Hornets’ Inability to Convert High-Efficiency Shots Leads to 93-72 Loss to Warriors

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Published: March 18, 2013

Sometimes, there are a great deal of intricate details and sub-plots to games that end up determining which team wins and which team loses. Tonight was not one of those nights. The Hornets lost this game because, quite simply, they were not able to make shots. In particular, they found it particularly difficult to make both close-range and three point attempts. For the season, New Orleans has made 52.8% of their attempts from inside of 8 feet, but the Hornets made just 11 out of 32 shots (34.4%) from less than 8 feet away from the rim tonight. From beyond the arc, New Orleans has made 36.9% of their attempts, but made just 3 out of 17 (17.6%) tonight. Those shooting numbers will make it incredibly difficult to win no matter how well a team plays in other areas, so it’s no surprise that the Hornets suffered a 21 point loss tonight. Of course, it also doesn’t help when your opponent makes 10 of their 19 attempts from long range. With that much established, let’s take a closer look at the three keys to the game.

 

Three Keys to the Game

  1. Contain the Warriors’ guards. Stephen Curry was able to pour in 30 points on just 19 shots, but apart from his scoring, the Hornets actually didn’t do that poorly in this regard. The trio of Curry, Thompson, and Jack combined to total more turnovers (12) than assists (9), and it took the latter two 22 shots to score 24 points. Curry’s production hurt, but quite honestly, I expected the other two guards to have a greater positive impact on the game for the Warriors than they did.
  2. Don’t give them second chances. Mission accomplished here,  as Golden State only pulled down 6 offensive rebounds from their 35 missed shots, resulting in an offensive rebound rate of a paltry 17.1%. Those 6 offensive boards resulted in 9 points, which would be a worrisome ratio if the rebound total was higher, but not a huge concern since it was that low. Good job by New Orleans of keeping the Warriors from getting second chance points.
  3. Beware the Curry/Jack/Thompson/Lee/Bogut lineup. Well, this went about as poorly as it could have. Outside of the Warriors’ starting lineup (Barnes instead of Jack) which was used for 15 minutes, this lineup was the second most common, getting 10 minutes of playing time. The result was a 22-5 scoring margin, thanks to an effective FG% of 62.5% and 15 rebounds (4 offensive) while holding the Hornets to just 2-15 shooting. Yikes.

 

On Wednesday night, the Hornets will welcome the Celtics to town for their only trip to New Orleans of the season. Boston is fresh off of a gut-wrenching two point home loss to the Heat, who were able to extend their current winning streak to 23 games. Another tough test for this young Hornets team.

 

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