Game On: Hornets @ Phoenix


The Hornets travel to Phoenix to take on the playoff-aspirant Suns for their fifth road game in seven nights. I give you the keys to victory.

The Suns had a great run of wins after the All-Star break to get themselves back into the playoff discussion, but then they lost four of six, Grant Hill just had surgery to his meniscus, Nash is battling minor injuries of his own, and the team is below .500 and not a favorite to make the playoffs.

The Hornets, of course, may be without Landry and Kaman, and will be without Okafor, Gordon, Ariza, Ayon, MJ, Magic, and Larry Bird isn’t walking through that door.  Crazy how they keep almost winning games – though I wonder if the schedule might finally catch up to them tonight.

Regardless, I give you the Keys to Victory:

  1. Rock the boards.  Legs will be tired.  Jumpers will fall short.  Fortunately, the Suns are a very poor defensive rebounding team.  Send Smith, Aminu and Henry to the glass, and second chance points should give the Hornets an edge.
  2. Play Hornets ball.  Control the tempo, work the ball around and get that good shot in the last few seconds of the shot clock.  The Suns allow good shooting percentages and will break down defensively.  Force them to, and don’t get sucked into quick shots.
  3. Get to the hoop.  Surprisingly, Phoenix is actually one of the best teams in the league at limiting opportunities at the basket.  Part of this is low turnovers, but considering their weakness on the boards, a lot of this is just good defense.  HOWEVER, if you get to the rim, Phoenix allows you to finish with ease.  Drive, Drive, Drive.  Get Henry in there.  Get those shots.

Enjoy the Game!


10 responses to “Game On: Hornets @ Phoenix”

  1. screw victory and clear a seat for me on the TANK. I saw Mr. Davis play for the first time last night and now I see what all the clammering has been about; this guy is heads and shoulders above any other player coming out, and seems to me like the best player coming out of the college ranks since Carmelo, except that he appears to be a much more mature and level headed guy than ‘Melo. So what I thought was BS I now see as my favorite professor at college used to call “the moral imperative” In other words, TANKING is MORAL for all Hornets fans; you can support it without guilt.

    • I’d like to respectfully disagree. If you watched Thomas Robinson play in the following game, he’s actually a more polished player than Davis. Davis is only rated above Robinson because scouts believe he has more potential.

      • Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be more than happy if we get Drummond or Robinson … Monty is shaping out to be a potential top 5 coach in the League and he can do a lot with either of these guys or Kidd-Gil. But Davis is as close as you can ever be, barring Greg Oden type bad luck, to a lock. This kid is like a weird mixture of Moses Malone (rebounding … dude is a human vacuum cleaner around the boards, never seen anything like it), Bill Russell (defensive instincts … can’t teach them … second to none) and Tim Duncan/Kevin McHale/Chris Bosh in terms of length and shooting touch from mid range. I can’t guarantee you he’ll be a Hall of Famer, but I can guarantee you I’ll go on a one week bender if the Hornets get him, and I can guarantee you he has, barring injury, the best potential of all the guys available to leave his imprint on the game in a permanent way.

  2. I don’t care what anyone says or how bad this season is…..we should never accept a loss. If its meant for us to get the first pick wewill get it. If not, everyone won’t be injured next year and our team will be better overall. Especially with a coach like Monty. I’m sorry but being born and raised in New Orleans, there is no such thing as accepting defeat, even if it’s the better thing to do. Go Hornets beat everyone!!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.