Same Old Story: Lakers Pull Away From Hornets in the Third Quarter

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Published: December 5, 2012

We’ve all seen this before: the Hornets keep it close in the first half, but as soon as the whistle blows to start the 3rd period, the game is over. Tonight against the Lakers was no different. The Hornets actually led 48-47 at the break but gave up a 13-0 run to start the 3rd. For a team with it’s two best players sidelined that is tough to come back from.

I’m one of the biggest Monty fans around. We know he can coach defense and I think he’s a very underrated offensive coach, but these terrible 3rd quarters are unacceptable. It’s been a trait of the Hornets team’s over the last two season, and usually this falls on the coach. I’m not pointing fingers yet, but it worth discussing. Anyway, let’s take a look at my 3 things to watch for…

Pace

The advanced box score isn’t available yet so I don’t know what the specific number of possessions is. But the Hornets scored 17 fast break points so you can assume it’s faster than Monty wanted. This ties is closely with the next point.

Turnovers

The Hornets lost the turnover battle and finished with 12 turnovers on the night. It’s just free possessions for the opponent.  No one was the main culprit, though Vasquez had 4, which I guess is encouraging. However the Lakers scored 19 points off those 12 turnovers. On the flipside the Hornets scored only 9 points off the Hornets 9 turnovers. The main reason for the high number of Lakers’ points off turnovers is because most of the turnovers occur in the backcourt. As Rivers gains experience this should drop. As for Vasquez, well yeah…

Attack

The Hornets did a good job being aggressive inside by putting up 30 points in the paint in the first half but overall they just don’t have the talent to keep up with most teams in the NBA. The Lakers’ defensive rotations were incredibly slow tonight and Anderson and Lopez took as much advantage as they could, but the team desperately needs Gordon to come back.

Other Notes

-Congrats to Kobe for the 30,000 point milestone. However he received multiple ‘star calls’ from the refs on both offense and defense.

-Ryan Anderson is awesome. I have no idea why the Lakers didn’t have World Peace (that’s weird to type) guard him in the first half, but I don’t think it would have mattered. Anderson was going to score no matter what.

-Robin Lopez had a solid first half against Dwight Howard. It wasn’t an Aaron Gray type night, but really, there is only one Aaron Gray. The second half was not so good.

-Jason Smith, Brian Roberts and Austin Rivers combined for 1 point in the first half. Seriously. Rivers shows off his potential nightly, but until he starts to put everything together he will continue to struggle. That being said, the best way for him to learn is simply by playing. If he’s going to make mistakes, this is the perfect season for him to do it.

-Darius Miller has to be in Monty’s doghouse. I cannot understand why Xavier Henry would get 10x as many minutes as him. Henry didn’t play terribly, but I think it’s safe to say we should be looking at other options.

-I officially don’t hate Lance Thomas. I don’t think he’s a good player yet, but I’m starting to see some of his potential. I think he can be a good 10-15 minute player.

Let us know your take on the game in the comments below.

 

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