Game On: Hornets @ Wizards

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Published: March 15, 2013

On the Ides of March, The Hornets head to Washington D.C. to take on some familiar faces in the likes of Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor. Will the Wizards stab New Orleans with a knife made of victory? Or will the knife be in the form of a loss and a blow to the Hornets’ lottery chances?

3 Things to Watch For

How the Hornets Defend Ariza

I think we all know by now that Ariza is not a good 3-point shooter. He gets hot from time to time but, yeah, he stinks. Monty and the rest the coaches should know this well. So does Monty give Ariza tons of space every time he’s 18 feet or more away from the basket? Or does it try and defend him close? I’m hoping it’s the former.

Let the Wizards Shoot

The Wizards are the second worst shooting team in the league, and they dig the mid to long range jumper. This plays exactly into Monty’s defend the paint defensive scheme. Expect the Wizards to take a ton of jump shots tonight. As long as they don’t get unnaturally hot from 16-23 feet, the Hornets defense should be able to keep the Wizards’ point total low.

Creative Offense

Washington has been much better recently than their 21-42 record indicates. Since John Wall has returned the Wizards defense has become surprisingly strong and their team defensive rating is currently 4th in the league. The Wizards have Nene and Okafor protecting the paint so I’d like to see the Hornets break out the off ball movement offense they ran against the Lakers to neutralize Dwight Howard. If Monty doesn’t want me to have any doubts about him going into next season I need to see the flashes of brilliance more often.

 

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