I know people are freaking out that we took the Marcus banner down, but we are keeping it in a vault for the playoffs and have preserved its Mojo. For now, lets thank Dariusz Ejkiewicz again for his work and move forward with a new false god to worship. The Italian Stallion, Marco Belinelli.
As for the game; these two met just eleven days ago in what may have been the most boring and unwatchable game of the season thus far. Even that Philadelphia game had some exciting dunks by some of the Sixers wing players. Against Detroit, the Hornets got off to a fast start and never really looked back, winning 93-74 in what may have been Marco Belinelli’s best game of the season.
Despite how well the Hornets looked on Friday night, I don’t expect this game to be as easy as the last meeting between the two for a couple of reasons. For one, Detroit is much better at home than they are on the road. Yes I know that they just lost to the Clippers at home by 21 Friday night, but before that they were a .500 team at home and lets not forget how horrible the Hornets looked last time they traveled to a poor Eastern Conference teams’ house.
Secondly, the Pistons actually did fairly well on the boards in the last matchup despite the fact that statistically they are 30th in the league in rebounding. In their last matchup, the Pistons got nearly 30 percent of the rebounds off the shots they missed. The Hornets, on the other hand, finished with only 4 offensive rebounds despite missing 37 shots. And finally, the Hornets have just been awful on Sunday’s: 75 points scored at Sacramento, a 14 point loss against the Spurs after leading by almost 20, a 25 point loss at San Antonio, and an 18 point loss at Philly in which they only scored 70 points. 1-3 in Sunday games, averaging 81 PPG. Not good.
For Ryan’s in depth look at each matchup, look here.
The great thing about the TrueHoop network is that we have experts at our fingertips for each and every team, so I decided to take advantage of that and hit up Dan Feldman of Piston Powered to answer a few questions on the Pistons:
Hornets 247: What has been Detroit’s best five-man lineup this season?
Dan Feldman: Oh boy, that’s a bit of a loaded question. Detroit has tinkered with its rotation so much already, I’m not sure there’s a relevant answer. I’ll go with Rodney Stuckey-Ben Gordon-Tracy McGrady-Charlie Villanueva-Greg Monroe, but I can’t guarantee you’ll see that group out there tonight. Stuckey is having his best season as a pro, and he plays a little better when he stays on the court with the reserves, who are more willing to push the pace and keep the ball moving.
24/7: How has Louisiana native Greg Monroe looked in his first season as a pro?
DF: I’m a huge Monroe fan. I liked him coming into the draft, and I’ve been more impressed since. Detroit kept him on the bench its first two games after he didn’t hustle much in the preseason, and he definitely got the message. Since entering the rotation, he’s rebounded like crazy and given maximum effort on defense. He seems a little flustered on offense, and he gets his shot blocked way, way, way, way, way — seriously, I might be leaving out a couple ways — too much. The Pistons don’t use him in the high post enough to take advantage of his passing, but I suspect that’s because it’s so obvious he’s not ready for NBA speed on that end. With the rest of the season to adjust and offseason to gain strength, I think he’ll be much improved next season.
24/7: When these two teams matched up nearly two weeks ago, Detroit only managed to score 74 points and only scored over 20 points in one quarter. Was that because of fatigue due to it being a back-to-back or has this been an ongoing problem for the Pistons?
DF: The Pistons probably blamed it on the back-to-back, but they’ve been all too quick to make excuses this year. That was a mentally-weak effort against New Orleans last time. My favorite stat from that game: no Piston had a positive plus-minus at halftime, and all the Pistons who played in the first also posted negative plus-minuses in the second half. Unfortunately, the effort hasn’t improved since. Pistons fans have been left debating whether blowing a 25-point second-half lead to the lowly Raptors or giving the Clippers their first road win since last March — by 21 points! — is Detroit’s lowest moment. That Hornets game is probably third, so that type of effort is an ongoing problem.
24/7: It seems like in several of Detroit’s wins this year, Charlie Villaneuva has gone off, and when they get blown out, he is a no-show in the box score. Is it safe to say that this team goes as Charlie V goes?
DF: I don’t know if I’d go that far. The Pistons’ wins have been so few and far between, I don’t think they’ve established a rhyme or reason to them. I will say this about Villanueva: he’s one of only two Pistons who plays hard every game, with Greg Monroe being the other. (Ben Wallace and Tracy McGrady would fit into that group if physical limitations didn’t slow them here and there.) But when Villanueva combines his energy with a shot that’s falling, he can be a pretty dynamic force.
24/7: You are the Pistons GM and New Orleans is on the phone. Offer me a trade or two that is reasonable for both sides, citing why it benefits both teams.
DF: These two teams probably aren’t a match as trading partners. Both have unstable ownership situations and probably want to trim salary because of that. Here’s the best I could come up with: Willie Green and Jason Smith for Jason Maxiell and DaJuan Summers. The Hornets get Maxiell, who has actually proven himself a very capable backup center, and Summers, who might be an OK backup wing if given minutes. Both those guys have been squeezed out of Detroit’s crowded rotation. The Pistons get Maxiell’s contract off the books, an alright backup shooting guard in case Richard Hamilton or Ben Gordon is traded and a 7-footer they can pray they can turn into a competent defender.
Final Notes:
– My fiancee is stepping in for Ryan, and we are recording our Podcast tonight after the game- PLEASE send in any questions you want answered. Either post them here or in the forum. Thank you.
– Hornets are 4.5 point favorites, a full point higher than the line’s opening at 3.5. The gamblers are betting heavy on the Hornets. Just a crazy, random fact- both teams are .500 this season Against the Spread: Hornets 12-12-1 and Detroit is 13-13.
– Expect a low scoring game. If you remove last years game at Detroit, neither team has scored more than 95 points against the other in the last 3 years.
83 responses to “Game On: Hornets @ Pistons”
They are small at center and power forward should be a good game for d west and meka
I finally get to attend a Hornets game! I’ll be wearing my CP3 jersey and booing the Pistons all game. I know my friends will be embarrassed since I’ll probably be the only Hornet fan, oh well for them. Don’t let me down Hornets, I don’t feel like hearing all the trash talking on the way home.
Wondering why a Hornets blowout victory would be “boring and unwatchable”? I love watching our guys go off and the other team getting nothing. For sure, I hope that happens again.
It was definitely great to see the blowout… but it was just a really boring game otherwise. I’m fine with that of course, but yeah I found it to be one of the least interesting games all year.
This is the first of a stretch of games that are very winnable. We can run the streak up to 7, the record up to 21-10, and get some more time with the ‘new rotations’ before the Lakers come to town, we head to Boston, and we hit the capital to round out the back-to-back.
The Hawks are the toughest matchup there, but hopefully we’ll have a little something for them.
I’m more than a little concerned about Bill Laimbeer.
Bad Foul Marco…….
Outrebounding them so far, which is nice.
anyone have a link to a stream of the game
atdhe.net
WOOOAAAHHH HORNETS!!!
havnt been on here in a while
wow that up fake by west just made greg monroe look silly
Agreed. Great move by DX.
Well, that first quarter was quite Emeka (average).
why was willie green calling an iso play for himself at the end of the quarter?
Because he’s Willie Green.
can I just take a moment to say how much I hate cox-sports?
what a low-rent operation. Is there any other market where all the games are not televised (or where many games or still not in hd)?
The Spurs have a couple of stations to broadcast their games. Nevertheless, not all of their games are locally or nationally broadcast. They have one remaining. That could change, of course.
Also, should things go south for them, they could get dropped from a national broadcast.
Just looking around the division, only the Rockets and Mavericks have all their games either nationally or locally broadcast and they have 2 stations doing it.
We and the Grizzlies have only one station doing local broadcasts and be both miss quite a few games.
The Spurs, as I mentioned, have 2 stations doing their local broadcasts and only have one unaired game remaining at this time.
I counted 14 teams with one station broadcasting all their games locally, except for some national games.
Of the 16 remaining teams, 10 have a second network picking up the slack. 6 teams, of which we are one, have to deal with games not broadcast locally for reasons other than the game being broadcast nationally. The others are the Spurs, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Pacers and Bucks.
Of those, the Spurs may not have that big of a problem.
The Detroit Pistons coach looks like Archie Bunker. LMFAO!
D-West off to a nice start with 11 and 3 mid-way through Q2.
West is playing really well. 15 pts, 4 rebs at half.
wow so long 10 point lead, plus trevor i know you played with kobe, but stop trying to shoot fadeaways like kobe, k thnx bye
yalls feed go down?
Yup. On and off here.
Bynum slips and Leon Woods’ blind cheating arse calls a foul on CP. SMH.
Too bad we can’t blow these guys out so the starters can get some rest for tomorrows game.
Seems as though we’re given ALOT of dribble drives and drive and kick. We need to stop the ball better
On cue they switch to a zone
Way to drive it at him Marcus.
Need CP3 back in the game.
free chicken?
Well, middle finger to all of you who wanted an interesting and watchable game. I’ll take my blowouts.
I agree. I like boring games. If I want to watch something thrilling, I have the other games in the NBA.
I wonder if Chris should have gone for the assist there or taken it to the rim.
If he would have there would have been at least 5 people here saying he should have taken it if the person he passed to missed it.
If he would have gone for the assist and someone else would have missed everyone would be wanting to cruciy him for not taking over the game in the clutch. I think he made the right move, its the 1 in 50 times it didnt work out for him.
He is good, but he’s not a 98% scorer.
CP3 is damned if he do, damned if he don’t over here.
NOOOOOO!!!!
We don’t need to be in overtime with these guys on their homecourt. Jesus.
Hornets better play tight stern D.
yea so willie green cant hit freethrows and marco cant stay infront of Gordon. great
oh no, down by 5 in o.t. we need offense from marcus
Come on Xavier Hall of Famer!
GOT DAMN IT WHY DID U CHANGE THE BANNER
calm down, we still in this
Yeah. Should’ve left it up at least until the Hornets returned home.
trevor with the HUSTLE!
DX rocks.
it’s hard to overvalue how much trevor’s d has helped get w’s!
love the moving screen
So effed up.
damn
For the 100th time this season…Ariza cant inbound pass the ball. Someone tell me why he’s still always taking it out please!
Unfortunately, I have been asking myself that too. TAKE THE TIMEOUT THERE MAN!!!!!! Pretty sad last 8 or so minutes of that game. Poorly played hornets against a pretty bad team. And Chris Paul seemed to get affected way too much by that block at the end of regulation as he didn’t try scoring as much as he should have. Pretty bad game by the Hornets. You cannot lose games like this since the Western Conference is so competitive – have to beat the bad Easter Conference teams – even if it is on the road. Speaking of which, we are pretty terrible on the road.
Face. In. Palm.
No effing business losing this game. None.
How can a professional be so horrible at inbounding the basketball? This has to be at least 5 – 6 times that Ariza has choked the inbounds pass. Horrible loss.
Ariza is inbounding because he’s a terrible recipient of the inbounds pass. He doesn’t pass well, his offensive game is moot, and his FT% is abysmal (if the opposing team wants to just foul the recipient).
Actually, I’m not sure why he’s even playing during clutch, since he’s such a terrible offensive player.
I agree. We’re trying too hard to involve Ariza in offense. Heck, you’re right in that he probably shouldn’t even be playing in the clutch. Even if the Hornets had to be crucial in clutch on defense (which is more his thing) instead of Trevor drawing a charge he’d probably screw that up and get called for a blocking foul. SMH.
wow once again ariza with a bad pass on an inbounds, is monty a f’ing retard or does he just not notice how bad ariza is at passing the ball in
I don’t know how long it’s gonna take for Monty to realize this.
why not put marcus in for the final shot? i’d sure as hell rather him taking it over ariza
Well Monty. Way to let your “defense first team” give up 31 and 28 to one of the worst teams in the league, missing three key players.
unreal, you have got to be kidding me
why not play marcus in over time
Good question.
I thought he should’ve been in too.
Thanks for missing 2 critical FTs and letting Gordon hitting the game tying 3 Willie!
No sh*t. Down the stretch the Hornets could’ve been up 4 twice but 2 missed free throws leaving you up only 3 only leaves the d*mn door open.
Please explain to me what Willie does so well that MT5 doesnt or cant do??? Willie needs to move to the end of the bench…he was good for us the first few weeks he was here, but its clearly time to give his minutes to someone else. Its not that hard to see, yet Monty is in love with this guy! smh. How can another player do these type of things to the team and gets yanked, yet Willie F’s us up all the time and he still gets all this time. Favoritism to the fullest.
Damn Saints and The Hornets today. Gonna be a Horrible weak…
At least we are undefeated when Marcus plays over 21 min or more.
I’m starting to really question some of Monty’s decisions. Absolutely no way you have Marcus out of the game with .5 to go, and why have Green and Belinelli in there at the end of regulation, both of which had their hand in losing the lead at the end of regulation.
Just when you get excited about this team again (i.e. the last home game blowout win vs Utah), they do this to us. So disappointing! Another thing…MT5 only 12 minutes…wtf??? Can we just go ahead and trade Willie Green tomorrow so MT5 is forced to be in the game more. Why is it that the fans love him and see his impact on games, yet the coach doesn’t??
Even the pistons missing every free throw down the stretch couldn’t help us win. We were lucky to even be in it at the end willie green double dribbled as well. When will Okafor learn not move on those screens?
You’re right. How many of those does he get each game? It drives me crazy! He’s been in the league long enough. It’s CP3’s fault though. LOL! Somehow, it’ll be his fault.
and 3 seconds
I don’t get why belinelli is in there whether it was bynum or gordon they were just blowing by him if Monty complains about Thorntons defense well hes looking like a hypocrit with belinelli in there. What do you guys think?
maybe monty only plays marcus at home because he doesn’t want the fans to Mutiny
Yeah that must be it. Hahaha!
The only d*mn basket Maxiell makes all night and he’s celebrating like he’s never done anything before. Good for you Jason. SMH.
I’m surprised Ariza doesn’t lead the league in turnovers. He seems to make so many dumb ones.
A few thoughts
1) Monty had some awful awful play calls. Really running an iso with one screen for chris to take it to the rack? so easy to defend. Running one on ones all ot and end of regulation with d west? why not call an actual play? Awful coaching this game sorry monty
2) Willie… make a FREAKING FT. 2-4 down the stretch is awful and u let that corner three jesus christ ur a big reason we lost the game
3) please can we stop playing belly. he is not good. he was getting burned on the defensive end and can not do anything good offensively for the life of him
4) someone needs to tell ariza to just play defense thats all he is good at
The Hornets have to have the right personnel in the games in crunch time. They have to run the right plays for the right personnel in crunch time.