Charlotte 104 (42–36)  |  New Orleans 103 (35–44)

Ok, be honest: did you eally think we had a shot after the first half? The score was 60 to 38, Jeff Bower had been tossed, and the whole "let's push the pace to a gajillion miles per hour" just wasn't paying off. We looked off-kilter at best. It just wasn't pretty.

But someone must have given a ridiculous pep talk at the half, as the Hornets came out in blazing in the third, ending the quarter up by 1. That's right, the Bees went bananas to the tune of 40 to 19 for the quarter.

They even continued to play well through the fourth, but ultimately the Bobcats prevailed by out-rebounding the Bees and shooting great percentages from all over the court. The Hornets weren't too shabby either (they had a massive advantage in turnovers: 14 to 22), but they shot just enough behind to make the difference in a one point game.

Thornton approached a career high with 36 points and Collison added 24 of his own plus 9 assists. Not to mention they did it on better than 50% shooting. Not a bad outing for those two considering this game came on the announcement that Paul, after tearing a ligament in one of his fingers, is out for the remainder of the year.

All in all, the loss stung a little since it turned into such a close game. But since our main priorities right now are (A) stay healthy and (B) give the rookies more playing time in low-pressure (ie not playoff-bound) situations, I'd say tonight was a success. And an exciting one at that.

Opponent's Take: Rufus on Fire

Bobcats vs Hornets boxscore

Washington 96 (22–52)  |  New Orleans 91 (35–41)

Curry's Lakers recap took an otherwise meaningless win and discussed it as a nice precursor of things to come (focus on next season instead of this one). The story ended with a simple line:

Here's hoping to seven more games like Monday's.

And frankly, tonight's match-up with the heavily depleted Wizards seemed like a perfect opportunity to build on such an unusual (but nice) win against a team like the Lakers. But then it turned out that, no, it was not meant to be.

Am I upset that the Hornets dropped this game? Nah. We're mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, so it would seem that our main goal would be to give playing time to the rookies, rest the veterans some, and see what happens. If you win, great. If not, who cares?*

*Since the Hornets will likely land between 10 and 12 in the lottery, a single win or loss at this point is negligible in terms of ping pong balls. Which is to say that shy of winning or losing the final 6 contests, we will draft within a spot or two of our current position.

Of course, don't get me wrong; I am disappointed in tonight's performance. Mike Miller made us look silly (primarily Morris Peterson... which may not be all that hard in the NBA anymore). JaVale McGee capitalized on our pitiful defensive awareness (read: Aaron Gray), taking the backdoor for something like 4 or 5 uncontested dunks. Even Andray Blatche got in on the fun by adding 23 points of his own.

So what did the Hornets do? Well, we never held the lead once. David contributed 5 turnovers in 34 minutes. We were ice-cold from deep (3 for 11). James Posey made several stupid fouls and then had the audacity to draw a foul with 15 seconds remaining when we're down 2... which would have been fine, except he didn't bother to try and shoot for an and-1 opportunity and ended up missing a free throw. Oh, and Bower inexplicably let CP play for 44 minutes.*

*This is particularly maddening since, again, a win or loss means nothing. Why trot out your recently recovered superstar/face-of-franchise for all but 4 minutes of a game if you aren't even going to try and win? (And by not try, I mean play Emeka and DX for a combined 57 minutes.)

When the whistle sounded, the Bees had surrendered a W that ended the Wizards' longest losing streak in franchise history (17). Their last win? New Jersey, back on February 28. Yikes.

So, yeah: not quite what I envisioned for this game. But if no one got hurt and everyone learned a little something, then I guess it's fine by me. Baseball season starts when exactly?

--

Opponent's Take: Bullets Forever

Wizards vs Hornets boxscore

Cleveland 105 (57-15)  |  New Orleans 92 (34-39)

Well, I guess that's about right. That score makes it look like we almost won, but the reality is that LeBron and Co. had the game in hand for almost all of the second half.

Not that we had a bad showing or anything. We just collapsed on defense a little too often, got beaten into the floor on points in the paint, and generally missed a whole lot of jump shots. Ok, so some people would qualify that as a "poor showing." I'm not saying what the Hornets did should be considered a great effort, I just mean that we shouldn't be too surprised when the defense breaks down (we can hardly rotate to cover most teams without LeBron) and, well, sometimes your shots just don't fall. The whole getting our faces pounded in the paint was a bit of surprise, but we'll get to that later.

To be fair to our guys, the Hornets were actually holding their own through halftime. Though they never led, the Bees brought the score to within four and looked poised continue keeping pace for the rest of the contest. Unfortunately, that would not come to pass.

Some of it was poor decisions, some of it was dumb mistakes, some of it was rough officiating, and some of it... well, it's LeBron. Actually, most of the team stats were pretty close, except that the Hornets managed to shoot 44%, but the Cavs finished the night at 57%. That's the contest right there.

Valiant effort; just came up a bit short. Bullets after the jump.

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Dallas 99 (46-24)  |  New Orleans 115 (34-38)

That felt good. I mean, when's the last time we had a game in hand through most of the fourth quarter? (The answer January 27 against the Warriors, in case you care.)

Ok fine, this was only the Hornets' fourth double-digit victory this season, but that doesn't mean this is not a potent squad with the potential to surprise... even if that surprise will have a larger effect on next season than the remaining 10 games.

In case you missed it, some guy named "Chris" started tonight. Everyone was making a big deal out of him despite the fact that he finished the night as one of only 2 Bees on the bad side of +/- (edging out Okafor for second-to-worst). He did land 3 of his 5 shots from downtown, but he only managed 3 assists to his 2 turnovers. I mean... ok, I can't keep this up: it was nice to see CP back on the court. He didn't figure to be a huge part of the gameplan (he only played 21 minutes), but he was out there all the same. He took a little while to get settled, but during the second half (when he scored all of his points), he looked sharp as ever.

Really, the whole crew took a while to settle into place tonight. In the first quarter, we drew iron on every shot (it seemed), and the Mavs went up by 16 on 3 separate occasions. Most of the fans' CP3-induced grins were gone by the end of the first, with the score 32-19 in favor of Dallas. But then, out of nowhere, the Hornets (led by the popular Bucket n' Dimes duo) went bananas in the second quarter, outscoring the Mavs 33-13 to go up by 7 at the half.

Of course, our rookies were only part of the reason for the surge. The other part? The Mavs fell into a big rut, and from 4:26 left in the second to 10:07 left in the third (6:19 overall) the Hornets outscored them 23-0. Just like I said. Bananas.

From there, it was really no contest. The Bees held a commanding lead for the remainder of the game and ultimately took home the (sort of meaningless at this point) W. But hey, if we can't make the playoffs, we ought to try and screw over one of our rivals, right?

Bullets after the jump.

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Golden State 131 (17–42)  |  New Orleans 134 (32–32)

Yay! We're not reeling anymore!

Barely coming up for air in an unreasonably fast-paced game (we hit the 100-points-equals-free-chicken-from-Popeyes plateau by the end of the third quarter), the Hornets held on to win despite Anthony Morrow's best efforts. The Bees got solid-to-great performances by Dimes, Buckets, DX, Mekatron, and Peja. (Sorry Peja, no nickname for you.) Even Mo Pete showed up with some solid contributions, as the Bees improved to .500.

But how do you account for a Hornet W when both teams shoot over 58% from the floor and and 45% from deep? By owning the paint. When teams play the type of basketball where they're constantly firing up shots, it quickly becomes a game of runs and droughts. So, if you can rebound well and make plays in the paint when your 17 and 20 footers aren't dropping, you'll probably do alright.

Tonight, the Hornets did just this, owning a huge margin in offensive rebounds (15 to 4), defensive rebounds (44 to 23), second chance points (I forgot this one, but we lead by double digits), and points in the paint (68 to 44). Yes, you read that correctly: the Hornets finished with 68 points in the paint. Sheesh.

Bullets after the jump.

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Forgot to mention this in the recap of the Grizz game, but it's worth mentioning in its own article, so perhaps that was for the better.

The team runs this little timeout program/gimmick/fan contest thing during timeouts periodically where CP3 gives his top 3 somethings, and a fan has to arrange them in order (from 1 to 3) in order to win a prize. It's dumb, but it also beats the hell out of most of the fan contests.

Anyway, so the Grizz game featured CP's top 3 places in New Orleans. The 3 that made the cut? The New Orleans Arena, Harrah's, and his condo. The correct order? Witness:

1. Harrah's
2. His condo
3. The arena

So, in case you missed that, CP enjoys hitting the high stakes rooms at a casino moreso than simply lounging around his pad. Oh, and both of those options are preferable to being at the arena playing this "basketball" thing. Let that sink in.

Rant after the jump.

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Dear James Posey,

I hate you.

Sincerely,
Lee

(Postscript after the jump)

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San Antonio 106 (34–24)  |  New Orleans 92 (31–30)

"Hill scores 23 as Spurs beat reeling Hornets." There's your AP headline. Not pretty.

I don't know that I'd say the Hornets are currently "reeling." Yes, they're 1–4 over their last 5, but they're also 5–5 over their last 10 and 6–9 without CP. I mean, I would say that tonight they looked terribly off (and perhaps a bit sluggish), but not quite "reeling."

Sure, the Bees shot 45%, but the Spurs managed 50%. Add that to their advantages in turnovers, blocks, and steals, and you've got a pretty good idea about how this game went down. Credit the Spurs for their strong D in the paint, uncanny ability to fluster us with physical play, and general make-us-look-silly-ness when we try to "rotate" around the perimeter.

The Hornets tried to put together a comeback—closing the gap to 6 or less several times—but it never really felt like we were going to take home the W. Perhaps it was the away-home back to back, but the Bees seemed slow on D and couldn't really nail a rhythm down on offense.

Here's to hoping they pull something useful from this loss and move along. Not the kind of game you want to dwell on.

Bullets after the jump.

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Houston 94 (28–27)  |  New Orleans 102 (30–26)

Solid. Fast-paced and a little frustrating towards the end, but solid all the same.

The Hornets started strong through the first, nailing down a lead that the Rockets were never able to catch. Both teams went with a crazy pace, firing shots mere seconds after crossing half court. But the Rockets, despite a late push, were ultimately undone by a poor performance at the stripe and an even poor-er showing from deep.

Collison continued his strong play at the helm of the Bees. He did turn the ball over 5 times, but his shot selection was much better than it has been of late. The Hornets also had strong showings from Mo Pete (3 for 6 from deep with 2 steals) and The Big Oak (11 boards, 6 blocks), which was helpful due to poor outings from Peja and Marcus. Both guys had trouble locating the rim all night (I think Peja actually air-balled a few), and combined they only sunk 10 of their 29 shots.

The Rockets, on the other hand, were an odd bunch. No one played particularly poorly (though Ariza did try his best by bricking 8 of 10 shots), but at the same time no one stepped up and really took over. Aaron Brooks (the other one), who's speed is the first I've seen that can match Dimes' on the court, had a nice game, but 15 points, 8 assists, 1 rebound, and 2 steals isn't exactly legendary. I suppose Budinger had the strongest showing from the Houston side. In just 24 minutes off the bench he managed 18 points (including 3 treys), 5 boards, 2 blocks, 1 steal.

Ultimately, poor shooting caused the Rockets' undoing, proving that quantity (of possessions) does not equal quality (making shots). The Hornets were able to keep up with the pace–which was quite impressive considering that we played 7 guys for the vast majority of the game–and took home not only the W but also the series lead on the Rockets 2–1.

Have a fantastic evening (sorry no bullets) and I'll see you guys back Friday when the Magic come to town.

--

Opponent's Take: The Dream Shake

Rockets vs Hornets boxscore

Indiana 101 (18–36)  |  New Orleans 107 (29–26)

Ok, fine. It's not really a rematch at all. Neither of these teams is currently championship bound, but regardless of that fact, tonight's game was pretty exciting. The pace was unbelievable, as both teams employed the popular "4 seconds or less" offensive scheme leading to something like 400 possessions (math team is still confirming that last figure).

En route to a win, Darren Collison became the first Hornet not named Chris Paul to log a triple-double since Baron Davis' performance against the Kings back in '05. Dimes (or the "Blur de Bee" as the jumbo-tron calls him) finished with 18 points, 12 assists, and 13 boards plus a block and 3 steals for good measure. DX wasn't far behind with 29 points, 7 assists, and 9 boards.

Despite strong showings from most of the team, the Pacers made a late push and, for a bit, looked poised to overtake the Bees. How, you might ask? Turnovers. We were giving the ball away. Like STDs from a hooker. Most of that came from Dimes (more on that later), but Mek and Peja found time to contribute as well. When you give 24 points off TOs and you only take 8, problems will likely occur.

But credit the Pacers: they played a real physical game all night. They got us off-balanced and forced us to make mistakes. And when we turned up the pace to try and side-step that tactic, the mistakes kept coming. Of course, so did some awesome plays (Dimes was breaking ankles all night), but still: it almost caught up to us.

More (fascinating observations!) after the jump.

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Oklahoma City 103 (28–21)  |  New Orleans 99 (26–23)

Deja vu, right? Hornets struggle to keep up all game, come back to take the lead late in the game, and then watch the game unravel as the game clock winds to a close. By the by, that's 3 straight home losses, which takes our record at the Hive from an awesome/intimidating 16–4 to good 16–7.

So what happened? The Hornets played catch-up most of the night, but hung in there due to an advantage in turnovers. In the end, though, it's tough to seal a W when you give up 50+ percent from the floor. Seriously, this is the same game we saw Monday, except instead of shooting 52% from the floor, the opponent dropped shots closer to 58.

To top it off, Marcus Thornton left the game in the fourth limping... oof, no good.

Let's not dwell too much here. We got great contributions from Marcus, Mekatron, and Posey, but OKC got monster performances from Westbrook and Durant. The Bees just couldn't seal the deal... again.

Allow me to elaborate (after the jump).

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Phoenix 109 (29–21)  |  New Orleans 100 (26–22)

It was closer than the score looks thanks to a last minute push by the Bees, but I think this one would be easier to break down with some good old fashioned "pros" and "cons." Who's with me?

PROS

• After defeating the Grizz on Saturday, the Hornets cam in today and almost upset one of the better Western Conference teams... without the help of CP.
• DX battled hard all night versus Amare Stoudemire, which is no small task. He showed a little reticence to attack early on, but got comfortable pounding the rock in the second half. He finished with 20 points, 8 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 0 turnovers in 38 minutes.
  
• Our rookies continue to shine despite the heavy burden placed on them by CP's injury. The two combined for 41 points, 18 assists, 8 boards, 2 steals, and 6 treys tonight.
• The Bees won the turnover battle and held the Suns to a paltry 6 for 21 from beyond the arc.
  
• CP has impeccable sartorial tastes.
  

CONS

• We drew so much iron. So much. Yes, we shot 45% as a team, but I've never seen so many in-and-outs.
  
• The Suns shot 51% from the field. This was partially due to the fact that the Suns can just plain shoot, but it didn't help that Robin Lopez, Amare Stoudemire, and Channing Frye exploited mismatches all night long.
• Mekatron played 24 minutes. How are we sitting our (very good) center when we're getting out-rebounded in a tight game? Sure, he only had a few boards while he was on the court, but the Suns' big men were abusing Songaila all night. I mean, it's not like Mek's jumper was off. What gives, Bower?
• Despite great performances (and steps forward) for the rookies, they still made quite a few mistakes. Both guys tried to do a little too much, which resulted in a handful of really poorly selected shots and 7 combined turnovers. They are making steps forward, but they've got to reign it in a bit. Remember the rules of teamwork: "Don't be a hero. You have teammates. And they love you... if your name isn't Mike James."

More (insightful!) thoughts after the jump.

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Chicago 108 (23–22) | New Orleans 106 (25–21)

We'll make this one short and sweet.

Despite getting outrun up and down the court and outplayed for most of the first three quarters, the Hornets made a hell of a push in the fourth and forced overtime and almost took the W.

In fact, the Bees had the game in hand on what should have been the last possession of the game. With the Hornets up by 2 and 10 seconds to play, DX pulled down a board and launched the ball down the court to CP to try avoid a foul by the Bulls for as long as possible. Unfortunately the ball was overthrown and CP had to try and bounce it off a Bull as he flew out of bounds. The ball caromed off one Bull and landed in the hands of another. And I immediately thought to myself, "Overtime." Sure enough, the Bulls ran down the court and made a shot to tie it. Overtime.

Oh, and when CP flew out of bounds? Yeah, he landed on a camera man and re-aggravated a knee injury from Wednesday's game against the Warriors.

But, instead of carrying their momentum into overtime, the Bees went stale and managed to not hit any shots between 4:16 and 1:15. Yeah, you read that right. Can't win in OT if you spend more than 60% of your time not scoring.

Credit the Bulls for really pushing the pace and forcing the Bees to keep up. Deng, Rose, and Noah were especially impressive, as the Bulls hung in to take the W... darn it all.

Bullets after the jump.

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San Antonio 97 (25–15) | New Orleans 95 (21–19)

I secretly enjoy watching the San Antonio Spurs. I should hate them, given the 08 playoffs and whatnot, but they're just too fascinating; every game is like a course in the game of basketball. It's like watching the Colts. There's nothing particularly exciting about either team. But here's the hook: they're efficient, they're consistent, and they frequently embody how the sum of "x" amount parts can become greater the whole. I don't want to sound like I'm gushing because, as a fan of the Hornets, I do hate them. But as a fan of basketball, it's hard not to be impressed.

Tonight/Today they bested the Hornets for 48 minutes of basketball. Despite an awful (just awful) first quarter showing, the Hornets were able to cut down the lead to a mere half dozen points. But the Spurs held on for the W thanks to huge edges in 3 areas: free throw attempts (38 to 12), rebounds (50 to 38), second chance points (21 to 4). It also helped that they were spreading the floor well for most of the game. They (mainly Parker and George Hill) ran our defense ragged, and someone always seemed to be open for a three.

I'll hit more numbers after the jump, but for now, I want to switch gears. Seeing as this is roughly the halfway point, I thought I'd step back and look at the season as a whole. As it stands today, the Hornets are roughly 2 games out of the 8 seed in the Western Conference. And while that deficit is far from daunting (and the season far from over), I'm going to be of a sour nancy with regards to our chances. This team has shown (especially tonight) that they are thoroughly average.

I hate to be even entertaining this idea, but I'm starting to think a trip to the lottery would be preferable to the Lakers/Mavs/whoever trouncing us in 4 or 5 games on national television. Man, typing that hurt pretty bad.

Bullets after the jump.

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Los Angeles 94 (17–20) | New Orleans 108 (20–17)

That felt good.

The Hornets looked good tonight: they shot a high percentage from the field, controlled the paint, and took care of the rock (only 6 TOs all night). The Clippers (who had a much better record than I was expecting) showed flashes of brilliance (mainly hop steps by Baron Davis and Al Thornton) surrounded by sloppy ball-handling and poor shot selection.

The Bees shot over 50% as a team even with an off night from DX and a regular night from Devin Brown.*  It's a good thing the Hornets were knocking down shots (57% eFG compared to LA's 41%) because the Clips were owning the glass on both sides of the court (they killed us in OREB% 37 to 24). Camby alone pulled down 20, which was more than twice what any Hornet managed.

* I know, I know; Devin hasn't been terrible this year. But I have strategy about keeping him honest: doubt every move he makes. So far, if he hoists a three and I groan, the shot goes in. If I applaud him, he makes one of his more "signature moves." So, for the foreseeable future, I will not explicitly give Devin praise. Trust me. This will work.

Let's go back to shooting for a moment. The Hornets dropped 9 treys on 27 shots tonight. You'd like to see that % a tad higher, but overall, that's not terrible. You know what is terrible? How about 7%? That was the Clips' final line from downtown, as they only managed to nail 1 trey in 14 shots. Actually, that number is a tad unrepresentative of the overall team, as Eric "Nice moves in the lane, but for the love of God, stop shooting threes" Gordon went 0 for 7 all by his lonesome. The internet machine told me that he normally makes about 38% of his treys, so it isn't criminal that he was trying to make up the deficit from deep, but you'd think after 4 or 5 misses he'd give up and start slashing into the lane.

Bullets after the jump.

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New Jersey 99 (3–33) | New Orleans 103 (18–16)

Good thing we don't count style points, eh?

The Hornets held about a 10 point lead through most of this game, but a dry spell in the fourth (particularly from deep and from the stripe) turned what really should have been a blowout into a nail-biter.

Positive Takeaways: the Hornets won what could have been a (death) trap game, David played like a fiend (32 points in 34 minutes), the Hornets continue to impress in a major way when it comes to passing, Darius continues to be efficient off the bench, the Hornets are on a 5 game winning streak, and the Saints are in the playoffs (with a bye!).

Negative Takeaways: the Hornets needed 40 minutes of Chris Paul to defeat a 3 win team at the hive (hey! that's the name of this blog!), the Hornets have only won a single game by double-digits (against the Clippers) and are averaging a 5.7 point margin when they win (4.4 if you pull out the Clipper game), and they allowed Courtney Lee and Keyon "Can you believe I still have an NBA contract?" Dooling to score 49 points between them.

Baby steps, y'all. Baby steps.

(Bullets after the jump.)

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Houston 95 (20–14) | New Orleans 99 (15–16)

Well, then. That worked out.

After trailing the Rockets for the vast majority of the game (though never by more than 10 points), the Hornets retook the lead with 47.6 seconds remaining and held on to seal the W.

It was a pretty remarkable turnaround since we all left the arena wondering how the Hornets managed to win a game in which seemingly every other shot was rimming in and out. It also didn't help that the Rockets were constantly hitting shots from deep. It turns out that my in-game observations were only half correct. The Hornets were lousy from deep (3 for 14 in case you were wondering), but the Rockets were merely "good," knocking down 8 of 20. In fact, despite everyone thinking that the Rim Gods were finally exacting revenge on the likes of Devin and Bobby Brown, both teams shot pretty similar percentages from the field.

Actually, all of the counting stats for the teams were similar until you get to the last stat: turnovers. The Hornets took care of the ball really well, giving it away only 7 times. But, as the Dream Shake points out, the Rockets were much more in the holiday spirit and gave the ball back to us a remarkable 16 times.

Looking back, the Hornets did play the Rockets pretty evenly all night. They just always seemed to be one step behind. It was nice to see them buckle down in crunch time and finally start making the stops we fans (and probably Coaches Bower and Paul) had been pleading for all night.

Bullets after the jump.

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Denver 92 (19-8) | New Orleans 98 (12-13)

As we've previously mentioned, "Holy jeezum... Chris Paul."

Seriously, how did we pull this one out? the Nuggets outplayed us for most of the first half and some of the second. We looked absolutely pitiful for stretches. Devin Brown, when he wasn't busy killing us with bad shots, looked slow on defense (of course, I think Ty Lawson would make just about everyone other than Collison look slow). Meanwhile, in the paint, Nene was owning Mekatron. Peja's hot hand and slow night from Melo kept the game close for a bit, but things look pretty bleak leading into the half.

But then, as expected, CP pulled up on the assists (he already had 15) and begin dropping shots. The whole thing was bananas; he was all over the court. What's more, is that his efforts seemed to energize the rest of the team, allowing the Hornets to finish a 33 point third quarter holding an 8 point lead. 

The Nuggets, who played well the whole night, couldn't stop the bleeding, and the Hornets marched on through the 4th and took home the W. Different game if Billups plays? Probably. But the Bee's held their own and finished strong. I'm not saying they've finally put it together, but we did see Paul shifting into a gear of venomously competitive play that we haven't seen regularly in quite a while. And that's nice to have going forward.

Bullets after the jump.

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Detroit 87 (11-14) | New Orleans 95 (11-13)

Up and down. Up and down. Weird game.

There was groaning a plenty from the less than impressive crowd (in size). But who could blame them. #1: The Hornets committed 14 turnovers in the first half alone. #2: It was Honeybee night in what had to be the worst marketing idea ever.

The turnovers, along with a shooting implosion in the second quarter (which included 6 scoreless minutes... in a row), put the Hornets at a seemingly insurmountable 13 point deficit. But somehow, some way, the Bees started taking better care of the ball and making shots that were rimming out throughout the first half. Oh, and CP played 43 minutes. That helped.

You hate to see CP have to step up his minutes so much--especially since we all thought our bench was going to better this year--but mediocre to poor performances from everyone besides David forced Bower's hand. I was just glad to see the crowd join in and get behind the team... at least the ones who stayed after the second quarter.

Bullets after the jump.

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New York 113 (8–15) | New Orleans 96 (10–12)

Swept by the Knicks? Say it ain't say so, Chris. Say it ain't so.

Unfortunately the Hornets, after starting strong in the first half, put up only 34 points in the second half and allowed the Knicks to turn a 9 point deficit into a 17 point victory. Frankly, the first half was pretty much what you would expect for a team like the Knicks: dumb fouls by Eddie Curry, careless turnovers by Al Harrington, and WTF?! shots from Larry Hughes.

But credit the Knicks for getting it together and out-shooting the Hornets like whoa... like really whoa. Final percentages for the Knicks: 55% from the field, 52% from deep, and 93% from the stripe. The Hornets? 40%, 22%, 88% respectively... or not so respectively... or something.

Bullets after the jump, but first:

While averting our eyes from the unraveling Hornets, Curry and I started discussing Okafor's lack of a nickname. Curry suggesed "The Big Oak." I retorted that a tree, while tall, is ostensibly rooted to the ground and maybe not the best metaphor for basketball player. I've been using "Mek," but I'd be willing to change. Vote below!

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Sacramento 94 (9-11) | New Orleans 96 (9-11)

Hooray! Another nail-biter against an inferior organization! No offense to the players and fans of California's capital, but a CP-led Hornets squad should be able to take care of business against a Kevin Martin-less Kings.

Both teams shot at or above 50% on the night, but both seemed to approach scoring quite differently. The Kings flew through the lane (Collison had met his speedy nemesis in Tyreke Evans) and outscored the Bees in the paint by more than 20 (56 to 34). The Hornets, on the other hand, took care of business downtown, going 8 for 18 from deep. 

New Orleans was also fortunate to have great performances from CP, DX, and Mek, which was nice since the bench didn't show up. The 3 aforementioned players each logged 35+ minutes and finished with a double-double and at or above 50% from the field. On the other side of the ball, the Kings got a more even performance from their entire team, with the exceptions of Evans and Jason Thompson, who both played out of their minds.

Ultimately, the team stats for both teams look remarkably similar (which isn't surprising for a game decided by 2 points), but it would appear that the King's poor, poor performance from the stripe is what ultimately did them in (9 for 19... which is worse than Shaq's career 51%). Actually, the Hornets performed poorly from the stripe, too (just over 60%... you don't have to be better than the best, just the team you're playing). Both teams combined to go 23 for 42 from the stripe tonight, which comes down to about 54.8%. Looks like everyone will be running laps tomorrow.

Bullets after the jump.

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Minnesota 89 (2-17) | New Orleans 98 (8-11)

CP3 is back! CP3 is back! CP3 is back!

And without missing a beat I might add. Chris put any lingering concerns about his injury to rest with a ridiculous line of 16 points, 15 assits, 8 steals, 6 rebounds, and a block.

Unfortunately, I was only able ot catch pieces of the game via radio, so I'm afraid any insight I might have is limited to "we won," "it's nice to see Emeka continuing to score at a high percentage to go along with all his boards," and "CP3 is back!"

I don't (and won't) do this often, but for some truly insightful analysis, turn to our buddies over at Hornets 24/7. They'll (unknowingly) cover for us today. But I'll be back in full force Tuesday (with actual coverage).

Oppenents Take: Canis Hoopus

Comment if you got 'em.

Phoenix 103 (10–3) | New Orleans 110 (5–8)

Wow, right? How did that happen?

I have to admit, 15 minutes before the game tonight I sat down in my seat at the arena and thought, "Oh yeah, this is a TNT game. Now everyone will get to see the slaughter. Like the Christmas Day Massacre all over again."

And why not? Despite beating the Clip Show the other night, we've been playing some pretty uninspiring ball. Not to mention that the glue that holds this team together is sitting on the sidelines in a (formidable) suit. Take that and throw it out against the team with the best record in the conference and who do you think walks away with the W? Thankfully, no one on the Hornets was buying my sour nancy act.

The Suns scored first, but then Hornets rattled off 15 unanswered points, capping an improbable run that brought the previously listless crowd roaring to their feet. 15 points for the Hornets, 2 for the Western Conference-leading Suns. (I would like to reiterate that CP3 did not play. At all.) Sure, those numbers were unsustainable–Phoenix had to start hitting shots at some point–but the by then, the buzz in the arena was flying. It almost felt like home-court advantage again. Like, dare I say, 2007. More correctly, it was fun in a way that the previous 10 or so games hadn't been.

At any rate, Phoenix closed the gap and even took the lead a few times, but Hornets dominated in a few key areas to seal the deal. For starters, we rebounded like crazy tonight. 56 to 38 was the final tally, but more importantly we finished with a 51% rate on the offensive glass (that would be 25 to 14) which led to a 31 to 13 advantage on second chance points. It probably didn't hurt that we shot high percentages from deep (52%) and the stripe (83%), but it was our aggression on the boards that gave us the real advantage. Oh, that and we finally played like a "team" (Devin Brown passed! Like 5 times!). Byron had run that notion out of the locker room, so it's nice to see it make a return.

Bullets after the jump.

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