out and he’s the guy we usually go to in this situation. I just felt like I could get us a shot.”
- West on the physical play- “They are a young, feisty team. They got us out of rhythm early. We stayed resilient, we stayed in the fight and it feels good to get a win.”
- West on the winning streak- “We’re staying together. We’re focused and listening to coaches during time outs and executing the game plan. We have a big road trip coming up , and we didn’t want any slippage. We just want to go out there with a good taste in our mouth.”
- Thornton on the streak- “It feels great. It feels good to be on a nine-game winning streak. The beat the quality of tams we’ve beaten makes it that much better.”
- Thornton on the physical play- “It was physical top to bottom. From the guards to the big men, thy are a physical team. I’m just proud of our guys that we fought with them.”
90 responses to “Hornets Outlast the Thunder”
REALLY happy with that win. But I pray to god CP is ok.
Btw. Was it just me, or did the Thunder players seem like they were stuck up a-holes tonight? Durant shoving CP like that to make space REALLY bothered me. And Green scratching his “ostrich” like claws all over West was just terrifying. He does look kinda like the “ostrich”, doesn’t he? LoL.
P.S. Mike, I’m “working on it”.
I agree Ziko, I definitely didn’t like the Thunder players bullying us tonight. It’s great to break their hearts there at the end.
I agree Ziko. Thunder are one of my favorite teams, but they were stuck up indeed tonight. They also got away with alot of bull, too. Westbrook plowed into Paul on a fast break attempt, clearly should have been a charge because Paul had his feet set, but no they gave Westbrook 2 foul shots. Bullshit.
I’m glad we broke their young hearts at the end. It was time we got them back.
LoL. Max. Bullshit indeed. I like the Thunder too, but yea, that was a pretty BS game from them. It’s like they were expecting to win and for the Hornets to roll over or something.
Hey, kiss our ass OKC.
Yes sir !
They are without a doubt trying to give each and every one of their fans heart attacks, but I’m loving the wins!
Durant –> 0 points in the 4th.
Paul/West –> Incredibly clutch.
The Bees might as well have a nitroglycerin night where they give free nitroglycerin to the fans in case one of us does get a heart attack.
I know this might sound crazy but this win against the thunder is more impressive to me than the blowouts against the Spurs and Hawks. :0
99% very good game!!! 1% sad coz cp3 may got hurt 🙁
I’m now officially on board the DJ Mbenga bandwagon. Perfect tonight! Hahaha
He was awesome tonight.
Very, very pumped with the way Mbenga played tonight…glad to see him coming around…loved watching the put-back and 1 he had…I was like “Bang, Bang goes Mbenga!”
LoL. “Bang, Bang goes MBenga!” LoL. Love that. You need to tweet that to Bob Licht. He’ll say it on the air. He did great tonight. Was glad to see him get a good game in.
Glad to see all the loud fans cheering for stops! Man it feels good to be a fan of a legit team! Even if they are close wins, they matter. Home court may be rockin’ this year. Dear NBA: Please, no more day-playoff games in N.O. during Jazz Fest!
Could Dell …trade a bench combo guard or two for a back up big man?
Chris Paul is going to win the MVP.
Monty Williams is going to win the Coach of the Year.
MARK IT DOWN!
Chris Paul hasn’t been stat-stuffing enough this season to get the MVP nod.
Monty is T-1st atm I think. Depends on who finishes stronger between the Bulls and us.
I think he’s going to end up averaging 18 10 4 and 3 which is definintely good enough to win the MVP considering the weak candidates this year.
I view the MVP race a lot like college football. It’s damn near impossible to go from 10 to 1 unless others lose (get hurt, team records drops considerably) or you look that much better than everyone else (2 seed or he goes on a vintage 24/15 CP3 tear over 3-4 game stretch). I just don’t see putting up the numbers to get himself back into the race without us finishing Top 2 ahead of the Lakers.
Man that was a good game, Oklahoma city thinks they are all that, glad to see we knocked them off their pedestal. Shut durant down in the fourth. everyone gave good effort. I dont know about you guys but i love it wen DJ plays well. im an underdog lover and love wen ppl that arent supposed to play well do. And i want to add that i hate westbrook. I just cant bring myself to like him or his style of play. “run full speed at the goal and pull up for an off balance jumper” i hate u… especially wen that crap goes in. Mek dunk was just nasty and should be on sportscenter but prob wont cause they dont want to show us.
I was complaining about those ugly shots too.
You were right. They showed the Ibaka dunk but not the Emeka dunk. Not surprising.
The bald guy at the end of the CST asked Paul how he was and he said, “I’ll be fine.” What a relief huh?
LoL. That’s CP for ya.
The Hornets might start getting a couple lawsuits, for causing their fans to have heart attacks. lol. After the 1st quarter I was worried, but was so impressed on how they made the Thunder switch to their style of play. Happy as heck to see Marcus as the 6th man! He is starting to really learn his role with the starting line up. Great to see CP3 play whens he’s mad. Hope he’s alright though, that steal saved the day. Ariza and CP3 shut Durant down, thank you!!!!!
Marcus was Awesome on Defense. I’ll say it again. Marcus was awesome on Defense. Good Game Bees, Hope Chris is alright. David West Belongs in the All Star game, and I hope he sent the message. Yes I know Blake, Dirk, Love, and Melo will be the ones to get In…… but D West is just as good as them. Great Job in the 2nd half Ariza……. and I dont see anyone talking about Mek’s contract. Dude is earning every penny.
If we keep the same squad Next year, its a chance we might have 4 all-stars. Yes I am saying MT5 is a future all-star.
Joe, the Serb’s last name is spelled Krstic.
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I just can’t have the Hornets doing this to me. I’m glad I didn’t measure my blood pressure tonight. Intense stuff.
The funny thing it, I looked it up three times. For some reason that name escapes me.
Yeah, it’s usually tough for non-Serbs to pronounce it correctly as well. It’s pronounced Kerr (as in Steve Kerr) — Stitch. Kerrstitch. Lol.
I actually ran into the guy a few years ago at the Nikola Tesla airport in Belgrade. Now when I think about it, I also ran into Okafor twice as well (Atlanta and Las Vegas). What a small world.
God I wish CP3 wouldn’t have gotten dinged, cause tonight would have been amazing. Thank you 420ftJesus that wasn’t his knee.
David West was clutch.
Monty left MT5 in the game on a 3-12 shooting night because of his defense. I think we’ve turned the corner ladies and gentlemen.
CP3. Do us all a favor and take a few nights off. This is the main advantage of having Jack over Bayless.
I’m cool like that.
Trying to get Marcus time? Yeah? Maybe?
Doghouse . . . for me . . . one day . . . at least once . . . while you have this name . . . can you sign off with a Woof Woof! ?
Time is ticking 42, to the joy of us all, myself at the front of that list.
We pray to 42 now? That’s scary.
Johnny-come-lately . . .
Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years . . .
I hate David West with everything I have in me. But tonight, AND ONLY TONIGHT, I will give him credit for this win! HE WAS MONEY!!!
are you out of your mind. We wouldn’t have the record we have without dwest
Wow, 7 thumbs down in an hour. Impressive.
I was the baker’s dozen.
Congrats, Leon! You have officially made the least popular comment in the history of the rating system. Unless I’m mistaken…
West has saved us in countless occasions.
I didn’t think it was possible to make such an unpopular comment unless Michael Vick was involved.
One could maybe wonder why it’s taken 7 years to get to this effort level to be fair to Leon. Is anyone really surprised it’s happening during a contract year in the halfway point of his career?
That being said. I can’t see how a Hornets fan could “hate” or even “dislike” fluffy. He’s always given us his contract value + a little extra and is really quite funny to watch. His personality is really one of a kind on the court.
Wow. That’s all I got. Wow.
MW, when are you and ticktock gonna start posting again over at hornetshype? I miss going back and forth between this site and yours to read anything about the Hornets.
Second that!
“It’s what keeps him from being considered an elite defender.”
Who are all these mystical defenders that shut down great scorers for 48 minutes a game? Artest, Sefolosha, Battier, ect. get torched every now and again.
Trevor’s absolutely an elite defender.
You’re telling me you don’t watch him play sometimes and just say to yourself- “that guy took that play off”? He’s been criticized of that his whole career.
When I say elite I mean one of the two or three best at his position. I think Ariza is a good defender, but to say he’s elite is to say that there are five or six elite guys at each position.
I consider Lebron and Iggy to be elite defenders at the small forward position. Just my opinion.
Every player I’ve watched extensively appears to take plays off. I think that’s a bit nitpicking when you consider the end result:
Durant against NO (3 games): 36% 24 ppg
Lebron against NO (2 games): 37% 20 ppg
Melo against NO (2 games): 46% 16 ppg
Gay against NO (1 game): 35% 22 points
And so on.
The guy’s job is to make life difficult for the opposing team’s best perimeter scorer, and he does it nearly as well as anyone else.
Offensively, that’s another story. But he’s undoubtedly one of the best defenders in the league, imo.
weird stat: everyone on the bench was + tonight except willie who was a 0 and then all the starters were – except west who was +1.
Tonight’s game had me go through more emotions than an actor on “inside the actor’s studio”. It was just insane!! I pray to Xenu that chris will be alright. Oh and I apologize to Nick Collison for calling him a “stupid f’ing oaf” for that stolen ball play at the end when he crashed into CP3 (can’t blame the guy for playing with hustle/reckless abandon).
It’s cause Smith and Q-Pon cancelled out the positives that Green/Mbenga brought.
Xenu. Awesome.
I’ll load the bombers . . .
Who is Xenu? And with a name like Keymaster, shouldn’t you be praying to Gozer?
Gozer the Gozerian? Ryan Schwan are you the Gatekeeper? Nah with all the astrological signs being switched i figured i’d start hitting up ol’ Xenu with my prayers, seems to work for tom cruise.
Xenu is a scientology figure. You don’t really pray to him, but the point is made. He’s kind of a Marduk figure if you are up on Babylonian stuff.
Tim Duncan injured.
But back on the floor.
OMG what b.s. the ibaka dunk on mek was a nominee for top 10 play (didn’t even show emeka’s huge slam). then when they show the west game winner its not even nominated? WTF!!!??? i guess we shouldn’t expect espn to ever show could judgement.
Nobody gives the Hornets credit…they talked more with the headline of the Spurs losing to the Hornets than they did the Hornets beating the Spurs…it’s okay though, we’ll just keep winning and sooner or later they’ll have no choice but to show respect!
Actually the D West game winner made #1. In fact, Rudy Gay and Robin Lopez made game winners tonight nut they were both #2. Also, the Hornets are the lead story on ESPN and also on espn.com….bout time we got some love from the “press”
That was too much for me! I almost fell over the seat in front of me twice because of my jumping up and down! LOL!! Another great win for the Hornets! I am worn out I tell ya. Whewww!
I hate stadium seating sometimes because jumping/general movement is a dangerous ordeal.
+19 for marcus tonight on an off shooting night… even though a couple of drives he took i felt there was alot of contact but the refs let them play tonight
I cannot say enough about what this win meant for our team…our fans! These guys did not seem intimitated by this Thunder team, WHATSOEVER! Given the outcome as of the first half, they stayed the course troughout the second…they had business to tend to…you can see it and we can feel it! I appreciate the efforts of so many, but Marcus, I realize your ball wasn’t falling as you would have wanted to tonight…we saw how it affected you~but you didn’t stop there…you showed what you had defensively (I was impressed!!)…heck, I’m sure everyone could tell as the ‘Thornton’s Thunder’ banner flew proudly! Meka did his thing (as always) and Paul led the way for sure! Ariza, I wasn’t convinced during the first half, but you seemed to come back in the second…I’m satisfied (but, dude…bring it every second…don’t wait till the 2nd half… not sure our hearts can handle it…LOL) West, you were fan ALLSTAR tonight, I believe there’s no question about that! I’m lovin what you guys are about and I think there are so many more who are feeling it too! CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!!!!
So is that you with the HUGE white and blue Thorton’s Thunder banner up on the second deck? If so, I saw you on TV. Hahaha
Dito! I am so proud of the way these guys are playing. Honestly, it almost makes me wanna cry…they are playing with so much heart and enthusiasm and just straight up NO QUIT attitude! I live in Alabama and my wife is from New Orleans and I so wish that I could be in the stands for every game cheering them on. But since I can’t be there in person as I would like I am there with them via NBA League Pass, watching EVERY GAME! Geaux Hornets Geaux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Justin W…thanks man…that means so much! I only hope our guys can see comments like yours! I wish you could be here as well! Thanks again!!! Geaux Hornets!!!
Ziko, totally agree about the over-agressive play of the Thunder. I was not at all happy with the way that it appeared as if the Thunder were getting away with murder. Especially on the particular shove no call from Kevin Durant to Chris. I was like “Durant just got away with murder on that one”.
Oh, Baby! These guys are on a roll! Some observations from the game.
1. Thornton hurt his shooting elbow when he fell hard driving to the goal. I don’t think he made a basket the rest of the game, and I think it was bothering him.
2. That Ibaka dunk after the scramble under the goal was straight nasty.
3. David West has been unstoppable during this run. They brought help almost everytime he touched the ball, but it didn’t matter. He’s a f#@king basketball prince!
4. Chris Paul is a psychopath on the court, and I love him. The steal at the end was up there with his play at the end of the Grizzlies game.
5. Is it just me, or does The King in the Mardi Gras races look like U.S. attorney Jim Letten?
NolaHog…that’s freaking hilarious~’look like U.S. attorney Jim Letten?’, we loved that…it’s so true…so true!
OkiThor, that’s it! Sect. 120 for sure! I’m glad you saw it…last year it was yellow/blue, but we think the blue/white shows better! Good looking out…
The crowd was awesome in the fourth quarter. Having a packed arena on their feet raising a nonstop ruckus for the last 3min of gametime, straight through several timeouts, was awesome. It certainly seemed to raise the level of the defense, and may have rattled the thunder’s offense a bit. (It kind of looked like our own offense, except for DX, was a little off too, I assume because the players were too pumped up to think straight.) Anyway, it was phenomenal, and reminded me of the best moments of the 07-08 season.
Ok I don’t get the picture.
But anyways, is it true that Mr. West is in the building?
Yes, it is true. very true.
He was literally – and I don’t say this lightly – in the building!
in response to the comment on the refs: I remember that ref, #44. He’s the one making a whole lot of bad calls at our win against Blazers back in November. He again had bad calls. West was in foul trouble that night as well!
A very apparent bad call tonight was the clear offensive foul of Westbrook on Paul! I hope that #44 will never come back to our house…
No matter what, this is the way to win it. You even beat the refs if necessary! 🙂
Geaux Hornets !
I love this team.
I love them…Seriously…CP3 WILL BE FINE!
Chris paul injury
He said after the game that he would “be all right,” but we’ll be watching him to see if he can play against the Warriors on Wednesday. With the Hornets in the midst of a nine-game winning streak, it seems unlikely that he would miss the game unless his ankle swells up significantly overnight. Jan. 25 – 1:10 am et
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/playerbreakingnews.asp?sport=NBA&id=1115&line=150793&spln=1
That place was rockin tonight. good job nola
Tonight i saw King Midas disguised as DWest, he turned into gold every basketball he touched in the fourth!!!!! And thanks Scott Brooks for sitting Jeff Green and to let the 18-foot-assassin go in the zona against Collison.
One little thing: why CP3 kept going above the screen when Westbrook took those pickandrolls? If CP3 goes below the screen Westbrook lose half his eff. in an half court situation. I know he did it in that last defensive possession and came up with a game-winning steal, but OMG CP3 don’t do that the whole game or i’m gonna get an heart attack!!!
PS: OH, AND ONE!! 😀
PPS: 3rd place in the west!! And 10-1 when Marcus goes 10+ points.
The slight lack of attendance with the sellout was probably a combination of Monday and weather/traffic. We were late and I know at least on STH that bagged it…..
Mbenga should have been 6th man of the game. His rebounding was critical to the turnaround in the first half, and he defends the paint. I think his screens are excellent as well.
I really hope we get no media respect up until the NBA Finals. GO HORNETS!
Great Win for us! Btw the fact that D West didn’t call “and one” on the game winner??? That would have been the icing on the cake! Is it posibble to have DWest “Mic’d” up for the cleveland game on espn? I bet he says “And One” like 40times easy hahah gotta love it!!! Geaux Hornets
About the sellout: a sellout number for an event is not the number of tickets available, meaning you would have sold every ticket to an event.
Here’s why: if you and a date went to a show, asked for tickets, and were told you can have two tickets, but they aren’t together, then you may not go.
To accomodate this, there are selling rules the ticket folks abide by to try to pack the house, and various algorithms used to do it efficiently, but in the end, there are only so seats you can fill before you can’t buy a pair.
This is thought through and a sellout number is generated that is below the event capacity. It is a statistical quantity that is an estimate of where people who want to go won’t buy tickets for ticket-grouping reasons.
There can be other factors. NFL tickets tied up in travel packages don’t affect the ‘sellout’ if they don’t sell, even if returned to the home team.
Our number is 17,188 I think. It’s different for other seating configurations, etc.
Thanks for clearing that up. It has clearly been a question on a lot of people’s minds – I know I was very curious about it.
Westbrook and Durant combined for 8 turnovers! Ahhh, youth vs. experience? I’ll take experience
the guys on nba.tv spent a good 5 mins discussing the hornets this morning! It’s not much- but any coverage is good! A 10-game win streak would sound even better. Its against the Kings I believe who had a win last night also
Last year was a tough year, but the success this year makes it all worthwhile. Great personnel moves by the Hornets organization. Byron Scott hows that Cleveland job working out for you?
Oh snap just checked out the Daily Dime today and that was a great article you did Joe….It’s great to see the Hornets getting the main headline
That 2nd quarter was beautiful…..I was in the upper level last night and it was rocking….
Hey guys check this out. I remember hating this guy when the Hornets were playing in OKC. Dude trashed NOLA fans to no end.
He seems to think CP3 got into Westbrook’s head last night. I did notice Westbrook, as athletic as he is, was intent on ‘going at’ CP3 rather than play his teams game. I told my brother that each and every game the opposing point guards tries to give his best against CP3.
http://blog.newsok.com/berrytramel/2011/01/25/thunder-cp3-in-westbrooks-head/