SubscribeTuesday, Jan 6
Paul and West Lead Hornets to 116-105 Win Over Lakers
Paul is a wondrous ballhandler and passer. It is very difficult to keep him out of the lane and almost impossible to contain him once he gets there; when Paul gets into the paint, he usually scores, draws a foul or feeds a teammate for a wide open shot. He has improved his field goal percentage each season of his career, has become a reliable three point shooter and is an outstanding free throw shooter. His passes are creative, accurate and easy to handle. Unlike Steve Nash, he is not a defensive liability. In fact, Paul is very disruptive defensively because of his quick hands and toughness. Early in his career, some of the more muscular point guards could overpower him but that is not really the case anymore. He plays with an edge, often looks like he i...
Friday, Dec 26
Opinion: Magic, Spurs, Cavs and Mavs Each Post Christmas Day Victories
Orlando Magic 88, New Orleans Hornets 68 The Hornets are now tied for fourth-fifth in the Western Conference but they are only a game behind San Antonio and Houston, who are tied for second-third. New Orleans plays Houston on Friday night. The Magic are securely in the third place in the Eastern Conference, four and a half games ahead of Atlanta. They have won six games in a row and nine of their last 10 but have not gained any ground on the two teams ahead of them--Boston and Cleveland--because both of those teams have also won nine of their last 10. San Antonio Spurs 91, Phoenix Suns 90 Cleveland Cavaliers 93, Washington Wizards 89 Dallas Mavericks 102, Portland Trail Blazers 94
Thursday, Dec 18
Charting Assists for Chris Paul and Tony Parker in New Orleans' 90-83 Victory Over San Antonio
I had it all planned out: Wednesday's Hornets-Spurs game featured a showdown of premier point guards Chris Paul and Tony Parker, so I decided to chart the assist totals of both players and see if the scorekeeper followed rule book procedures in general or if he favored the home town player (Paul in this case). David West Dominates as Hornets Throttle Spurs, 101-82 (David West scores 30 points while making 13 field goals; Paul is credited with assists on seven of those 13 field goals--three were correct, one was marginal and three were clearly wrong, including one in which West received the ball from Bonzi Wells, not Paul!).
Friday, Nov 28
Hornets Edge Nuggets, 105-101
The New Orleans Hornets defeated the Denver Nuggets 105-101 in the second half of TNT's Thanksgiving doubleheader. This game involved some interesting subplots and storylines. The Billups era in Denver started with three straight victories against teams that do not currently have winning records (Dallas, Memphis, Charlotte). Then came a loss against Cleveland, an impressive win at Boston, home victories versus Minnesota and Milwaukee and a win at San Antonio over a Spurs team without Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. Denver lost on the road versus the Lakers, beat the Bulls and Clippers and then fell to the Hornets yesterday. The Nuggets are 5-1 at home with Billups but all five wins are against teams that are currently at or below .500.
Sunday, Nov 9
Opinion: Smooth All-Around Performance by Paul Lifts Hornets Over Heat
You may recall that I tracked the scorekeeping of Paul's assists in two playoff games last season: in game one versus the Spurs, three of his seven official assists to West were clearly incorrect (Paul did not even pass to West at all on one of the plays!) and another assist was marginal at best, while in game seven Paul officially had 14 assists but he should have only been credited with nine. The Heat game was the first complete Hornets' contest that I watched this season, so I decided to once again chart Paul's assists. I used a slightly different method this time; in the playoffs I waited to see the official play by play sheet and then I went back to a tape of the game to review each officially credited assist but for the Heat game I scored Paul's as...
Thursday, Oct 16
2008-09 Western Conference Preview
2) New Orleans Hornets: Reasons for hope: Chris Paul is the best point guard in the NBA. He is not only a very skillful player but a tough, gritty competitor who significantly improved his shooting and his defense last season. David West is an All-Star power forward whose skills are still underrated because many people think that his production is entirely dependent on Paul. The addition of James Posey will improve the team's perimeter defense, the weakness that cost them in their game seven loss to San Antonio when Manu Ginobili was the X factor. Reasons to mope: Peja Stojakovic rejuvenated his career after missing almost the entire 2007 season due to injury but if he gets hurt the Hornets will struggle to replace his outside shooting. Teams...
Thursday, Jun 19
The 2008 Playoffs: Where the Revival of the NBA's Two Flagship Franchises Happened
One year ago, the NBA's two flagship franchises appeared to be in total disarray. The Boston Celtics had just completed a demoralizing 24-58 season and their "reward" for posting the worst record in the Eastern Conference was the fifth pick in what was considered to be a two player draft. The L.A. Lakers earned the seventh seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a 42-40 record and got destroyed 4-1 by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs. Kobe Bryant had just won his second straight scoring title with a 31.6 ppg average and he poured in a playoff career-high 32.8 ppg versus the Suns but he did not look forward to wasting the prime years of his career going into battle with Kwame Brown and Smush Parker starting at the two most importa...
Friday, May 16
Seventh Heaven: Spurs Squash Hornets to Force Winner Take All Showdown
The bizarre theme of extreme mutual home court dominance continued in game six of the San Antonio-New Orleans series as the Spurs beat the Hornets 99-80 to force a game seven in New Orleans on Monday. A 3-3 series suggests that the teams are evenly matched and yet none of the games have been close; the home team has won every game this series by at least 11 points and five of the six games have been decided by 18 points or more. Tim Duncan scored 20 points and led the Spurs in rebounds (15), assists (six) and blocked shots (two). Manu Ginobili scored a game-high 25 points on 9-15 field goal shooting, Tony Parker added 15 points and four assists and Ime Udoka provided 13 points off of the bench, nailing all five of his field goal attempts. Chris Paul led Ne...
Wednesday, May 14
Hornets Push Defending Champion Spurs to Brink of Elimination
The Hornets took an early 9-3 lead but the Spurs rallied to go up 23-21 by the end of the first quarter despite West's big numbers. In the second quarter the Spurs built a seven point lead a couple times but New Orleans trimmed the margin to 47-44 by halftime. West almost singlehandedly kept the Hornets in the game: at the 8:44 mark in the second quarter the Spurs led 31-24 and West had 16 of New Orleans' points on 8-10 field goal shooting while the rest of his teammates had shot just 2-17. West had 22 points on 10-14 shooting by halftime, while Duncan had four points on 2-11 field goal shooting. As Magic Johnson later noted, the Hornets made a subtle change by waiting to double-team Duncan until he put the ball on the floor; that led to some out of rhythm s...
Thursday, May 8
The Spurs Aren't Dead Yet
I'm not saying that Paul had a bad game or that his 15-25 shooting hurt the team--far from it: Paul had a great game. However, since it does not seem possible to shut down Paul completely it makes more sense for the Spurs to stay at home on the other players as opposed to trapping Paul; when Dalla...
Sunday, May 4
Opinion: David West Dominates as Hornets Throttle Spurs, 101-82
West scored 11 points in the third quarter as the Hornets took a 74-66 lead. Michael Finley opened the fourth quarter with a three pointer to make the score 74-69 but New Orleans steadily pulled away after that. The Spurs' quarter by quarter scoring went 27-22-17-16 while the Hornets scored at least 22 in each quarter. Less than two minutes later, Paul passed to West on the right wing. West faked a jumper, took two dribbles into the lane and made a tough runner. Shockingly, the friendly New Orleans scorekeeper did not give Paul an assist on this play. Paul is a very good point guard and he hardly needs to have anybody padding his statistics. What's more, this is not fair to West--who is generating a lot of his offense on his own--nor is it fair to the play...
Sunday, Apr 27
Mile High Malaise: Lakers Flatten Listless Nuggets
It is not easy to take a 3-0 lead in a series because even underdog teams tend to fight relentlessly to prevent that from happening; this year, only the Lakers and the defending champion Spurs have won the first three games in their respective series. Even the league-leading 66-16 Boston Celtics lost their game three versus the Atlanta Hawks, a team that had a sub-.500 regular season record. MVP candidates LeBron James and Chris Paul played very well in leading their teams to two home wins each only to lose their game threes on the road; James had a decent game three individually, while Paul played well below his usual standard. On the other hand, Bryant set the tone for his team with his approach to game three and he backed up that attitude with hi...
Sunday, Apr 13
The Score, the Key Stat, the Bottom Line: Playoff Positioning
The Bottom Line: Despite the loss, the Hawks moved one step closer to clinching a playoff berth--and a first round matchup with the Celtics--because the Indiana Pacers lost 107-103 to the Charlotte Bobcats. All the Hawks need now is one more win or one more Indiana loss. The Hawks are a young, upcoming team but they don't have the experience, the mental focus or the defense that will be necessary to challenge the Celtics in the playoffs. Considering that as many as three of the East playoff teams may have losing records it is somewhat appropriate that the battle for the last spot may be decided more by other teams' losses than by Atlanta's wins; the Hawks are 2-3 in their last five games, including a 112-98 loss to Indiana.
Sunday, Apr 6
Jazz, Hornets, Lakers Excel Against the Best of the West
The Hornets are considered one of the most surprising teams of this season but maybe we should not be quite so surprised; last season, Chris Paul missed 18 games and David West missed 30 games. West's extended absence proved to be particularly damaging; the Hornets were 28-24 when he played (.538) and 11-19 (.367) when he did not play. Also, Peja Stojakovic played just 13 games for the Hornets in 2006-07 but this season he is healthy again and he has reemerged as one of the league's best three point shooters. Paul and West each earned their first All-Star selections this season and it is only natural that more on court time together has translated into improved play not only from an individual standpoint but also in terms of the team's overall per...
Monday, Mar 31
They're Baaack: "Old, Boring" Spurs Win Seventh Straight Game
For most of this season, talk about the Western Conference has focused on Chris Paul and the surprising New Orleans Hornets, Houston's 22 game winning streak, the reemergence of the Lakers as a contender and the arrival of Shaquille O'Neal in Phoenix--but look who owns the league's best current winning streak (seven games) and has moved into a virtual tie with the Hornets for first place in the Western Conference: none other than the "old, boring" defending champion San Antonio Spurs, who blew out the Rockets 109-88 on Sunday. The Spurs' defense is in playoff mode after a brief midseason siesta; they held the Rockets to .402 field goal shooting, including a 5-22 effort from Tracy McGrady, who finished with just 13 points.
Sunday, Mar 9
T-Mac Attack: McGrady Scores 41, Lifts Rockets Over Hornets
Tracy McGrady played all 48 minutes and scored 41 points on Sunday as the Houston Rockets defeated the New Orleans Hornets 106-96, running their winning streak to 18 games. That is the longest winning streak in the NBA this season and tied for the fourth longest single-season winning streak in NBA history (the '70 Knicks, '82 Celtics and '96 Bulls also won 18 straight games). If the Rockets beat New Jersey on Monday then they will tie the '00 Lakers and trail only the '71 Bucks (20 games) and the '72 Lakers (33 games); although most press reports do not mention this, the NBA Guide lists one other winning streak among the all-time leaders: the Washington Capitols won 20 straight games in 1948, spanning the final five games of the 1947-48 season...
Tuesday, Jan 29
NBA Coast to Coast Crew Hands Out First Half Awards
Anthony, Legler, Rose and the rest of the basketball fans in America could all agree on one thing: the Miami Heat have authored the worst performance. Anthony minced no words on this subject, calling the Heat "the most embarrassing team in professional sports in America." That about sums it up. The only thing that I can add is that we need about a five year moratorium on anyone trying to even suggest that Dwyane Wade is as good as Kobe Bryant. I understand that Wade is battling some injuries but so is Bryant and every other top player in the league; Wade is healthy enough to play over 38 mpg and score 25 ppg, so his physical condition is not the primary problem in Miami. Last year, some people questioned the significance of Kobe Bryant's string of 40 an...
