If you have children, cover their eyes. The Hornets lost to the Memphis Grizzlies last night, in Memphis, home of the Memphis Grizzlies. It was a tie ballgame with two minutes left, but some timely free throw shooting and a couple of dunks by Hakim Warrick sealed it for the home team. A buzzer-beating triple by Rasual Butler made the final 104-108 score seem a little more respectable than it actually was.
The Hornets, now 24-28, dropped a game behind the eighth-place Clippers and a half game behind the T-Wolves in the latest standings.
Let's wrap this one up…
- Linkage: box | recap | video
- Darnell Mayberry thinks the loss may be just the kick in the ass the Hornets need heading into the All-Star break. I'm buying into that theory, if only to keep me from head-butting the wall.
- Tyson Chandler is just insane right now. 17 points and 23 rebounds (12 offensive!) last night. The AP report claims the 17 points matched a career high, but methinks he scored 27 with the Bulls once. His 17 field goal attempts last night were a career high however, while the 23 boards set a new career high and tied the franchise record.
Like I said: Insane.
- On the flip side, the starting backcourt played awful. Chris Paul had one of his worst games of the season. He did of course have 10 assists, but he shot 0-of-7 from the field and finished with just 5 points. Meanwhile, Devin Brown did manage to hit a fiel goal (1-of-7 FGs) but finished with just 2 points and little else.
What's worse is that the Grizzlies starting point guard Damon Stoudamire missed the game with the flu, so Chucky frickin' Atkins and Junior frickin' Harrington were running the show for Memphis. They combined for 30 points and 9 assists.
- Back in the sunlight, and it's muchos kudos for Desmond Mason and David West, who scored 23 and 22 respectively. DX also had 11 rebounds and 5 assists, just for the hell of it.
- For the GriZZ, Mike Miller led the way with 22 points, Rudy Gay scored 18 and the aforementioned Hakim Warrick scored 15 and grabbed 12. Pau Gasol had 11 points and 15 revounds. Yes, revounds.
- The win gave Memphis their first victory over a Southwest Division opponent this season. They were 0-13 going in. However, Tony Barone was once again the ugliest head coach in the building, bringing the Grizzlies' record in those matchups to a League-worst 0-53.
- Jannero Pargo and Rasual Butler scored 11 and 10 respectively. Pargo had gone four games without scoring in double figures. Butler had been in single digits the last six.
- Ced Simmons wasn't with the team in Memphis, staying home with a dose of the flu. Surprisingly, his absence did not affect Byron Scott's rotation.
- The Hornets are now 11-16 against sub .500 teams, which of course means they have a winning record against teams above .500. Figure that one out.
In other news, neither Chris Paul nor Deron Williams were named as replacements for the All-Star game, David Stern instead choosing pure point guards Ray Allen and Mehmet Okur. Plenty of discussion about this over at the ever-popular HR boards.
Paul was however named as Steve Nash's replacement in the Skills Challenge thing, which is probably the dumbest event of the whole weekend. Chris being Chris, he's saying being selected is an honor and everything, but I'm sure he'd rather be kicking it back home in Winston-Salem this Saturday.
Before the Hornets get to the All-Star break, there is the small matter of playing the Kings tonight in Oklahoma City. I should have time to preview that later, but if not, know that tip is at 7pm and the Hornets will be the team wearing red.
Honestly, I'm more interested in what the Honeybees will be wearing.