Our writers break down the matchup tonight between the New Orleans Hornets and the Dallas Mavericks
1. Which matchup most favors the Mavericks?
Jake Madison: Dirk Nowitzki. With David West gone, the Hornets have lost their Dirk-stopper. The Hornets’ big men will put forth a good effort but don’t have the talent to stop him. Hopefully, someone else steps up and slaps Dirk.
Michael McNamara: Jason Terry is a matchup nightmare for the Hornets now that CP3 is gone. In the past, Chris could cover him down the stretch while (insert shooting guard here) just played off of Jason Kidd. But with Paul gone and Gordon out, there is nobody who can stay with Terry on this team. We just have to hope he is off tonight.
Joe Gerrity: Tough to disagree with either Terry or Dirk here. Both will likely have their choice of the Hornets lunch.
2. Which matchup most favors the Hornets?
Jake: Jarrett Jack isn’t the most skilled or athletic point guard, but at least he’s not as old as Jason Kidd. With Jack’s recent play, I’m expecting a big game from him.
Michael: I love the idea of Jason Smith and Chris Kaman getting minutes together down the stretch, as it will force Dallas’s bigs to stop out, thereby opening the lane up for the Hornets. If that happens, look for Jack and Ariza to attack the rim.
Joe: Jack attack, baby! Look for Jarrett to continue his solid play as of late against the Mavs backcourt. They just don’t have the right combination of size and speed to shut him down throughout the game. That said, Jack is always capable of stopping himself.
3. Care to make some predictions about the game?
Jake: With the game on a Saturday night and the Saints’ season over, I’m predicting the largest attendance of the season so far at 16,000+.
Michael: I think we see a horrible game from Shawn Marion tonight. Just call it a hunch. Like a 2 for 13 type of game. Will that be enough for the Hornets to steal this one? You know what, I got a hunch about that too. Hornets 88 Mavs 82.
Joe: Hornets are craving a win and practiced yesterday on what was supposed to be an off day in order to increase the odds of that happening today. Will it matter? That depends on whether or not they can hit their three’s. I hate saying that, but it’s going to be tough to beat Dallas (or anyone, really) without at least an average performance from downtown.
9 responses to “3-on-3: Previewing Mavericks @ Hornets”
I agree with the attendance prediction i think everybody wants to see the hornets beat the defending champs!!!!
Chris Kaman should not be on the court until he remembers how to play professional basketball.
Having jack as our hope, means no hope to win. But prove me wrong jarret.
Instead I think it will be ariza who will have one of his best games as a hornet, and the team will rally. Our defense is crazy good with him on the court. I’m not sure why ariza didn’t start on Kmart, but he shut him down when his number was called. I’d like to see more Vasquez, ariza, aminu, Landry, and okafor on the floor together. Vasquez gets the team more involved than jack, and landrys lack of size will be covered by our lanky sg/sf combo.
I think the new players finally saw the effects of Monty’s defense when it is implemented to a T. And I think ariza’s defensive intensity will begin to rub off on aminu. Should be a close game. Go hornets!
Can’t wait to see the further development of our players tonight! Guys like Jason Smith, Gustavo Ayon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Dajuan Summers, Carl Landry and Greivis Vasquez are on my radar for this game. I’m curious to see Emeka’s offensive efficiency as well.
Trade kaman and Landry for picks/prospects. I wanna see aminu get some burn at the four and to open more minutes for El Titan!
I mean hell if we aren’t going to win anyway we might as well watch the young guys. Go young and keep mek, ariza, and Gordon. We have young bench players. Add one free agents and two lottery picks and were on our way! Kaman and landry will be free agents, if Dell wants them back he can try to sign them in the offseason as free agents.
geez, i hope they spent the majority of practice throwing and catching entry passes. it burns me up to see the d work so hard for a takeaway or stop only to trot down the other end and bounce one off of kamans knee (or thru his hands)
dont think dirk will hurt us too bad tonight. hes looked real slow this season apparently via a bum knee. if jsmith starts hes actually the perfect cover with his length, and with dirks mobility limited j should b able to stay in front. much more worried about marco jack tryin to cover terry.
hope we find some minutes for gustavo, guy is so fun to watch (cmon atl u guys can make the playoffs and do damage. take mek please?? ok kaman then? please? has anyone tried mek and jack for teague and scraps on the trade machine?)
hope yall are right on the attendance, im sweating the benchmark thing hard til its all over ( very nice article by 42 on the topic). i just picture the evil genius of mr stern sneaking that one past us and digging out his excuse roladex from seattle to explain why he sold to larry ellison and let him jack the team to san jose
I predict a big game from my man j. Smitty. He’s going to continue riding the momentum he’s got.
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