The New Orleans Hornets stomped the Orlando Magic 93-67 behind strong performances by their ball handlers and a n excellent defensive effort.
It was a long time coming, but he Hornets finally pulled through today and got a 2012 home win. They did it behind a relatively great performance by everyone handling the rock, and a strong showing by the defense. Dwight Howard got his, of course, but he was limited in the damage he did inside. The Hornets didn’t give him easy buckets, and in the end the Magic just didn’t bring the intensity that New Orleans did. Other than Dwight, not a single Magic player scored in double figures.
How it ended: The Hornets went on a 21-4 run beginning midway through the second quarter and ending when Chris Duhon hit a jumper with just under nine minutes to go in the third. Then Okafor missed two free throws and Howard got a three point play, cutting the lead to 15. Belinelli hit a three the next time down the floor, ending the small Magic run. Orlando would never recover.
When it really ended, nearly everyone had stayed (even though the game was a blowout), and all of them were on their feet to give the Hornets a much deserved round of applause. The fans did a great job tonight. I know the players and coaches appreciated everyone sticking around. Confetti even came down!
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Trevor Ariza, SF 27 MIN | 2-9 FG | 1-2 FT | 9 REB | 2 AST | 5 PTS | +12Trevor wasn’t there on offense tonight, but he was in the middle of passing lanes, suffocating his mark, and all over the boards. He’s never going to be a go-to guy on offense, but when he plays D like he did tonight he’s a valuable asset to any team. |  |
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Jason Smith, PF 29 MIN | 7-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 14 PTS | +26When Okafor wasn’t on Howard, Smith was. I know what you’re thinking—“But Joe, the Hornets won! How is this possible?” Truly Smith matched up pretty well on Dwight. His length and athleticism kept Dwight from getting the ball inside enough to really hurt the Hornets. Smith even had a sweet block on Superman that brought laughter (among other things) from the crowd. Offensively he got way above the rim for a put back and hit a six of his eight jumpers. |  |
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Emeka Okafor, C 31 MIN | 4-7 FG | 1-6 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 9 PTS | +12Normally Okafor gets rocked by Dwight, but today he wasn’t half bad. Not only did he do work on the defensive end, forcing Howard to make tough shots as opposed to the thunderous dunks we’re used to seeing by Dwight in Nola, but he kept Dwight busy on the defensive end as well by adding nine first half points. Monty said before the game that Emeka had evolved as an offensive player like nobody ever thought he would coming out of Charlotte, so I’ll assume Monty jinxed his free throw shooting. |  |
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Jarrett Jack, PG 24 MIN | 5-10 FG | 1-2 FT | 5 REB | 9 AST | 11 PTS | +19Jack was the steady hand tonight, hitting jumpers when the Hornets seemed to be having a hard time getting back on track offensively. Mostly though, he was a distributor, and a damn fine one at that. The 9-1 assist to turnover ratio is certainly one of his best of the year. He really played well on both ends of the floor. | |
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Marco Belinelli, SG 29 MIN | 5-12 FG | 1-3 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 15 PTS | +12Marco came to play tonight, hitting two of his first three’s and helping the Hornets build and pad a lead throughout the game. Throughout the game, he continued to play well on both ends. In the end it was one of his better performances of the year. His threes are similar to Peja’s in that they get the crowd particularly riled up. | |
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Carl Landry, PF 25 MIN | 8-13 FG | 1-1 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 17 PTS | +7With about 6:50 to go the crowd came to it’s feet following Greivis Vasquez sprawling on the floor to recover a loose ball. Carl Landry then delivered his most memorable moment of the year—an offensive put back slam that brought reporters to their feet. Other than that, Landry had a quiet, but effective game. He didn’t get to the line, but got the points the Hornets needed from him when he got the rock. I’ll ignore the lack of rebounding in the first 11/12ths of the game. Tonight they didn’t need it. | |
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DaJuan Summers, F 2 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 3 PTS | +3Didn’t see much time, but hit a nice three pointer late in the game. I’m feeling generous. |  |
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Greivis Vasquez, PG 27 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-1 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 8 PTS | +10Vasquez struggled again with his shot, but played quality defense, especially in regard to getting in passing lanes. He got the floater to fall and held onto the rock, so it was a good game overall, even if he missed more than one open three. | |
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Gustavo Ayon, PF 9 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 PTS | +4He was active, but seemed out of his rhythm on offense. Didn’t see much time. |  |
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Al-Farouq Aminu, SF 28 MIN | 4-8 FG | 1-1 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 9 PTS | +21Aminu was up and down, driving strong to the hoop and finishing with a man in his face one time down the floor, and then kicking it away the next. Playing solid defense, and then losing his man. He continues to impress me with his instincts on the glass, but there’s work to be done. I can’t wait to see what he and Monty have planned for this summer. | |
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Xavier Henry, SG 9 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS | +4Henry made his first shot in New Orleans arena as a Hornet. Nice! That’s worth an A-plus for sure. | |
Five Things We Saw
- Dell Demps on Chris Kaman- “We had a conversation with Chris and expressed that the Hornets are going to go in a different direction. We mutually decided for a number of reasons that we are not going to play Chris as we pursue a trade. Chris has been the ultimate professional during this process and we thank him for the way he has handled this situation.”
- Hornets have a new mascot on the court, who appears to be a female Hugo/Hugo’s love interest, Bee-atrice. She busted out on the floor in between air-hugo and air-mini-hugo. This sort of seems familiar, but I can’t remember it. Unless I’m wrong, she’s new.
- Fittingly, Earl Clark was rejected by the rim on a breakaway dunk with about four minutes to play.
- Will Ferrell was at the Hive sitting next to Morris Bart. He (along with Weber) was among the last people to stand up for the opening tip. #NOOB
- I got a Creole Blue Crawfish today for my fishtank today. If he gets too big I’m going to eat him. Also, I found out that I can’t have a beer while watching the game in the press area. What? I needed a fifth thing…
38 responses to “New Orleans Hornets Stomp the Magic at Home”
Haha missed the early recaps that come before the game is over.
Must a timezone thing for you! Dateline!
I have just one observation….
I would have never thought it possible to shoot 37.5% (6-16) from the free throw line in the NBA and still win by 26.
helps when other team doin the same at ft line
Yeah, but I can understand LOSING by 26 when you shoot that poorly from the charity stripe.
Great victory, but looking at the box score the Hornets shot below 38% from the free throw line for the game; that is awful. I am very worried about the Timberwolves and I think we should look at trading the pick, a lineup up of Rubio, Williams, Wes Johnson, Pekovic and Love is very intimidating to me and by the look of it I wouldn’t be surprised if the pick ends up falling outside the lottery.
basta$*s won again tonight
attendance?
16176
http://www.nba.com/games/20120127/ORLNOH/gameinfo.html
Ahem . . . anyone recall the attendance prediction?
11868 is the Atlanta target attendance, 177 under the lowest attended game thus far, and 1167 under the lowest `weekend’ total.
Had this in the other thread.
Any chance that this is the main thing holding up a new lease? They wanted to see if we met the attendance clause?
doubt it has much to do with it robert. i’m just sweating it out because it would be a lot easier for stern to pull out his seattle excuse and sell the team to someone who’d like to move if we failed the benchmark and they could buy out of the lease. if hesnstraightshooting and they plan to sell to someone who wants to stay local and pair that with a lease extension, then the matter of a few hundred #s is pretty insignificant
nice
Your assessment is corrent, Bee dat.
Robert, the attendance isn’t affecting the deal, plus the lease should be settled before the sale, or `simultaneous’ with it.
Bee dat, like me, lives by a philosophy: Protect ya neck.
I’ve been keeping an eye on our neck, doing some analysis, and giving Bee dat some particulars to sweat about.
yes when it comes to hornets bball matters i’m an eternal optimist about matters on the court and as cynical and pessimistic as one can be about what might happen off the court
You count those words?
I’m with you. No worries. I just want to make sure you suffer about proper things!
So, after those posts, and with one game to go . . . what do you think?
relieved, but not as much as i’ll be after sundays game. thanks again for satisfying my cravings for updates on the matter
I feel the same way.
I don’t QUITE trust that the weekend attendance won’t drop below 12,000 even though we have to be sitting really close to out mathematical floor for attendance. Have to be.
Plus, with the team actually trying to pack the house, they’d work something else. For the guys working the team, it’s a pride thing. They don’t want to `fail’ by any standard. I think them and the sponsors won’t let it.
Still, I think Sunday will be over 13,000, perhaps close to 14,000. Who knows what effect the win will have, too!
I loved the energy tonight. I know we don’t want to win too much, but damn this game made me feel good.
+ 26 for j smitty, nice work, he’s playing with great energy.
i know lead cheerleader trey johnson may be gone, but what other 4 win team gets as excited as our bench on a night to night basis. have to love our guys spirit
Did you all see j jack going over and encouraging j smitty, even while jj was on the bench? I love their chemistry. They’re working really well together. On the pick and pop, jack knows where smitty is going to be, and he had some beautiful no look assists. Smitty’s catch and shoot game is getting better.
I see improvement game to game, and I’m happy to be in the stands! Now with the free throws…. Oy vey.
Oh, and coach, love what you’re doing, but in your post game interview you gave a s.o. To just about everyone but smitty! C’mon, man!!
turkeyglue had a -32 hahaha
Alot stood out tonight so I’ll just note that I thought GV looked real comfortable tonight running the offense. In fact he demanded the ball and, of course, wasn’t shy about spotting up and taking his 3s.
Happened to watch the game with a good friend from Philly who’s a 76er die-hard (in fact he was wearing his Moses Malone jersey). Says 76ers need an offensive minded BIG in the worst way with Hawes going down. Don’t know if they have any expiring contracts that would be attractive to us, tho. Meantime, good job guys on the court tonight, love my Hornets.
they have nocioni expiring at 6.6, i think thats close enough to fill out the deal with brackins and a pick, or much more ideally but also unlikely, evan turner if they’re ready to give up on him, he has been a slight disappointment to them
Dont think Monty/Dell are going to want Brackins considering they’ve already traded him once before.
While Nocioni is an excellent defensive player, the fact is the 76ers don’t have the big the Hornets need.
I wonder if the Hornets can get Kirk Hinrich from Atlanta. He’s a combo guard, can play defense on the 1s, 2s, and 3s, and shoot 3-Pointers.
Maybe Chris Kaman to Atlanta for Kirk Hinrich plus a big?
I think Bee-atrice makes an appearance from time to time. I remember thinking she’d show up alot, but she seems to be getting the shaft on most nights.
That was a good game i want to see that more often but with wins.
J?
J?!?!
You ok?!
Who’s making you say this stuff?!
Couldnt agree more bro!
If we had a healthy Eric Gordon we could be contending for a low playoff seed.
It’s not often that I get to watch our Hornets play on TV, but tonight was definitely a pleasant treat. Geaux Bees! 🙂
i love beating Dwight and Orlando…seems like the hornets have been pretty successful in Nola against them recently them. but nice win!
p.s. I’m from MN! haha and before anyone gets crazy i love the hornets more than the wolves and always will! but things are gettin pretty interesting up here in sota’ and its nice to see! i also must admit rubio is becoming my fav. nba player…but i blame cp3 and dwest for that
How ’bout all those Aminu minutes at the two. Where’s Henry?
funny how when every position contributes equally the hornets do this, lets hope for more of this balanced team play
Great game tonight..it felt like a playoff atmosphere and I thought we had won the nba championship after the game when the confetti came down..also vazquez looked real sharp tonight..did u see that pass to bellinelli on the fast break..so sweet
I agree about Vasquez. The guy is the best passer on the team. He certainly needs to cut down on the turnovers, but I feel like we get quality shots when he’s allowed to be a playmaker. His shooting has been brutal this season, but I’m willing to live with that if he’s consistently creating scoring opportunties with his passing and is willing to take less shots. As a bonus, he also seems to play really well with Ayon. How do you say pick and roll in Spanish?
The Thornton banner strikes again.
[…] New Orleans Hornets Stomp the Magic at HomeBy Joe GerrityPosted by Joe Gerrity January 27, 2012 at 21:10 Central. The New Orleans Hornets stomped the Orlando Magic 93-67 behind strong performances by their ball handlers and a n excellent defensive effort. Carl Landry With a Put Back Dunk …Hornets247.com » Blog […]