Suns Clown on the Hornets in the Second Half, Win.

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Published: February 1, 2012

The Hornets got tooled on in the second half by the Suns, resulting in a loss.

David Stern insisted that I remain quiet about the second half, citing “basketball reasons”. Below are my very rough first half notes. If for some reason this is your first time reading this site, this is not the norm.

Ayon provided a nice spark when he checked into the game at the end of the first quarter. In his first four minutes he scored seven points on five shots and grabbed three boards. He missed his next two shots–a drive past Robin Lopez that led a missed reverse layup and then a floater from five feet or so—but both were quality attempts. It’s clear he had the green light on offense early. He got a nice round of applause when he checked out just over mid-way through the second quarter. He came back in late in the closing seconds of the 2nd quarter, and played what are probably his worst 10 seconds as a Hornet so far, turning it over after a failed drive, and then committing a dumb foul trying to make up for his mistake on the other end.

Vaquez was really performing well as a distributor, especially in the first half when he tied a career high with 8 assists vs 0 turnovers in only 11 minutes. He was 3-3 from the floor over that period as well. In the second half he would…

Jason Smith was 5-5 in the first half.

The Hornets and Suns both played 10 different players in the first quarter.

The name tag next to me at the media table just said “Sports Rabbi”. I kept waiting for the mystery (presumably Jewish) man to show up, but he never did.

The Hornets had 14 assists and only 2 turnovers through 18 minutes of play, and finished the first half with 20 assists and 4 turnovers.

Trevor Ariza missed a 20-footer with 6:25 to go in the second quarter. The Hornets didn’t miss a field again until he missed a three with roughly 45 seconds to go. They were 8-8 over that time period.

Belinelli was removed from the starting lineup, as Monty went in favor of Summers and Ariza at the wings. He doesn’t really distinguish between SF and SG, so it wasn’t surprising for him to start two guys who typically would be categorize as small forwards. He played that lineup for the first four minutes and most of the last four minutes of the first half.

In the first half, Emeka Okafor continued his solid offensive play everywhere but at the foul line. He hit another jumper.

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