I should have written this post when David West dropped 44 and 12 on the Rockets last week.   I didn’t.  Part of it was because it happened in a loss.  Part of it was because West had been so damn disappointing to that point I had a hard time fighting past my David West-related malaise […]

For the second night in a row, the Hornets built a big lead in the third as one of their all-stars went off, and then promptly collapsed to start the fourth and gave it all away.  Tonight, however, Okafor did not foul out, keeping his strong defensive presence in the paint for the final minutes, […]

That game was both exhilarating and crushing at the same time.  As Mark said in the comments, in the third, the Hornets looked like the Hornets of two years ago, forcing turnovers and getting easy buckets.  Paul got a triple double, West went for 44, 12 and 4 assists, Emeka Okafor, despite middling rebounding numbers, […]

The Minnesota Timberwolves website had an press release up briefly stating they had just traded PG Jason Hart to the Hornets for Devin Brown.  Hart has played in only one game for the Wolves this season, and played only 29 last year for the Nuggets and Clippers. The two players have the same salary, so […]

Matchup: Hornets(13-15) @ Rockets(18-13) Off Efficiency: Hornets 102.5(20th), Rockets 103.6(16th)Def Efficiency: Hornets 105.9(22nd), Rockets 103.5(16th) The Rockets are a hard team to understand.  They hold an 18-13 record, yet have perfectly average efficiencies.  They beat teams like the Lakers and Cleveland, but lose to Golden State and the Clippers.  They’ve had a huge number of […]

I spent three hours of my day at the local airport, trying to get my mother onto a new flight to Chicago after the first was cancelled due to weather.  When that proved impossible, I drove for five hours(there and back) to get her to another airport that would fly her out to Chicago.  Then […]

As the Hornets continue to prove that the team this year is a fairly average crew, more and more writers(like the always entertaining Bill Simmons) – and “fans” – are arguing that blowing up the team and starting over is the best course.  The first thing we need to address – and let’s make no […]

The Hornets defended their homecourt tonight from an injured-plagued yet determined Warriors team, wining 108-102.  The Warriors, despite their record, are pretty much custom-built to give the Hornets fits as Paul and company routinely struggle in shutting down quick guards. Tonight was no exception as Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry routinely got to the rim […]

The Hornets had an early game up in Toronto, and once again were unable to get it done on the road, falling to a fairly weak Raptor squad.  The Hornets had several things go wrong for them tonight, but this was a very winnable game.  .500 will have to wait. Chris Paul I’m a little […]

In a repetition of the past few games, the Hornets let a big defecit grow in the second, and then stormed back in the third and fourth behind a furiously scoring star.  Tonight it was enough as Paul(and some Peja) propelled the team over the Nuggets. There was a lot of interesting things in this […]

Today, I’m going to eschew numbers and keep this preview on a personal level. Matchup: Nuggets(19-7) @ Hornets(11-13) Off Efficiency: Nuggets 109.9(3rd), Hornets 103.1(19th)Def Efficiency: Nuggets 102.9(13th), Hornets 106.9(22nd) Rematch.  Vengeance.  Or not, because there isn’t much that can be done tonight to expiate what happened last season against this Nuggets team.   Even if the […]

This started as a response to comments, but it got huge.  So I’ll go full out blog post here, because that’s how I roll. People are focusing on the end of the game last night, and the two bad shots Paul jacked up.  They should.  They were bad shots.  Honestly, however, those are pretty rare […]

Matchup: Hornets(10-12) @ Mavericks(17-7) Off Efficiency: Hornets 103.4(18th), Mavericks 106.2(11th)Def Efficiency: Hornets 107.4(24th), Mavericks 99.8(5th) The Hornets beat the Mavericks earlier this year – in a game they really had no business winning.  It’s not often that you can spot a team a three point lead and four free throw attempts with less than a […]

For about 20 minutes of that game, the Hornets weren’t even competing.  Lazy passes, terrible rotations, constant miscommunications on defense, too much watching Paul dribble, and some of the worst transition defense I’ve ever seen.  They would brick shots, Paul would get back, and three Timberwolves would follow him in for a layup as Devin […]

The Hornets play the Timberwolves tonight and hopefully Timberwolves’ Coach Kurt Rambis still won’t have grasped that the key elements of his best starting line up would be Love-Sessions with Big Al. Sorry.  I couldn’t resist that.  Particularly since it’s true. Anyways, here’s the preview I did two games ago.  The only change is Paul […]

Both teams had players return from injury last night that made a major difference.  Kevin Love played for the first time this season, giving his usual brand of tough and intelligent basketball, leavened by unexpected spot up shooting.  For the Hornets, Chris Paul came back, and . . . yeah, he was pretty good. The […]

Matchup: Timberwolves(2-16) @ Hornets(7-11) Off Efficiency: Timberwolves 93.5(29th), Hornets 103.5(18th)Def Efficiency: Timberwolves 107.3(24th), Hornets 108.0(25th) First, it’s possible Chris Paul plays tonight.  I hope he doesn’t, really.  I’d rather he skip tonight and come back on Tuesday for the Kings game.  Give the ankle another four days rest, Paul.  Don’t risk it for a game […]

The Hornets got down early in this one, and kept making surges to try and break through but the Kings answered every surge with one of their own, and at the end executed while the Hornets took more and more risky shots and finished with a blow out.  It would have been nice to get […]

Matchup:  Hornets(7-9) @ Kings(7-8)  Off Efficiency: Kings 105.7(19th), Hornets 103.8(15th)Def Efficiency: Kings 106.8(23rd), Hornets 107.3(26th) One month ago, the Hornets were 0-1, so were the Kings, and they were facing each other for the first time.  At that time, I was pretty optimistic about the Hornet’s chances, but the game ended uncomfortably close, and only […]

Before we get to the game preview, I wanted to comment on something Toney Blare said in his Hawks-Hornets game recap over at Slam Online.  I thought it was pretty profound and it set me to thinking: In his press conference, Bower says they need everybody to win, that he doesn’t expect the rookies to […]