The Hornets beat the Pistons

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Published: December 8, 2010

Detroit’s starters are kind of depressing.  While Maxiel and Wallace worked hard here and there and Hamilton ran around alot there wasn’t a feeling that they were a team – or that they cared much.  Most of their shots were of the sort where they let the defender square up on them, and then they took a fadeaway. All of them did that. Only Ben Gordon seemed to realize it’s easier to shoot when someone isn’t right on you.

The fadeaways dropped for a little while, but then they stopped, and the game was over – and Detroit seemed fine with it.  The showed no real push or desire to get back into it.  They did run a few plays to get open threes that had the potential to cut into the lead, but when those shots bricked, they seemed fine with that too.  Kind of a lame game.  The result was a 93-74(Box Score) win for the Hornets.

Still, the Hornets did what they needed to and brought the fire when they needed it to push the lead and keep it there.

Marco Belinelli

Marco found his way out of his slump by taking and making his open shots – and there were a lot of open shots for him to get.  Rip Hamilton wasn’t much interested in chasing him through screens – or even closing out on him – and Belinelli took advantage.  He was hitting his three’s, pump faking and dribbling his way to better shots, and even had a couple nice passes for easy looks.  He also did a great job tracking Rip through all his screens defensively, and while he got hung up a few times,  he helped harass Mr. McNamara’s favorite Piston into a 6-14 shooting night for 13 points.  Marco went 8-12 for 22 points.

I’ll still say it would have been nice to Marco him come up with – I don’t know – ONE rebound in his 27 minutes.  Just one?  Baby steps?

Chris Paul

Ha!  I bet you thought I’d say David West.  Yeah, West abused the hell out of the powerless forwards of the Pistons – but Bob Licht said something I wanted to repeat.  Name me a player in the league that could so thoroughly dominate a game while making only 2 field goals.  Because he did.  He carved up the Pistons like it was Thanksgiving.  Sometimes, a single one of his drives would create two or three open shots.  Yes, part of that was because the Pistons suck at defense, but part is just because he’s impossible to anticipate.  He and Ariza ended +24 for the game, and boy did it feel like it.

Other Observations

  • Fluffy wasn’t even trying that hard, and he still rumbled to 25 points.  He also had some nice passes for easy baskets.  Anyone notice, though, on that nice inbound play to Belinelli that ended with a dunk by Okafor that David West got bumped out of bounds by Maxiel and he just stood there, out of bounds, watching until the play was done?  It was a good 7 seconds.  I mean, what the hell?
  • Jack shoots threes on tippy-toe.  It’s weird.  He missed both tonight.  I wasn’t surprised.
  • David Andersen kicks both his feet forward when he shoots a three.  It’s weird.  He hit his three tonight.  I was surprised.
  • I liked everything Pondexter was doing, but the kid has to finish those dunks – or switch to layups.
  • During the first half Ariza quietly took turns shutting Prince, Villaneuva and Austin Daye down.  It was like a game for him, I watched multiple plays where he simply cut and ran to where the other guy wanted the ball, and met him there, making it impossible for him to even receive it.  In the second half, he caught Piston-itis and stopped caring as much though.
  • Monty looked pretty pissed with about 6 minutes to go and the Pistons having cut the lead to 15.  He inserted Ariza, Paul, Okafor, and a minute later, David West.  2:45 later, they left the game again up 23.  I’m still trying to figure out what he was so mad about though.
  • Jason Smith’s blocks to end the game were fun.
  • The paucity of the crowd was not fun.  Yeah, it’s the Pistons, but come on.

Anyways, more serious competition rolls into town Friday for a rematch.  Let’s hope we pull out another Win.  Have a good night.

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