The Suns take on the Hornets tonight after a long day of rain in New Orleans.
The Hornets take on Steve Nash and the Suns tonight in front of what I expect will be a sparse crowd. It’s been raining all day, Buzzfest was cancelled, and the Suns are no longer what you would call a big draw. Regardless, the Hornets will have a real chance tonight to get their add a win to their so far disappointing total of four.
Steve Nash will play, but he’s hurt. Monty also told reporters before the game that there would be a lineup change, although he declined to say what it would be. An hour before tip-off the lineup card still said Jack-Beli-Ariza-Smith-Okafor. Presumably Jack, Ariza, and Okafor are safe.
Those in attendance tonight get a free pedometer courtesy of Ochsner. I also got one. Yes… now I’ll truly know how lazy I am. Thanks, Ochsner!
Bullets
- The Hornets are now 4-17, dead last in the Western Conference and second to last overall.
- In the last 15 games off the bench Landry is averaging 10.9 points. That makes him the second leading scorer over that time period. That not many points for a number two.
- The Hornets have yet to win a game in which they trailed at the half.
19 responses to “Game On: Suns @ Hornets”
Joe has read those attendance posts and can now effectively predict attendance.
I’m touched.
So, Jack starts… We play fairly decent…
Vasquez comes in… Ball movement picks up along with pace… Hornets build double digit lead…
Jack comes back in, lead begins to diminish toward end of half…
Jack starts second half… Hornets lose lead…
Vasquez comes in… Hornets regain lead…
Currently neck and neck
Hmmm…
Vasquez 10 ast through 3… Should be 11 with that bogus foul on landry…
Lets see how this game ends… I’m feeling slightly validated through 3 quarters..
but it’s only 3 quarters…
Should be noted, suns defense is non existent tonight… But it’s a fair playing field for both PGs..
And right on queue… Jack enters the game.. We go from neck and neck to down double digits… Not to mention I don’t think the hornets have gotten a shot off since vasquez sat down… Turnover after turnover…
Here’s what I see in the play-by-by:
At 8:14 left, we are only down one thanks to a GV3 courtesy a Marco assist.
From then to our next points scored with 4:52 remaining, 202 seconds later, here’s what happened in the play-by-play as far as scoring attempts, fouls, and turnovers:
Shooting foul committed by Marco Belinelli
Carl Landry misses a jump shot from 19 feet out
Greivis Vasquez misses a layup shot from 1 foot out
Greivis Vasquez with a lost ball out of bounds turnover: Lost Ball Out of Bounds
Shooting foul committed by Emeka Okafor
Then after Vasquez is removed with 6:26 remaing in favor of Ariza, 108 seconds and 5 Suns points later (count the dead clock points during the time period containing the foul), three at the line . . .
Shooting foul committed by Marco Belinelli
Trevor Ariza with a bad pass turnover: Bad Pass
Loose Ball foul committed by Jason Smith
Emeka Okafor misses a jump shot from 13 feet out
Until Smith makes a layup off an Emeka assist after the Suns put up another 8 (3 more at the line), bringing them to 105, a score good enough to win the game.
Half that time GV was on the floor and the same number fouls were in each part of the period described, the same number of Hornets turnovers, with one more missed shot by us and a made 3 by them being the difference.
This was the game getting out of hand. Fouls, turnovers, missed shots incluing a layup.
Lol, still doesn’t dispute my findings…
Didn’t try to. Just presented facts about the 13-0 run in the 4th, which happened after your post. I was adding, focusing on the J v V thing, which didn’t really present itself there.
I do think this run is at least as important as any other, however.
But it did throughout the game as a whole
Evidence? Are we going to count his impressive +/- tonight?
GV had a good game. JJ had good other games. Willie G lit these fools up.
Pointing to best games by folks doesn’t add to the body of work or `fit’ conversations, in my opinion. I hope GV is the greatest player ever. A bad games doesn’t make him garbage either.
I just don’t think the clock starts on him until he’s played in about 20 games for us, makes it into other teams’ scouting reports, etc. I don’t want to overestimate the guy or underestimate him.
As I said earlier… It was only one game I realize this… But tonight was an example of how much better the offense could run with a distributor…
And I never said jack was garbage…
No no. You didn’t. I’m just framing the conversation.
We’re on the same page, as usual.
Here’s something we can all agree on: We both want to see more Greivis to see if this performance won’t be viewed as his career game. I hope it isn’t.
Personally, I like the idea of deploying the best player for the matchup on the floor, given the player’s tendancies . . . Jack needs minutes to bring out the good play (his minutes 20-25 are much better than minutes 10-15 in a way that out paces other player’s associated improvement), some guys are just best off the bench for whatever reason, etc.
I hate the idea of `starter’ and `position’.
But do we allow Jack to get HIS minutes to get HIS production when the TEAM could do better with another guy getting more minutes??
Jack may even be without a doubt a better player than Vasquez… But as far as True Point Guard skills go, I think Vasquez would suit this team better in the starting role than Jack has done thus far.
It all boils down to what is better, and, sadly, such things are all just bullshit. There is no better. There’s a goal, you pick it, and you try to get there. Are we trying to win games? Develop players? Hit the literal lottery so we can hit the figurative lottery? Entertain? Just make money?
Does coming closer to victory but still failing after you make change X mean that you should make change X? Does it mean that X is still a failure and you need to look for Y? I have no idea, really.
The truth is it’s up to Monty and Dell until someone else is given the job. With this team in such flux, the only thing they can do it power on like nothing is going to change. In that case, you want to have a team with leaders, followers, and players in multiple stages of development, and you try to win the games. If you aren’t good enough, you try to become good enough through on-the-job-training while getting the shot at the picks you deserve, according to the current NBA thinking. That’s what I see them doing, at least.
Tonight, JJ had 31m, GV had 28m. JJ has been played at the point and as shooting guard since he got here, so just because there’s no other point guard on the floors doesn’t mean need to have one on the floor, just like you don’t need a center, whatever that is. They got roughly equal minutes. What more can really be asked considering the degree to which JJ knows this team better than GV today?
got killed in the paint tonight …. but made up for it my getting burned on the perimeter.
Monty better be careful or his team is going to start cashing it in; we were keeping games close before but now even close loses are starting to become rare.
We got killed in the paint in the second half… We actually held the advantage at the half…
I dont know if the suns got hot towards the end or we simply can’t buy a bucket or we purposedly lose this game. I still dont want to believe were tanking though….Are we???
We def aren’t tanking…
Suns played no defense in the game.. So that set the physicality of the game for the refs at none… So when the hornets tried to tighten up defensively, the refs called every little thing… Hornets simply got the short straw on calls tonight…
Youre right. Suns outscore us from the foul line 32 to 14. We had 29 fouls against 16. Preety much sealed the deal.
we really shouldn’t feel to bad i mean we can be like poor charlotte thats getting blown out night in night out at least this team plays with pride and competes most of the time