Less than a week ago, the Hornets beat the Rockets in OT to stick a fork in the Rocket’s Playoff hopes. Will the Hornets do it again and scatter more ping-pong balls across the lottery landscape?
A pretty tumultuous season ends in Houston tonight. Despite all the losing early in the season, and the gnashing of teeth accompanying this mad dash out of the bottom three of the league, I feel like the season is ending on a positive note. New Owner, New Lease, New Star, New Young Prospects, and two lottery picks. I can live with that.
As for the game tonight, Houston hasn’t played well in three weeks when they had something to play for, so I can’t really expect them to play well tonight when they are done for the season. The Rockets are littered with veterans who have a place in the league, and I just have a feeling that once again, the young corps of Hornets players hungry to stay in the league will play with energy and trump whatever pride the Rockets are now playing with.
Keys to the Game
- Don’t play Gustavo Ayon. Scola was his hero – a guy he modeled his game after, and he played hard against him in the last matchup. Don’t let Ayon take over!!!
- Please Monty, give 48 minutes each to Watkins, Dyson, Lance Thomas, Xavier Henry and . . . Aminu? Landry? Crap, those guys will probably win it for us . . . Can we borrow Willie Green for a game? Marcus Vinicius? Maciej Lampe?
Okay, the Real Keys to the Game
The Rockets are the definition of mediocre. They have slightly better than mediocre Free Throw, Turnover, Effective Field Goal, and Rebound Rates. And to compound it, they post slightly worse than average numbers for Opponents in all four categories. This is pretty unusual. Most teams have a strength or two they rely on, or a weakness you can exploit. The Rockets are simply solid at everything. So what do the Hornets do?
- Allow Houston to post up. The Rockets big men – Camby, Scola, Patterson, etc, are not physically overpowering big men. They like to operate in the mid post, taking jumpers and fade away shots more than forays into the paint. Let them do it. As a team, they take a lot of those shots and are below the league average at finishing them.
- Despite their struggles at mid-range, the Rockets are actually pretty solid when shooting behind or just inside the three point line. The Hornets will need to recover sharply after collapsing on drives to prevent themselves from being riddled by long range jumpers.
- Drive, Drive, Drive. Houston allows a lot of shots at the rim, and lacking a shotblocker, is the fourth worst in the league at contesting those shots. Considering their defense is pretty good at all other shot locations, the Hornets should try to attack this weakness with determination.
Enjoy the game!
24 responses to “Season Finale Game On: Hornets @ Rockets”
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Ideal night:
Rockets edge Hornets (Likelihood: 7)
Kings beat Lakers (Likelihood: 6)
Cavs beat Bulls (Likelihood:1)
Nets beat Raptors (likelihood: 4)
Nightmare night is if the opposite happens. I am not gonna even watch. I am gonna keep the channel on the NFL draft and take all my medicine at once at the end of the night.
I feel like We’re going to win tonight.
First of all, All season long we said we were not really tanking but giving chance to our young players which turns into losses due to inexperience and looks like tanking.
Well, the month of April proved that idea. We have won 8/13 games in April. We are officially not tanking.
Did that put us in a worse position for the draft? Yes!
But, it is what it is now. Pick 1 or Pick 5. Well, of course pick 1 (=Davis). But, we can live with Pick 5 as well. And who knows, maybe we will still be the lucky winner! 🙂
Geaux Hornets!
PS. We should not blame Belinelli for his game-winning layup on Tuesday. We stopped the Warriors, Vasquez carried the ball coast-to-coast and all Marco had to do was to win the game! We should congratulate the team for the spirit.
However, we should keep Gordon and surround him with a strong starting five to go deep in the playoffs. The two players that we are going to get from the draft (with picks or with traded picks) and the free agents that we are going to sign in summer are going to sketch the future of our team!
Your turn is coming Dell Demps, looking forward to your moves!
This made me laugh. You gotta love Aminu.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=al+farouq+aminu+geek+eyewear&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=639&tbm=isch&tbnid=Kl4DR6zd4EFkhM:&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekeyewear/page25/&docid=4TEjerdvV04jaM&itg=1&imgurl=http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3391/5841666182_a0c655df94_m.jpg&w=204&h=240&ei=HamQT7CBA8OV6AGloqSSBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=284&vpy=334&dur=1237&hovh=192&hovw=163&tx=95&ty=112&sig=114668329613746447118&page=2&tbnh=146&tbnw=142&start=21&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:21,i:151
1960s nerd glasses are now high-fashion? What’s next pocket protectors?
HEY! I wear nerd glasses, well I wear them because I cant see (Also Jarrett hates them,unless you need them to see)
Oh man, whatever happened to Marcus Vinicius?
Aminu’s a geek.
Vinicius plays in the Brazilian League and won silver on the Brazilian National team last year in the Pan American Games.
Last year for Pinheiros he averaged a 17.7-3.4-3.3 with 1.5 steals in 29 minutes. He shot 60%-46%-85%.
In the international tournament he played 10 games and in 25 minutes averaged a 10.1-3.6-1.3 with 53%-44%-100% shooting percentages.
Hey, I enjoyed Marcus and Willie time with the Hornets…Lampe… i remember he was on same Hornet Roster, but cant remember anything but his name. Im really pissed off than i wont feel happy tonight. Last game and not rooting…WTF! Hope we win and the ping pong balls favor us. Anyway, i thought this season was going to bother me, but i saw more games than last year )around 55 this year i guess) and i enjoyed every one of them. Davis or not, the future of this team is brigh. A new medical staff that can keep our players in the court would be the better FA signing.
Go Bees!!
…some Hornet roster*
Lets win………err……..hornets?………..man, cant wait for the name change. Gotta get a tatt of the new logo.
I think commish is gonna let us get either the first or second pick no matter what. He is gonna give our team one last gift before next season…….
DONT KILL MY BEES!!!
and a better logo than the one on your nick?? Imposible!
it is a nice logo…….I was actually gonna get that tattooed on me……but Im a New Orleans native…….jazz, music, black and gold, seafood……..thats my life, and with my love for basketball, it will just fit perfectly……sorry bud.
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3896/60389616.jpg
move over grevis dyson got the start
If somebody would “Nancy Kerrigan” Carl Landry at the half, you’d really be doing us a solid.
If somebody would “Nancy Kerrigan” Carl Landry at the half, you’d really be doing us a solid.
So how far can the Hornet’s fall draft wise if the “win” this game?
All depends.
Post up once the order is set, modulo coin flips.
I’m gonna cry
Jumped off my couch when Morris hit that three. Thank you Kansas basketball.
YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS
Lets stick a fork in this season. I’m gonna miss Hornets basketball. I can’t wait for the draft and preseason already. It really sucked rooting against my team this year. Let’s hope it was worth it.
Ian’s keys to the game tonight for the SAC-LAL game: Tell Evans and Boogie that there is a mistake in their contracts and they will be free agents this summer. Can you imagine? They’d play out of their minds tonight.