In a repeat of the last game between these two teams, the Grizzlies simply outmuscled the Hornets all game long. The Memphis bigs fought their way to superior position, and when they were rarely stymied, Grizzly wing players simply muscled their way to the basket and hit an array of sometimes easy, sometimes stupid shots – or got fouled. When the Grizzlies complemented their interior dominance in the third by drilling their long range shots and fast-breaking the Hornets off turnovers, the game was over.
The fouling was a bit of an issue all game long. Landry was so overmatched on the inside it was ridiculous. Gray came in and gave the Hornets some size, but his fouling was possibly worse, so that didn’t help at all. Okafor, being forced to cover two big men who were both bigger than him, then succumbed to the same fouling issues.
Of course, the ugliest part of the game was the goose egg in the scoring column next to Chris Paul’s name. I don’t care if the Grizzlies were keying two defenders on him all game, when Paul scores nothing, there is no chance the Hornets were pulling a tough game out. He even missed his two free throws. Of course, it seemed every Hornet missed two free throws. At least.
If Marco hadn’t opened the game hitting his shots from deep, I cringe to think what the final score might have looked like. It was too bad that the Grizzlies adjusted to him in the second half and weren’t giving him a crack of space to launch from deep, rendering him ineffective.
That’s it. Hornets look to bounce back at home against Utah tomorrow night and hope for a Portland loss in the Trailblazers last two games of the regular season so they can once again be back in the driver’s seat for the 6th seed.
At least Patrick Ewing, Jr. scored.
42 responses to “The Grizzlies shrugged off the Hornets”
6th seed, 6th seed. We keep talking about the 6th seed but do the Hornets really want the 6th seed? What happens if the Lakers slip to 3rd? Is that a possibility? And if Lakers slip to 3rd, the Hornets will be there in that 6th spot. Not a good look. LOL! Lakers and Dallas could possibly be tied when tonights games are over with.
Ugh. Scary thing is the Gizzlies are like the JV version of the Lakers. Might be time to rest our starters and get ready for the Spurs. After all our starting point guard seems to already be pursuing that strategy.
I think they are just as good, maybe better than the Lakers.
They have an unbelieveable inside game and easily match up with the Lakers there.
You could be right. I was thinking more of the ability of the Laker bigs to clog the paint, but at the end of the day Zac and Baby Gasol might be just as impressive. Interesting how the Nuggets and Grizzlies both ratcheted up their game after their big shot takers left the scene.
I’m telling you. I think the Hornets thinking is that even though it won’t be easy, they know they’d have a better chance against the Spurs. At least they’ve beaten the Spurs this season. They haven’t beaten the Lakers.
And if you think CP, Monty and West mentioned the atmosphere of the last Lakers game, that was nothing compared to if the Lakers have playoff games in the N.O. Arena. LOL!!
They’ll never say it but they know they don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of beating the Lakers. Therefore, don’t even hover around that 6th, 7th spot. Get your arses to 8th. LOL!
they don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of beating the wizards if chris paul puts up 0 points.
That’s very true. But the Wizards sure as hell ain’t the Lakers.
I don’t know why the thumbs down. If you think they can beat the Lakers you’re fooling yourselves. LOL!
Itwas and ugly and depressing night.
My man Gray was, in my opinion, slow getting to his positions and then seemed to foul in an almost fitful way.
I didn’t see any crisp passing or very good movement off the ball.
Was it us or did they really block lanes?
Dunno.
I would need to watch the tape to see exactly where everybody went south…but that time I spent live was emotional enough form me.
just a big step back tonight. chris paul is painfully inconsistent. the defense was not good. memphis really bullied us in the paint…again. ariza missed 19 points, but he still had a good game. keep driving the lane. Hornets need to rebound tomorrow night. must win.
See the thing is, people are fooled right now because the Lakers have lost 4 in a row so some think the Hornets might actually have a chance. Don’t be fooled.
Whoever gave the thumbs down, man up. Tell me if you think I’m wrong and if you actually think the Hornets can beat the Lakers. I’d like to know who you are so I can congratulate you on being right if that happens.
Ha. Queen, JCS goes around thumbing down people he doesn’t like, regardless of the content. He’s goes out of his way to `respect’ the other guys after he does it . . . huge tell. And you can look at the patterns of the thumbs down to see it happens just on your comments, not on those who agree with you because he’s not reading.
You should see some of the things I get 1-4 thumbs down on. He’s uses multiple logins or guests or something. It makes him feel better, so I let it go. It’s hilarious. Besides, apathy is the opposite of love; hate is not.
Look at this thread, for instance. http://www.hornets247.com/blog/2011/04/08/hornets-defeat-the-suns-behind-willie-money-green/ perfect example.
He’ll follow your comments everyday and thumb them down, so talk it up! Give him something to do.
I’m going to thumb up your comments, Queen.
Enjoy.
Know that you are appreciated, as are the actual contributions of JCS, which are good humor and an eye for talent, at least.
Yeah I’m not surprised 42. LOL!! Dudes agenda got old around here a long time ago.
I do most of the time, but I can’t when he gets disruptive or overly burdensome with repetitous comments.
He specifically asked for this feature, too. You know why, now. One more way to insult people with coming out and saying so, like we are all stupid and can’t see past a ‘technicality.’ Sad really, so much potetential there, and so much energy he could put towards his Christian organization, instead spent on skulking personal attacks who share a love for the Hornets and who are otherwise liked.
And we are SOOO getting thumbed down for this…
I was ignoring at one time so I guess I’ll go back to doing that.
LOL 42! Yeah we are going to get so thumbed down now. Oh well.
What happened to Agent Ziko?
He sassed me . . .
Actually, I don’t know… I was wondering the same thing…
Dude, sorry about the tickets. I saw you wanted them, etc., but by the time I got back to you it wasn’t clear your plans hadn’t changed, etc. Maybe I was overthinking it. Can I hook you up for the Jazz game? Sounds like you have tickets already… I’ll substitute a beer at the game if you want!
The drinking game post was great, regardless.
I hope the Hornets lose their last 2 games, as long the Griz beat either POR or LAC, that will guarantees them be the 8th to play the Spurs, plus if we really upset the Spurs, we’ll have a better chance to beat DEN or OKC.
It’s all about matchups no doubt. And the Hornets DO NOT matchup with the Lakers. At all.
Lakers hold the tiebreaker on both OKC AND DAL, so if we beat Utah, we’re most likely to be the 7 seed….
And you never if we can beat Dallas in the season finale, if I was Monty, I certainly won’t take that chance.
They might actually try to win the FANtastic FANale in the Hive though. I said the other day that this team has been Jeckyll & Hyde so truthfully, I don’t know what to expect.
i’d rather beat utah and then see how the standings look. we can still get the six and face the mavs, which would be the ideal situation imo
Man the cheated that whole game.
to be onest i think that my boy benga did good better than Gray who was terrible. keep benga in
Watching this Lakers/Thunder game. Like I said, all about matchups. The Thunder are a tough match for the Lakers. The Lakers’ll likely win but the Thunder match up well with the Lakers. Better than the Hornets do that’s for sure.
Memphis had a phenomenal gameplan to stop Marco and that was to let Monty Williams play defense on him. Normally u hear Willie Green and the word defense and all we saw today was OJ Mayo eat him alive, Marco coulda done the same thing and make a few more shots since CP3 took his usual “once a week” game off today. I usually deflect any Monty rotation issues but how short his leash was with Marco was unbelievable. Im still optimistic but if Landry gets in his usual foul trouble this team has no shot to make any noise in the playoffs. He is so undersized its funny but the team lacks a backbone when he isn’t in the game. Marco leaves game with 8 minutes left in 3rd quarter down 6 comes back down 25 with Willie Green accomplishing absolutely nothing. I knew that 12-12 start would blow up in the team’s face lol
ya, i was wondering why marco wasn’t a bigger part of it in the second half also. i’m sure memphis adjusted their d to take open threes away from him. also, he was getting beat pretty bad by sam young and others in the first half.
I completely agree that he couldn’t guard a soul but he was the only threat on offense after especially Landry went out. Sam Young was too physical for him but Willie gave up several open jumpers to Mayo and several turnovers that lead to fastbreak points. Better luck tomorrow
I thought the lakers would bounce back tonight..but okc looked really good..they have almost 4 bigs who can match the lakers w collison, ibaka, nazr, and perkins..and tuesday the spurs are still playing for homecourt through the nba finals..so they’ll have something to play for…if the hornets can give dallas the number 2 seed while knowing that they’ll play them, i’d take that in a heartbeat..
Chris Paul put the “P” out of “PG”
Yeah.
I didn’t see the game, but it sounds like Memphis used the same strategy as Denver used in the playoffs last year: don’t let Chris Paul beat you. (Denver was physical with Paul, too.) We should expect to see more of that strategy come playoff time. Monty needs to figure out an answer for it now!!!!
“Unfortunately, I think this was our emotional letdown game,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said.
The guy on 4th Down on 4 said a lot of people was expecting the letdown game to be against the Suns after the Hornets clinched against Houston.
I get so sick of Monty and the media attributing losses to “emotion” or “the guys not playing hard enough/with heart.” You don’t get trounced by a team that you’re in a seeding struggle with (and who trounced you a week ago) because the guys simply aren’t playing hard enough. They present difficult matchup problems for us, and we didn’t have an effective game plan to counter theirs. Monty and Mike Malone need to go back to the drawing board & come up with something new and stop blaming our losses on feelings/emotions.
I didn’t like that ‘energy’ stuff from Byron or this ‘effort’ stuff with Monty.
In truth, it’s likely just flap for the media to avoid publicly dressing down an absent player. I always assumed they really had other ideas about the real issues presented.
Hornets will probably end up splitting their last 2. I have no idea how the other teams’ games will play out. Let’s just get it done.
Best defender on Marco? That would be Monty Williams, who always finds a way to take him out when he’s hot. He had Willie over there again in the first quarter squatting in front the scorer waiting to come in while Marco was draining threes and playing heads up ball overall.
And while Memphis made a strong effort to take away the spaces for Marco’s three’s in the second half, it’s up to the coach to find ways to counter that. Didn’t happen.
We don’t win this game under any circumstances with Chris Paul playing disinterested ball.
Guess you missed the part where Monty had Willie sit down after Marco drained another pair of threes. Up to that point, Marco was 1-4, which isn’t incredible by any means.
unbelievable.