Wow.
If the Hornets end up facing Dallas in a first round series, it could be one of the most entertaining series in the history of basketball. The Mavs and Hornets have met three times this season, and the Hornets have won two of them, but none of the games were decided by more than 3 points.
Tonight, they overcame a 10-point 4th quarter deficit and gutted out a one-point win, 93-92. (Box Score) They did it via a balanced attack that saw individual players carry the offensive load for stretches at a time. Landry dominated the second quarter scoring. Jack ripped off five in a row and three huge free throws in the fourth. West kept the Hornets in striking distance the Mavericks when the defensive stops grew scarce down the stretch of the fourth, and Belinelli tossed in a bucket here and there all through the game.
Oh and the defense? It came to play. That game was physical on both sides, and the Hornets ran a playoff rotation out there – going only 8 deep and only giving 8 minutes to Aaron Gray.
Jarrett Jack
Michael and I have been adamant for weeks that Jarrett Jack is a huge upgrade over any former back up point guard we’ve had. He proved it tonight. No, he couldn’t check Barea. Yes, he started the game ice cold. But – like I said in the podcast – when he gets big minutes, his numbers become impressive. 21 points on 19 shots, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and three cold-blooded free throws to finish a game Tyson Chandler had failed to put away just moments before. I love how Dallas called a 20-second time-out afte the second free throw to try and get him out of rhythm, and it didn’t bother him one bit.
Marco Belinelli
Mama Mia looks like he did to start the season, shooting with confidence and being aggressive. He’s had the skills all season long, but his confidence wasn’t always there. I think the Thornton trade may have helped him more than anyone else on this roster, letting him play freely and know he’s going to get enough minutes to contribute. He also hit a pair of insaneshots tonight: A half-court heave at the half-time buzzer, and a leaning three pointer to put the Hornets within 4 with 50 seconds left in the game. Crazy shot.
Other Observations
- It wasn’t all tea and crumpets, however. The offense looked downright ugly. During the third, I wrote down “Jumpshot, jumpshot, jumpshot, jumpshot, jumpshot”. That was, essentially their third quarter offense, and they sputtered. Luckily, they were getting lots of foul shots off offensive rebounds or turnovers and that kept it from being a total disaster.
- Monty’s chest bump of West at the end was priceless. He’s not far removed from being just one of the guys.
- Landry is a beast in the post. He started off abusing Nowitzki, and then they moved Chandler onto him, and he took Chandler to the hole twice for scores. As he settles ito this team, he’ll be a wonderful fit.
- Okay, that said about Landry – he was hopeless guarding Nowitzki. Okafor and West gave the German some trouble. Landry only had one good defensive posession against him out of like seven tries, and that one, I believe, Nowitzki was trying to flop and get a call.
- Trevor Ariza was grimacing all game. The broadcast caught it in the third, but he was doing it from the first quarter. 0-10 for the game, and every jumper but one that he took was an airball. Happily, he also battled Marion on the boards, and vacuumed in 9. Good for him to contribute how he could . . . but please stop shooting so much, Ariza.
- Gray has his good games and his bad games. This was a bad one.
- Willie started, but got pulled quickly in the first after several ineffective minutes. Belinelli got 40 minutes. Honestly, I don’t care which of these two starts. Monty will figure out which one is playing better, and let them finish – and that’s the way it should be.
- Beaubois = Thornton
- I frequently end up thanking Kidd for wrecking the Mavs chances. Tonight, we can thank him again. 0-7 from the field, 1 rebound, 7 assists, and one rock-stupid foul on a Jarrett Jack pumpfake that cost the Mavs the game. Thanks, Kidd.
- Tyson was a beast tonight. Yeah, I can mock him for missing those two free throws to make the game a two-posession game, but 16-13 in 25 minutes? He and Barea were huge for the Mavs when their starters were struggling to score.
- Bob and Gil were talking like the Hornets had lost the game when they entered the fourth down 10. My thinking was following the same paths.
Hey! I got to recap another win! Two in a row for me, baby!
Winning.
102 responses to “Hornets post furious comeback and topple Mavericks”
STOP RECAPPING!! ITS AN ANOMALY!
You wound me. 🙁
i’m a man of numbers. you should be too ryan 🙂
I agree. The game was an anomaly, even though it was fun.
P.S. To Ryan, Michael, etc.: Jack is a leader guard (shoot first) not a point guard (pass first). A lead guard can only take you so far. That’s why he doesn’t start in this “point guard driven” league. (When he can consistently drive and pass for an assist, he will start in the league. He can’t do it at all now.)
504: of course he is a shoot first PG, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t infinitely better than every other backup PG we have had in the past. He is perfect for the role of starting sparse games in the rare event that CP3 gets hurt or misses a few games. He is doing a great job at filling that roll. The only caviot is that the Hornets MUST have at least 2 other guys who can create on their own for around 20ppg when he is your starter. We had 1(Marco) 1/2(West and Landry), tonight and barely won, we had only 1(Marco) in the loss to the Bulls. If David West would have put up his normal numbers in either game they wouldn’t have been so close.
Jack is NOT Paul, I am glad he gets that now and just does what he does best.
I believe the term is Combo Guard for someone who can play the 1 and 2, where as Swing Man is someone who can play the the 2 and 3. In the flow of a game, these kinds of players will show characteristics of 2 positions, as opposed to the prototype of one. For example, Dwayne Wade is a combo guard and Kome Bryant is swingman. Jarrett Jack is not at their skill levels, but the fact that he plays combo guard was part of the reason Dell acquired him.
Here is what Coach Williams said in today’s T-P:
“Whereas Chris starts the game out facilitating, Jarrett probably looks to drive, score over smaller guards. They both can shoot the ball. They both can pass the ball. They both can guard, too. I think Jarrett’s mentality, for the most part, is he sees that rim. Which isn’t a bad thing.
“I think he got rubbed the wrong way when he first came into the league because he wasn’t a pass-first guy. It’s not that he couldn’t pass. But he could shoot the ball, and he might as well take advantage of it with his size (6 feet 3, 197 pounds). I would say the differences are Chris looks to facilitate more by passing, Jarrett looks to facilitate more by shooting. The basket is always open. He always looks to pass to the basket.â€
Don’t see anything about Jack swinging and playing the 2 guard spot, just that he is tallish (like some other point guards). Do see alot about pass first versus shoot first.
“Whereas Chris starts the game out facilitating, Jarrett probably looks to drive, score over smaller guards.
———————————–
That right there explains that he first looks to shoot a la shooting guard versus pass a la point guard.
Your reply would make your first statement relevant if Jack actually played shooting guard (the 2 spot) rather than point guard (the 1 spot). Being a shoot first player doesn’t make you a shooting guard. If it did the entire Kings team would be shooting guards.
Can we get the Facebook Like button on this site? I wanna Like this recap
Workin on it!
Just got back from the game, i have no voice. WOW unbelievable. JJack for president
MT23 coming back to the Hive on Sat. gonna be an emotional moment when he gets introduced…
Amazing win! Is there any way you can upload a Youtube video of the insane comeback?
Here’s Marco’s half-court heave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55m-NPrCQz4
#7 on espn’s top 10 =)
#nothing in nba top10 ?!?!
This was a great win I’m still beaming from the finish. Seriously I’m gonna go back and watch that last minute a couple of times. Crazy finish. Anyway like you said Ryan, it was a surprisingly balanced game in terms of who stepped up, but the offense was maddeningly stagnant at times, going late into the shot clock with little to no ball movement.
Glad to see the guys gut it out and not roll over when it really looked like they were done for late in the game.
All the better that this was over those dastardly Mavs!
WHAT WAS THE ATTENDANCE?
Were you there?
I was there. Looked pretty sparse unfortunately (though it is Ash Wednesday). Official number off ESPN.com is 14,472 though.
NOLA is always either tired and/or hung over on Ash Wed. I was surprised to see that many people there.
3 games against the Mavs this season…. I have not watched one. This is unbelievable. The first two games were because of a mess up with DirecTV and I forgot to set the game to be recorded today. You cannot begin to understand how pissed off I am at myself right now!
My sister texted me ‘Hornets!!!’ Keep in mind I’m from Dallas and my whole family supports the Mavericks. Geaux Hornets!
Cuban is that you?
haha Cuban’s from Pittsburgh. So no.
For fun: Marco Belinelli dunking on Turkoglu in crunch time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgrI6assLow&feature=related
Jarrett Jack has tiger blood. Only someone that knows about winning could hit those FT’s.
Like an f18, bro. WINNING.
Give the Hornets staff credit for trying to move the ball in the first half, but terrible shooting wasted all their set plays and it wasn’t until Landry started posting up that they got any kind of rhythm going. If we could only sub him and Okafor offense/ defense we can keep Landry from fouling out and Okafor from silly possession-killing turnovers.
Jarrett Jack= high risk, high reward. He was playing terrible all game, and then in the 4th, he suddenly wasn’t. He didn’t change a thing. The game changed around him. It’s like his only real skill is breaking off plays and shooting too quickly and when no one on his team is expecting it. But it kinda works if the other team is not expecting it either. Making them when it counted was good on him, but 21 points on 19 shots? Marcus Thornton demands a recount.
Mark Cuban? Don’t listen to Mike McNamara. It’s really not okay to cry.
“But – like I said in the podcast – when he gets big minutes, his numbers become impressive.”
Hmmm….that reminds me of someone I used to know.
Point. Game. Match.
Ariza 0-10 really dude. I dont know if yall have noticed but (let me add i love ariza and him and cheddar jack r my fav hornets) that dudes mid range is sooooo bad. Everytime he shoots it i call a miss, maybe i should stop cuz im jinxing him, but no more mid range please
Dude I wish he wud go back to laker ariza and just shoot game defining rainbow threes!
That would be nice. I’ll take attacking the rim.
Lol either way it goes they wud respect his game instead of now where they just play of f him just enuff to stop him from driving daring him to shoot a jump shot he should not b taking
That really should be a drinking game. An Ariza miss = a swig. At his clip %, I don’t think I’d last very long.
HAHAHAHAHAHA @RYAN
“Winning”
single best comment ever left
So glad Landry played well. thats why Cuban was so peeved.
@nikko
In 2 years it won’t be the same team. No West and no Paul, Monty won’t win as many games as Bower did.
I’m starting to doubt that last word in your username.
He is a fan. Of another team. LOL.
I think after tonight Monty has already won more games than Bower did last season. LOL.
I love that this blog wont stand for negativity. thats y i love u guys
yeah he will.
right. and i’ll still say you’ll eat your words.
if anyone’s wondering “right” is sarcastic LOL
Can we get a video of the Williams-West chest bump?
post in on the blog. it will be forever remembered as the chest bump of 2010-2011. :))
West is Monty’s guy. He loves West.
Any way someone could upload this game somewhere for me to watch??
Probably not.
Ugh. Still pissed….
Stefan if you tell me how to send MP on this website i’ll give you a website where you can download the game on your pc
http://bt.davka.info/
🙂
Periodic lurker posting for the first time. One of the best Hornet games I’ve ever been to. Really loved how they battled the whole game, and glad it paid off with a W.
Best part of the game was an obnoxious Mavs fan sitting a few rows in front of me. He was relishing the lead the Mavs had in the fourth and when Cardinal hit his corner 3 with 2 minutes and change left in the game, he stood up and shouted, “Ball game!” Oops.
Welcome.
I will never understand people who don’t thinl they have to watch the games to see what’s going to happen. It’s one thing to guess, speculate, etc. It’s quite another to instigate situations with the restless natives around on such a basis.
I’m always polite and demur at away games. I’m happy when good things happen for my team, then I shut up.
Welcome!!
GRREEATTT WIN!!!! Hard effort throughout. The Past two games Jack and Belinelli have combined for an average of better than 40 pts p g. I Wish Jack was a better facilitator, but oh well. What a great victory. I like Marco’s confidence right now, and that he’s getting his shots in the flow of offense. And, it seems like such a simple thing, but why is it Beli seems to be the only guard/wing who can consistently deliver the ball from the wing to the our posted up bigs in the low block area. Talk about an efficient way to get our f/c’s (especially Okafor) involved effectively at the offensive end. Best win of the new year.
Hi guys. Great win, and without CP3. Jack is a valuable player, and so Beli. It would be nice, after some difficulties, to hear some good comments on Belinelli!!!
Cheers
Best win of the year IMO, bar none. Several times I told myself to just look away so I could avoid the heartbreak, but I stuck with it and was rewarded in the end- which is kinda why this one games was a microcosm of the whole season for me.
This win not only helped us in the standings, but it moved Dallas closer to that 3 seed (where I suspect they will end up) – meaning that if we get 5 or 6 we will get Dallas or OKC, not the Lakers. I will take my chances with Dallas or OKC. Actually, if fully healthy, I will look forward to victories in those series.
when Tyson missed those FTs, was CP3 saying “you owe us!”?
Not in our house! I still like chandler tho but he kno he wrong for gettin healthy and play well against us, making our trade for mek look bad….. Who does he think he is?! Lmao
HAHA, he was saying either, “This is OUR House.” or “NOT in OUR House” because I think Tyson had said something like, “I own THIS” when he gorilla dunked that ball on the fast break.
Even CP3 had a grin on his face when he was saying that to Tyson. You know those dudes love each other, and they both saw the humor on the 1st miss. THEN he missed again… Wow, I don’t envy Tyson.
I will say it until I am blue in the face…and still not get this through to any on this sight.
Gray had a good night.
Not a great night in any stretch.
But a poor night???
PULEEEZE!
He did what he was supposed to do.. stop the inside dominance and allow his team second chances.
Ya, he had 2 stupid fouls.
Who didn’t?
No he didn’t score.
When will we we as any knowledgable basketball fans understand that SCORING is absolutely meaningless when determening a role player’s performance?
It seems never in these fan sights.
If you don’t put up numbers, you don’t rate.
This is wearysome….
Good play or not, he ended up with 4 fouls in 8 minutes. That is not sustainable.
He wasn’t the only one in foul trouble, for sure, but how can you make a game plan when you don’t know if you are going to get 28 minutes or 8 from a player. The other guys (Landry) made it almost the whole game. Almost isn’t cool, but he was closer to expectations from an availability point of view.
Gray has a player option for next year, and I hope he picks it up and continues his improvement.
I think…and this is only my opinion, 42, is that when you KNOW you will play longer, you play differently.
Point in fact, JJack gets Kudos for his performance even though it is understood that he plays so much better with longer minutes.
In shorter periods, he looks completely different.
My point is the court time is the reason. It changes a player’s mental approach to a game.
It shouldn’t but yet it does.
Another point, players…pinch hitters…that come off the bench and are hot are extremely rare.
In baseball…my game…these are highly valued nerves of steel that very few others have.
I would presume it’s so in basketball.
In basketball, there is a reason players allow drives past them. They KNOW they need to play 30 minutes and more.
There is a reason most players avoid the so called “poster” shot and allow for opposition dunks.
It’s their floor time…and egos.
Not so a bench player that knows he more than likely will get only 5 to 10 minutes.
Ten minutes would be the rare event.
So they play the game differently.
This is my opinion and I will sit down now and wait for your answer.
Another point in fact…
Gray, knowing he is starting and needs to shoulder lots of play time as the main center always goes longer without fouls.
Check the stats.
It is true and I think helps make my point.
These are all valid points.
It’s hard to tell which is the cart and which is the horse, yeah? Fouls and playing time.
We are in agreement that Gray can be a contributor, and we’d both like him to be.
Hey Mark Cuban. . . SUCK IT!
I guess my only question for either Micheal or Ryan is:
Since the Hornet’s games with the Mavs have been so close all year then why did all the ‘position advantages’ go in favor of the Mavs in your “Game-On” analysis?
It seems like every position, including the bench is pretty ‘EVEN’.
…on a different note, I’m assuming this is the type of Hornets team that Mark Cuban was afraid of, because it definitely wasn’t the 125% out of his pocket.
Carl Landry will get his first real practice this week going into the home game versus former team Sacramento … should be an awesome game, especially after this victory. By the way, if their is a Carl Landry flaw it appears to be defense, which is sort of weird because isn’t that the reason Marcus Thornton never panned out?
Speaking of Marcus Thornton, judging by the way he and Marco have been playing lately who wins that starting 2-guard match-up on Saturday?
I agree with Mike Mac about Marco playing more freely and confidently now that Marcus is gone. Now, what will ‘Belli’ do when MT5 comes back on Saturday?
L_REAZY
landry didn’t fare well with Nowitzki because he was outmatched. That’s all. Landry is a bull dog on defense. That’s what i saw from his Houston days. His offense just followed. Nowitzki was taller, was a great scorer, and efficient. Landry did what he could. 🙂
Okay, because I thought I remembered him being, at the very least a decent defender.
However, he has struggled a little on that side of the ball since joining the Hornets, but maybe practice time will help that!
L_REAZY
yes practice time will help 🙂 even Ariza suggested that when Landry gets acquainted with the defensive setting, he’ll be infinitely be a better player for the Hornets(not word-for-word)
Ariza’s direct quote on Landry last Friday. We’ve only seen a glimpse of what he can do, imagine around playoff time:
“Carl is a really good scorer coming off the bench for our team,” confirmed Ariza. “(This was) something that we needed and I was just saying to him that with the way we run our system our four-man is going to get a lot of
opportunities to score and I think that’s his strong point and we are going to utilize that.
“It’s been less than a week since he has been here. I think as soon as he gets really comfortable, he is going to grow tremendously, probably in about another week.”
Full article on Landry: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=18982
Dat was an energizing game! I was yelling all game lol. But they were fouling us but we couldn’t get a damn call to save our lives but I love the way we fought through even tho we could have easily gave up late in the game. I love this team. The losses don’t sting as much if we fight like this every night. People… This team is growing before our eyes! They have each others backs. Our team depicts a boxer not much different from rocky at times, we sometimes take a beating but we can fight back with a fury of players that have been underestimated their whole careers. Also that chest bump by monty had me so fired up I couldn’t contain it. It was epic, u can tell when a coach really cares about his team.
I love diddles and monty i need a pic of this chest bump. I was at the game so i was more concerned with screaming but i got real fired up when jack went to like half court and punched the air.
I needs to sees it
You do.
He shoves the hell out of someone too… Q?
@42, Monty shoved McNeal. Too funny!
Awesome. Perfect.
Damn Monty!!!
That just proves he believes in his guys … even McNeal … lol!
Who knows, maybe after the Hornets beat the Kings he’ll head-butt someone, or slap the hell out of Ariza and say, “Get fired up Boy!!!”
L_REAZY
I started the download from TiVO last night, but it hadn’t finished by the time I need to sleep. I’ll get it up sometime tonight.
There are pills . . .
Lmao… Nice
Isn’t karma great, Mr. Cuban?
I have to say, I am with Mac… Despite their amazing depth, impressive record, and virtual dominance over almost every opponent I would prefer the Mavs over any other top 4 team for our 1st round matchup. The Hornets just have their number. I don’t know why, they just do. It reminds me of how Utah just always had the Hornets number in the D-Will era. Some teams just own others for no real discernible reason.
Can you imagine the Chernobyl level media meltdown that Cuban would have if the Hornets knock the Mavs out of the playoffs in the first round? Especially if Landry is a big part of the reason. I will have a grin all day contemplating that situation.
I’ll take a loss to Utah 3 or 4 times a year with victories over NJ 3 times in 4 games just to make the point that is wasn’t Deron . . . it was the team.
I hate bad analysis.
Hate.
To be clear: I’m agreeing with you, Topher, that it’s a team matchup thing. Such an unfolding would go a long way to demonstrating that. Of course, the teams are different, etc. etc. I should just shut up . . .
Would yall rather play dallas, okc, lakers, or spurs in the first round? To be honest, id rather take the spurs, we match up great with them and play great against them, however i dont see it happening because we wont drop an neither will they. Other then that, its between okc and dallas, tough decision though…
Dallas defenitly. I hate okc, they just think they r all that and that seems to be the kind of teams and players the hornets loose to
Dallas, SA, OKC, LAL- in that order. I know it is surprising to put SA #2 but I think Okafor can handle Duncan and our bench can stick with SA’s in a series. It would come down to whether or not we can guard the three-point line and I think we can do that if fully focused in a playoff series. OKC just scares me because they can get to the line at will with KD and Westbrook.
That is my order of preference.
Dallas, OKC, SA, LAL for me.
Marco Belinelli won me over tonight. It wasn’t his outstanding shooting or halfcourt heaves. It was his tough, “I’m not taking your crap” attitude that he displayed in the third quarter. He literally saved the game for us when it was starting to get out of hand. That foul on Shawn Marion? Amen. Dallas was starting to play a little dirty and get emotional and our team had nothing in the intensity to match them until Marco gave Marion that little shove. Marco and Terry were BATTLING last night during the entire second half. He brought the toughness tonight. Of all people. The kid straight won me over tonight.
If that isn’t a “without you, we don’t win this game, MT5-esque” game from the Italian-stallion, I don’t know what is.
Ya belly looked really good las night, (Free throws were painful) but he was hustlin and i normally criticize the hell out of him. Did yall notice how much david west was lookin for belly, he kept workin inside than dishin it to marco
“MB8” … mmmmmmm … Naaah!
L_REAZY
Doghouse,
Marco also reacted to being hit on the head by Nowitzki in the 4th. That’s why the refs gave em a double PF.
I’m glad he’s won you over. He rarely plays for himself, always for the team. He’s has alot of talent yes, but it’s his heart that impresses me most.
Someone already mentioned it but we got snubbed from the NBA.com top ten plays i mean REALLY? not one play, you should see the wack ace bs they put over us. Freaken lay ups, blocks by big men on guards pathetic. David Wests fade away in tysons face was disgusting, carl landrys spin off of dirk to the rim was disgusting, jarret jacks midrange right between haywoods eyes was icy as hell i can go on and on. And to not have belinellis half court on there is absolutely criminal.
The refs hate us, teams hate us, Cuban clearly hates us. But now our owners hate us?
That’s pretty funny.
HEY!!! Today’s Q-Pon’s birthday! Happy Birthday Rook…he’s 23
This game had me fired up. Playing a top team, without your best player, enter the fourth down double digits, and you get the win. I love that Monty is smart and goes with the hot hand at the two. Just because someone starts doesn’t make it mandatory they play 30 minutes.
As for first-round matchups, I want to play Dallas, if I were to pick one of the top four teams. Spurs don’t seem to be a realistic pick. The Lakers will always be a tough out. When looking at OKC/Dallas, I just like the matchup with the Mavericks better. Jason Kidd always plays poorly against the Hornets, it never fails. The Mavs have a history of choking in the playoffs. I like our matchup with them.
And I mean, if you believe in Karma. That playoff series would be perfect if it ended with Landry hitting an 18 footer at the horn to end the series. Hopefully the team has some good practice before Sacramento. I’ll be patiently waiting for that next long win streak since it seems to be the theme of the season.
Nice win!
I’d like to share a space of the Hornets’ Brazilian fans with you, American friends:
http://www.orkut.com.br/Main # Community? cmm = 112246852
Who wants to enter our community, will be very welcome!
Thanks!
Someone said on the radio that belinelli didnt start because of a disciplinary action? Does anyone know anything about this?
Nope. Was it a caller or a host?
Could be a squirrel . . .
this game had everything to do with a post season matchup , showing the mavs we aren’t scared to throw them all over the court like every other team that beats the mavs in the playoffs . BUSY BEEEEEEEEEEEEES