Hornets post lowest point total in team history in 77-62 loss to 76ers

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Published: November 7, 2012

In a game in which the Hornets must have thought that basketball is scored like golf, New Orleans fell to the Philadelphia 76ers at home in front of a national TV audience.

I have been staring at my computer screen for the past 15 minutes without typing a word because, quite frankly, I don’t even know what to say after that game except “yikes.” I mentioned in the preview for tonight’s game that both teams play at a slow pace, but even I didn’t expect the game to be this low-scoring. First, let’s review my three keys to the game and see how they each played out.

1) Defensive Rebounding – The 76ers collected just 9 offensive rebounds on their 49 total missed shots for an offensive rebound rate of just 18.4% (and therefore an 81.6% defensive rebound rate for the Hornets). If sustained over the course of an entire season, this rate would likely be best in the NBA, so the team clearly improved in this area. Unfortunately, when you make only a third of your shots, it often doesn’t matter how well you rebound.

2) The Turnover Battle – As expected, in a low possession-total game such as this, the team that took better care of the ball left the arena victorious. The 76ers turned the ball over 15 times, whereas the Hornets finished with more turnovers (24) than made shots (23). I honestly cannot remember the last time I have seen that happen. To make matters worse, Philadelphia turned New Orleans’ 24 turnovers into 26 points, while the Hornets scored just 10 points off of the 76ers’ 15 turnovers. Not good.

3) Knock down 3s – I noted that the Hornets were due for a regression in second chance points, and it was true. New Orleans’ 23.9% offensive rebound rate was pretty close to their average over their first three games, but they only turned those second chances into 6 points, a far cry from their 17.3 average. Unfortunately, the Hornets were unable to make up that scoring at the three point line as I had hoped, going just 4-19 from long range. In basketball, you can do a lot of things wrong and still find a way to pull out a victory, but if you can’t make shots, you’re going to have a rough night.

Now, for some individual player notes:

  • Bad shooting nights all-around for the Hornets, but wow, was Aminu all over the boards tonight. He finished with 16 rebounds, 4 of them offensive; the advanced numbers aren’t available yet, but if I had to guess, I’d put his offensive rebound rate around 10%, his defensive rebound rate around 30%, and his total rebound rate at about 20%. Those numbers are pretty impressive for a player who spends most of his time on the wing. Props to Al-Farouq for doing work on the glass, and he even seemed to pass the eye test while handling the ball for most of the night; his 4 turnovers were more a result of poor decision making than dribbling deficiencies.
  • As a team, the Hornets blocked just under 11% of the 76ers’ total shots, another fairly impressive stat; in fact, the blocks came from only two different players – Robin Lopez (4) and Jason Smith (5). Great job of protecting the paint from those two.
  • Apart from some good overall team defense (I was particularly impressed by Darius Miller’s defensive activity), not much else positive to talk about from this game. Robin Lopez played about 32 minutes and made 3 of his 7 shots without committing a single turnover, but he also was invisible on the boards, hauling in only four rebounds all night.
  • As for Vasquez… oh boy. Just 7 points on 13 shots, zero free throw attempts, and just two more assists (7) than turnovers (5). Certainly a night that Greivis will want to forget.

I think that about wraps this one up. When two teams that run their offenses at such a slow pace play each other, things can get ugly, but this game tonight was just brutal. Thanks to injuries, there was very little firepower on either side, and it shows in the results. Hopefully, the Hornets can put this one behind them and set their sights on taking down the lowly Bobcats at home on Friday night.

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