The New York Knicks irrecoverably stomped the New Orleans Hornets in the first and the third quarters.
Any hope of a win here withered as soon as Davis was told he would not be dressing for the game. There’s just too much salary and too much talent not dressed in creole blue to battle teams who are hot, and the Knicks are among the hottest.
Grayson, bless his Aussie heart, had a good deal of trouble coming up with a plus for the Hornets in this game. To his credit, so did the Hornets in their 102-80 loss.
Jake had some key points for the game.
Clamp down on Shooters. Well, the Knicks had a FG% above the NBA median for the season, but they were slightly lower than their aggregate total. Still, I’ll say this was not met. Carmelo Anthony started and stayed hot through the first.
Strong Rotations and Help Defense. This was done half right. Although the Knicks had only 20 points in the paint, they buried 14 of 36 attempted threes. That’s a high volume of threes. The Knicks still win comfortably if half those made threes are changed to made twos.
Defensive Rebounding. The Hornets picked up 31 DRebs compared to 13 Knicks ORebs, or just over 70%. While this is an improvement over the 64% Jake quoted from the loss to the Bucks, it’s not good enough. That puts the Hornets slightly below their typical number, which is below the NBA median this season, but it is quite high for the Knicks. On the other side of the court (since there are two defenses), the Knicks grabbed about 88% of available defensive rebounds, leaving 12% for the Hornets. These figures would represent extremes in the NBA if sustained.
Attendance. Under 14,000. This is expected for a mid-week game during a down time following a down year. Get used to it. At least it does not matter in the ways it used to matter.
17 responses to “Hornets Lose to Knicks as Davis Convalesces”
LOL… Tonight we looked like exactly what we are… NY has only lost one game to our 6…
We looked like what we are even without our best player?
They looked and played like a very young inexperienced team who have not had the time to gel together,which is exactly who we are at this point. Even with Davis playing I am not sure the outcome would have been that much different. I would like to think it wouldn’t have been as big a blowout but then again it might still have been. I have to admit that it was impressive to watch the Knicks tonight kick our ass and they didn’t even seem to break a sweat doing it. Their ball movement and the way they communicated with each other on the floor was amazing and they kept us off balance for most of the game.
When are we gonna trade Eric Gordon! Should have done Gordon for Harden!
This wasn’t possible for about a dozen different reasons.
Maybe this post belongs here, too:
The Knicks out rebounded us, out blocked us, out stole us, etc. They ended up taking 22 more shots that us. At an average 1 point/per shot that is your margin of victory.
The Hornets were dominated, and Davis playing doesn’t change that. I doubt Davis and Gordon playing change that.
Look at this and the OKC game to see how far behind the best in the League we truly are. There is still a lot of rebuilding still to do, and a lot of time to do it in.
I just have to keep telling myself that we’re rebuilding. We’ll get there though.
Who do you prefer? Shabazz, Noel or Zeller? I’m already counting the days to the 2013 NBA draft…
There are a couple of disturbing defensive trends emerging as the early season progresses. One is the Hornets defensive rebound rate borderline terrible, but we knew that. Another thing to take notice of is that teams are taking and making more 3’s than they were in the beginning of the season. In the first 5 games of the season, 26% of opponents shot attempts were from behind the arc. During the last 4 games, that number has risen to 36%. That is an alarming jump. Just thought I’d share that.
Good point.
Maybe there is a correlation between these two? Long rebounds from 3pt shots careem past our strength, big men, to our weakness, guards, where we are out rebounded, out scored, etc. Name an athletic guard who dresses out for Hornets. I can’t.
I suspect this (3pt shoting) is an actual strategy teams are using to focus their attack our guards, and limit the effectiveness of our big men. They get two chances to win against our guards, one on the shot and one on the rebound, and it is working.
Look at what good and poor 3pt shooting players did to us recently. Houston’s Morris and Douglas shot 60% and 75% against us. The Bucks as a team shot 52%!! The Knicks, with all those subs getting big minutes and Novak going 2/10, still shot 39%!
You can be a fan of the team and its players while simultaneously having concerns about personnel and/or direction.
Like me. I have concern about some personnel while overall being quite pleased with the direction. EG is worrisome though, to me and other fans. The front office has similar concerns, I’m sure.
Sigh. Aimed one comment below.
[…] The New York Knicks Overwhelm The Hornets, 102-80WWNOThe New Orleans Hornets dropped to second-to-last place in the Western Conference after their loss to the New York Knicks last night, 102-80. This loss drops the Hornets to 3-6. They have lost their last 4 games, and the Hornets defense has given up …Hornets Lose to Knicks as Davis ConvalescesHornets247 […]
I’m trying to stay calm about this but I will say that you Hornets fans……are becoming a disgrace. We lose four straight and all I see is negativity. This is OUR team and though I hate with a passion that they are losing. I hate some of the rotations. I hate some of the decisions. I hate that “injured” person not being dedicated…….The one thing though, I dont HATE my team or just BASH them. I cant wait for them to start winning.
So if your actions apply to this message……do like the rest of the fans in this league and go jump on another team’s bandwagon. I’m proud of my city and this team and I will back them up no matter what.
Are you seeing negative comments or realistic comments? I don’t see haters. I do see honest evaluators of the strengths and weaknesses of our current team.
Read multiple posts on multiple subjects. There’s negative ones floating around
We call it like we see it. No energy, no passion, no fight in the Hornets! If this doesn’t change, look for another 20 win season.