The Hornets will try bounce back from that deflating loss to the Lakers on Wednesday as they host the Portland Trail Blazers this evening, game tipping a little after 7pm. The visitors got Greg Oden back from injury on Wednesday and are currently 5-3 on the season. They lost their first three games on the road (Laker, Suns, Jazz) but won the last two (Magic, Heat).
I went and got me one of those newfangled iPhone gizmos yesterday, so I'll try keeping up with the comments live from the Arena this evening. Should be an adventure.
Linkage:
- Ryan's game preview
- Rival bloggers: Blazers Edge | Bust a Bucket
- Hornets Hype: The Coase Corollary
- Best of N.O. Blog: Podcast with Bethlehem Shoals
14 thoughtful comments post your own
mW
11/14/08 05:52 PM
@ Niall: make sure you have your wifi on ... the 3G is spotty inside the Arena ...
www.hornetshype.com #1
Niall Doherty
11/14/08 07:05 PM
Free wifi! Happy days.
www.ndoherty.com #2
mW
11/14/08 07:38 PM
Decent first quarter. Not quite as dominant defensively as I would have liked, though.
www.hornetshype.com #3
Niall Doherty
11/14/08 08:08 PM
Down 3 at the half. Nice balanced attack by the Blazers. No Mike James yet, Devin Brown was pretty solid in his place. West still struggling. What's he have, 3 fouls already?
www.ndoherty.com #4
mW
11/14/08 08:40 PM
Tie game near the end of the third. CP has been quiet. Too quiet?
www.hornetshype.com #5
Juncti
11/14/08 09:28 PM
Positive things tonight, the new bench lineup seems to help the energy a bit. Portland still went on a run without Paul in the game, but it seemed it was more shots not dropping rather than poor plays like with james.
They still need to tighten up the shooting a bit. Missing shots they should be making.
Paul's streak comes to an end, but I'm sure he's not really concerned about that.
Not a bad night overall, hung in there against a strong team, never let the game get away, and clamped down when it counted. Now they need to take what they learned tonight and build on it.
One thing of concern, this West hand injury. That could get ugly.
#6
Roc217
11/14/08 09:48 PM
Glad we won. Glad the bench played better than they have since game one. Happy we have Posey because he saved us tonight. But....
I am worried about the offense. There's too much standing around, too much one on one. With CP as PG that should never be. They still look stagnant. Unsure. Slow. Cmon! Where is that high scoring team from last season? somebody cut to the basket. where is that Princeton motion offense they are supposed to run. I'm happy they won but still not excited about how they are playing.
#7
Roc217
11/14/08 09:48 PM
What injury. What is the issue with his hand. I know he hurt it on a rebound but is there anything broken or something that can keep him out
#8
mW
11/14/08 09:55 PM
What problems with the offense? I thought they had great movement tonight. The best we've seen all year.
www.hornetshype.com #9
fsumatthunter
11/14/08 10:16 PM
I agree, the offense was fine, the final score was a result of pace.
inthehuntwithhunter.blogspot.com #10
Roc217
11/14/08 10:37 PM
My issues tonight:
The end of the shot clock bad shots irk me
Moving the ball around the 3pt line for 10 seconds only to give it to the post for a one on one shot by DWest
No cutters to the basket after pick n roll (TC no longer gets there)
No back cuts to basket
Not alot of driving to the basket
Lack of back to the basket low post offense (Though due to no player having that skill)
Other issues:
Rebounds - seriously what happened to the rebounding? TC had 1 offensive rebound tonight. Dwest isn't athletic to jump for it over people.
Defense:
Letting the opponent get past you on the perimeter so TC has to come out to contest only for TC's man to be wide open.
Slow Rotation on D (in first half. the bench did better job in 3rd quarter) How many times did Dwest leave Aldrige open tonight.
#11
Niall Doherty
11/14/08 11:35 PM
I gotta agree with Roc217. A win is a win, sure, but this game didn't do much to wash away the bad taste left by the loss to the Lakers.
Gotta go dive into the recap.
www.ndoherty.com #12
Jared_W_H
11/14/08 11:49 PM
Eh, don't really agree with Roc's comments. Was happy with how D-West recognized that his mid-range J wasn't falling and posted up/slashed on a more regular basis (although he gave the ball up cheaply a few times early on). Thought our bench (not just Posey, who was phenomenal) had their best game of the year even though the numbers weren't great. Hilton, Devin and Julian all hustled -- DB especially impressed on the defensive end and on offense he showed that we're better off playing him at the 1 than Mike James who rode the bench like the scrub he is. Good win against a solid Portland squad; Greg Oden looks like he's 50.
#13
StefanC
11/15/08 01:10 AM
Greg Oden does look like an old man!
#14