It was a furious finish, but ultimately the Hornets fell 104-97 in overtime to the Raptors. Until about the last 5 minutes or so this was a very ho-hum game that featured interesting moments and highlights but lacked excitement. And then the Hornets started hitting clutch shots late and rallied from 11 down to tie it on an Anderson 3-pointer with 8 seconds left. Some people will say this was a confidence inspiring performance. Other will say it’s a deflating loss. Based on how the Hornets play tomorrow night against the Bobcats, we might find out which.
Observations
-The Hornets backcourt really had a tough time fighting through screens in the pick and roll tonight. In no small part due to the massive size of Aaron Gray. But it really hurt the Hornets tonight and allowed the guards to penetrate off the dribble.
-Not so fast, Damian Lillard. Anthony Davis still wants you to know he is in the running for rookie of the year. Despite two early fouls, Davis had another complete game. Davis really showed off his mid-range game–which is both a good and bad thing. I like that he has that in his arsenal, but I’d rather have him attack the rim. Davis chose a long two over driving on multiple possessions tonight–even though he had a good angle to attack. He certainly has the handles to drive and and I’d have liked to see that aggressiveness tonight.
Davis also played with great intensity during the Hornets rally. You have to love seeing that out of a rookie. If he plays with that intensity all the time, Davis will be an all-star sooner rather than later.
-A lot will be made over Vasquez’ near triple-double but he had an average game overall. His rebounds were largely inflated due to the fact that his height allowed him to grab many of the Raptors’ missed 3’s. I’ll certainly take his rebounds but it’s not like he was banging in the paint trying to grab boards. And then there were the turnovers. 6. I want to like Vasquez so much. I really, really do. But for every good play he makes, and there are times when he makes many, he does something to hurt the team. And it drives me crazy.
All that said, Vasquez looked great when driving to the rim on offense. A lot that was due to Monty’s masterful substitutions. Vasquez can handle Calderon on both offense and defense. And he did just that. But when Kyle Lowry was in Vasquez struggled. Lowry was just too quick for Vasquez on both sides of the floor. But Monty did his best to limit the potential damage and anytime Calderon was subbed out, so was Vasquez. It’s no shock that when Vasquez played great in crunch-time it was against Calderon. In overtime there were back to back possessions where Vasquez tried to take Lowry off the dribble. It resulted in two empty possessions. But late in the 4th quarter there a period where Vasquez went freaky clutch.
-Lopez cooled off offensively from his recent handful of games. He did a solid job on the boards in the first half but disappeared a bit in the 2nd. If he wants to maintain that consistent level of scoring he needs to develop another move than his little hook shot.
-The Hornets’ perimeter defense was much improved tonight. Part of that is the Raptors are not a good three point shooting team and don’t have a strong inside presence, but it was nice to see that most of the 24 3-pointers the Raptors took were contested tonight. And I’m glad the Hornets strategy was to not quadruple team Gray.
-The Hornets are now 0-17 when trailing after 3 quarters.
-Toronto’s bench massively outperformed the Hornets’ with a 49-31 advantage. Guys like Alan Anderson and Amir Johnson contributed while the Hornets got very little from Smith, Henry, McGuire and Aminu. The only two bench players who had an impact were Roberts and Anderson. The Hornets will hopefully get a bump in this area tomorrow with the return of Eric Gordon, but they are still far away fro being a deep team.
-I’ll be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to Austin Rivers tonight. I liked his aggressiveness when a bigman switched onto him. Fill me in with your thoughts in the comments below.
-I’m just going to quote this tweet from our own Michael McNamara: “Hornets quartet of SF’s tonight: 49 minutes played, 3 points, 6 rebs, 3 assists, 8 fouls.”
-In his post game press conference Monty had a good observation saying that there wasn’t a particular stretch which hurt them but that the Hornets hurt themselves throughout the night with their 17 turnovers which Toronto turned into 23 points.
-Monty also said, in regards to his rotations, that he is “just trying to find guys who can play minutes.” It seems like he is still experimenting his roster but he also noted that he might be playing too many people right now.
Let us hear your thoughts in the comments and hopefully the Hornets can rebound from this loss tomorrow night against the Bobcats.
31 responses to “Hornets Fall in Overtime to the Raptors After a Late Rally”
Vasquez had a great statistical game but I 100% agree with your statement that he was average at best tonight and his performance in OT was putrid. He was a black hole on Offense and they couldn’t hide him on D in OT. Rivers made some nice plays in the lane but I think the pundits have him thinking way too much. His up and under move in lane should have been a shot but since everyone thinks he is so selfish he made a concerted effort to pass the ball there and it was a turnover. But I do like how disgusted and dejected he was. It matters to him and I can appreciate those mistakes as a 20 yr old. I wish Monty would be as impatient with Vasquez as he is with every other perimeter player. SF position is worst in the NBA and its not even close.
I was on the floor taking pics for the first half & I was wondering what happened that caused Austin to get so mad, he went to the bench during a time-out & was pissed, but unless Monty or other members of the Hornets training staff are who you’re talking about when you say ‘everyone thinks he’s selfish so he made the effort to pass’ I’m not going to give him that excuse for the turnover, he’s going to play the game the coaching staff is teaching him to play, not the game that writers & fans tell him to play.
Black hole on offense? I don’t get it at all. Vasquez is obviously the only effective guard we have on the offensive end.
Again. Under-appreciated.
Let me put some quote here from nba.com. See how the reporters actually wrote.
Down for most of the final three quarters, New Orleans slowly climbed back into the game behind the play of guard Greivis Vasquez, who had six points and four assists in the fourth quarter.
NOTABLE: Vasquez’s 14 assists and nine rebounds marks the 11th time in Hornets history that a player has recorded those numbers in a game. Former Hornet Chris Paul has nine of the previous 10 instances.
I love Vasquez’game.
I am shocked Rivers is +13 tonight. He had an assist to turnover ratio of 1:3, which is horrible, plus he missed a number of chances to pass to bigs when he drove. He had some nice shots, but overall shot 41.5% from the field and missed both free throws. Thankfully Rivers won’t be playing 36 regulation minutes with Gordon returns to the team tomorrow night.
I agree he made some bad mistakes but u expect that from a rookie. Vasquez makes bad decisions and all we do is love on his stats
Agreed… Man, it kills me when Vasquez picks up the dribble and most likely traps himself in the 3-point line untill somebody runs in desperation to get the ball and hand it off to him back… That’s just the most inefficient play I’ve seen in times by a guard, and Vasquez keeps doing it night after night! He can be so damn good, and a second later, so frustrating and limited…
And Rivers sometimes has the lane to drive, or enough separation to shoot, but he just won’t, and I have absolutely no ideia why… Always heard that he was so confident in himself he’d hurt the team sometimes, that he was even cocky, but the kid seems scared to miss or make mistakes, trying to pass the ball when his passing insn’t quite good at this point of his career… Would that be Monty confusing the young fella?
I disagree I think Rivers needs to spend more time on the court so he can develop for later down the line. I like having rivers out there instead of guys who might not be here long term. Im not saying he should get playing time over Gordon. But he can’t really learn much sitting on the bench.
Please don’t take this the wrong way 504, because I think you often make great points, but did you watch the game tonight or just see the box scores? Not judging either way, just curious.
Because Rivers was good tonight with the ball in his hands, save for a stupid decision late in the 4th. Vasquez, meanwhile, got all his stats when Calderon was on the floor and Monty pulled him whenever Lowry would come in. Or later in the game, he put all 3 guards out there and then went to whomever Lowry wasn’t covering.
Either way- Rivers had a good game IMO and I would fully be behind McNamara’s trade idea of giving up our 1st for Lowry. Guy is a monster
I was at the game and Rivers was BAD tonight. He over thinks his moves and regularly misses easy finishes. He also embarrassingly turned the ball over late which could have cost us the game.
Trading our 1 this year for Lowery would be a terrible idea… He reminds a lot of Jarrett Jack in that he is not much of a facilitator. He is a top 15-20 point guard at best.
I did see the game. I just like to buttress my opinion with facts. Rivers had some nice plays early, but the only positive one that I remember after the 3rd quarter was a rebound (or two). He had missed shots, turnovers, missed passes to open bigs down low, and poor defensive play. He was a negative in crunch time. I think Gordon will be much better.
I wasn’t comparing Rivers and Vasquez, just responding to Jake’s request for comments on Rivers.
I trade Rivers for Lowry. Easily.
I liked the stretch in the 2nd where Rivers ran point. I liked what he has to offer but he has to go through a lot of growing pains first.
We are really hurting at the 3. This is very painful. I honestly believe Vasquez should play the three more. Like the three guard rotation we run, I say Rivers at the 1, Gordon 2, and Vasquez 3.
I have to say I respect Vasquez game but I don’t like him at point. He is really bad at initiating anything other than a high pick and roll. There was a number of times I watched Davis ask Vasquez why he doesn’t pass to him. I believe that Vasquez can be successful if he stop looking to score so much. I almost get the feeling that he’s trying to pad his stats
I get that feeling too. I’m pulling my brains out watching him dribble down the shot clock for at least 12-15 seconds before passing or running in circles. As mentioned all the time around here, for every positive he also creates a negative, and he makes some good/great passes sometimes, but he hogs the ball just as much. Its infuriating. He should know by now what his strengths and weaknesses are. He’s not quick or savvy when it comes to controlling the pace, and it frequently kills momentum.
I’ll like him much more once Gordon is making plays, and/or he’s coming off the bench for us. At least all of his current responsibilities will (theoretically) make him better in a lesser role.
Rivers actually looked pretty good tonight. His shooting mechanics are bad (especially considering his Dad is an NBA coach who played in the league) but hopefully that’s something the staff will address in the offseason. He made a couple of errors which ultimately put the game out of reach but he was by no means the reason for this loss.
Davis is getting better with every game he plays, it would be nice to see him on the court a little more (around 36 minutes per game would be nice).
Also nice to see Ryan get a couple of bounces going his way – I’m very excited to see what this team looks like with EJ in the mix!
Rivers had several possessions where he did a great job penetrating to the hoop – but it seemed like every decision he made after penetrating was the wrong one. A couple of times he took shots (that missed) when he probably could have made a short pass to Davis or Lopez for an easy basket. Then when he did decide to pass in the paint, it got intercepted by Lowry (I think) who turned it into an easy transition basket at the other end.
He did connect with Davis for a gorgeous alley-oop play to give him credit.
I think Davis’ blocked 3 that would have iced the game in regulation may have been even more clutch than the 3 made by anderson.
Loved Davis’s game tonight, but he’s gotta stop driving baseline and leaving his feet. I’m not sure I want Davis driving consistently, unless he’s one on one. Good ballhandler for his age and position, but he doesn’t seem to be able to dribble in traffic. Gotta get a clear out and use his quickness to beat his man. Don’t really want too many jumpers, though I like him taking the open ones without hesitation. Has improved a lot in his defensive rotations, and I wish other teams would stop using his man to set screens so much.. it takes him away from the basket, and that could be by design. Anyway, tough loss, but excited to see how we do with Gordon
Suggestion: trade JSmith for a PG. Then we can dump AFA and move GV to SF.
(Do I want to trade JSmith? Of course not. But you’ve got to give something of quality to get something of quality.)
I actually think Lopez would have an equal value on the open market to Smith – who is more valuable to this organization then he would be to the rest of the league.
Moving Lopez for a wing would be a good move and I’d also love to move our pick closer to the deadline for a long term PG solution.
This article got me so excited thinking about the possibility of a Lowry / Gordon backcourt.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1461025-raptors-looking-to-package-pg-kyle-lowry-in-trades-possible-trade-targets
Anybody think we could be in play here? Says they want size down low. We have surplus size. Am I just having pipe dreams here?
Did you read this one from last week?
http://www.hornets247.com/2012/12/22/the-missing-piece-gauging-the-value-of-our-first-rounder/
Just did. I’m all for it (even though I do really like Vasquez’s personality on the team). I would actually take Lowry over Bledsoe 10 times out of 10 with no hesitation. Just defensively, he and Gordon are just crazy to think about. And then offensively… wow. Those two guards’ driving games matched with AD rolling and Anderson ready for the kick out? What!?
I have to stop thinking about this unless it actually comes to fruition. I’m getting way too excited about this possibility. Haha
Lowry is a very good point guard. I saw how he could force Davis to take a tough fadeaway jumper. The guy is a beast.
Adding some of my observations.
Davis, had some nice moves, especially the jumper is now improved and there was nice turnaround move that gives a 2+1 play at the base line.
Bad move that popped into my eye was the one on Lowry, after he and Vasquez did a P&R, Lowry switched to defend him. Lowry was so strong, even at 6 foot, that he was able to back out Davis. Yeah, that hurt. I wish Davis can quickly getting bulky.
Rivers, was able to driving to the paint, but having difficulty avoiding the block or kicking out the ball, that resulting(3BA+some turnovers). Bad decision making. For this one, I wish Monty can have the team practice more the penetrating and kicking out for Vasquez, Rivers, Roberts and Gordon. Simply driving and kicking out will be fun to watch, especially, when you have 3 guards on court.
I loved Monty’s coaching in this game:
1) he finally let Davis jump. Sure it’s small, but Lopez doesn’t have much of a vertical whereas Anthony does and has the length. And he won the opener.
2) he was making very good subs. He tried to minimize the time Vasquez spent 1-1 with Lowry
3) he let rivers go out there as the sole person with the ability to run the point. I hope we can see this for at least a few minutes a game now and maybe for some extended time in certain games.
4) like Michael said on twitter, he didn’t pull rivers after his horrible decision to pass. I’m sure rivers thought he was toast and Monty sent him back out there. As Michael said, that’s thinking #longterm
5) he is very good at devising last second sh
Shots. That was a shot Anderson can make.
Overall I really enjoyed the game. I believe there are moral victories when you’re rebuilding and I feel we played well.
What I want to know is why is coach not playing Miller more? At least he’s able to shoot the ball.
On a side note, I hope Gordon plays tonight so we can see how lethal Gordon/Davis & Gordon/Anderson pick and roll will be!
I don’t know the reason either. Well, we don’t know what happened in practice.
Rivers has been somewhat disappointing and his play has been inconsistent in his rookie year. He is looked to be an important part of the team for the future so I think it’s important to give him the minutes and let him learn on the go. Hopefully Gordon will play hard and stay healthy to provide the spark on offense that the team lacks. The future looks bright but we will have to live with some losses for now to get wins in the future.
It’s amazing how some writers of this blog are always looking for excuses to discredit the good numbers of Greivis Vasquez.
They should be satisfied with the fact that our point guard has grabbed many rebounds. But prefer to belittle the Vasquez’ work. That’s what drives me crazy.
And the fact that we have a player like Lance Thomas as starter should also be blamed on Vasquez? What do you think?
You should be happy with Austin Rivers, which was destroyed by DeRozan. And this was clearly a factor in our defeat. But protected players cannot be criticized…