Hornets Rock Rock City

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Published: February 11, 2013

The 105-86 victory by the New Orleans Hornets over the Detroit Pistons brings the road trip record to 2-1. The now 18-34 Hornets return to New Orleans Wednesday night to take on the Trail Blazers at 7 p.m. This final game before the All-Star break will be televised.

The Hornets just flat out out-shot the unimpressive Pistons.

Shooting: The Hornets shot 13 of 14 (92.9%) from 1, 31 of 62 (50%) from 2, and 10 of 21 (47.6%) from 3. The Pistons were far worse, going 23 of 33 (69.7%) from 1, 24 of 62 (38.7%) from 2, and 5 of 19 (26.3%) from 3.

Rebounds: The efforts were nearly even, but Hornets scooped up 10 ORB, 39 DRB, 49 TRB, while the Pistons got 14 ORB, 27 DRB, and 41 TRB. On a percentage basis to Hornets owned only a slight edge, with the Hornets had a 27% ORB% compared to 26.4% ORB% by the Pistons. Changing the shooting role, same data shows the Hornets had a 73.6% DRB% compared to 73% by the Pistons. The Pistons just missed more shots which pumped up the raw ORB numbers for them and the DRB numbers for the Hornets.

Other: The Hornets had superior assist numbers (26 to 21) and blocks (10 to 3) while the Pistons had the edge in terms of steals (13 to 7) and total turnovers (13 to 16).

The Hornets were led by Ryan Anderson’s 31 points coming from 8 of 12 from 2 and 5 of 9 from 3. He was not alone, however, in efficient scoring. Lopez’s 23 points came from a perfect 5 shots from the line and going 9 of 13 from the field. Aminu was perfect in his 4 free throw attempts and went 4 of 7 from the field for 12 points. Roger Mason, Jr. converted his lone free throw attempt, went 2 of 5 from 2 and 3 of 4 from three for his 14 points.

Aminu led all players with 14 rebounds, Vasquez with 13 assists compared to 4 turnovers.

There can be not light without dark, however. Eric Gordon’s continued inability to play in the second game of back-to-backs limits the team’s options. The team’s performance tonight shows that this is not critical, but it would be nice to have over 20% of the team’s salary available to play.

Austin Rivers was far from fantastic, but he continues to show flashes of adequacy. In the pre-game, Monty attributed his recent improvement to hard work, while Austin attributed it to taking some hard looks at himself in the mirror.

And then there’s Anthony Davis and all 17:20 of his play. In a game where the team shot incredibly, he went 0 of 7 from the field and 1 of 2 from the line . . . that was the team’s lone miss from the the line on the night. He did have 8 rebounds (all defensive), an assist, a steal, a game-leading 4 blocks, and a single turnover. His 3 fouls in 17 minutes were a bit much.

Here’s how the game started. Maxiell scored . . . Davis missed a 20ft jumper . . . Davis fouled Monroe on a made layup (he missed the free throw) . . . Davis turned the ball over after Aminu grabbed the missed free throw. That took 72 seconds and put the Hornets down 4-0. Shortly after the took a late-in-the-shot-clock three point attempt and missed the rim. He managed 2 rebounds, a block, and an assist before being yanked after 6:38 for the rest of the quarter.

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