My optimism is pretty much all played out after these two games. There's a lot that could be said about the game, but I'll just list a set of five and let those of you who are up to it fill in the rest.
- I can't remember a single Hornet fast break before the bench was cleared in the fourth. Not even one consisting only of Paul. I thought they wanted to push the game a little?
- Tyson Chandler can barely jump. Sure, he got a pair of alley-oops - when he was given about ten feet to pick up speed. But while rebounding he did most of his work flat-footed. If he didn't body his guy, they just jumped and took the ball out of his hands because he wouldn't(couldn't) really jump himself. In the fourth he was limping noticeably.
- The Nuggets hit a ton of straight up mid-range jumpers, which is typically the shot you want to give. Carmelo was exclusively a midrange jumpshooter in this game, and he only got 22 points on 20 shots. That's what we WANT. Again it was wasted.
- Paul was bumped every time he drove. On the way in, and if he made it past the first guy, he was bumped by whomever was in the paint. Tough, physical defense by Denver - and it paid off because Paul only shot four free throws.
- Turnovers were a big problem, particularly steals. 8 steals for the Nuggets, 1 for the Hornets.
It was a depressing game - and the way the team has played the last month reminded me of my favorite despair.com poster:
So, we now have to pin our hopes on sweeping the games at home to even the series. Next game is Saturday. G'night.
16 fluffy comments post your own
Mikey
04/23/09 01:13 AM
Game 1: I thought we quit.
Game 2: The boys played hard. I did not see one single adjustment, other than not letting Billups get a bunch of wide open looks. The Hornets are just getting dominted by a superior defensive team. This will be over by Monday night. Billups is showing Paul what it means to be a championship level point guard. Paul is flat out getting dominated in this series. 5 turnovers again tonight, keeping his average against the Nuggets at 5.0 per game.
#1
Andrea
04/23/09 01:27 AM
I'm not optimistic either
Even though I've always believed that Denver's done the best job on him defensively of any team in the league, is CP starting to wear down? I fully expect him to turn the ball over because Denver's physical D and the fact that he has the ball so much isn't a good mix but something just seems off about the way he's playing. He's played over 150 games over these past 2 seasons + playoffs and Olympic ball so I wouldn't be shocked if he isn't able to give much the remainder of this series but I doubt he'll go quietly...can't say the same for the rest of the guys.
#2
Roc217
04/23/09 01:34 AM
Andrea, I agree. It's wearing on him. He looked extra passive tonight. More than he has that I can remember. He didn't even look up for his shot tonight. Granted Denver is making his life miserable in this series with the quick, big guards and birdman, nene in the paint if he gets past his defender. Kenny Smith is right, He won't be able to play like he needs to and be as affective in this series. With Tyson hobbled and Dwest going in and out and the bench doing their usual disappearing act.....I hate to even say the words
#3
cpeezy
04/23/09 01:36 AM
If Tyson cant play, its time to shut him down...time to get ready for football
#4
NOEngineer
04/23/09 02:19 AM
David West has had back-to-back pathetic games. Tonight he had a missed lay-up (uncontested), threw at least one patented lazy pass, shot a pathetic percentage, had lazy rotations as usual on D, and resulted in at least one turnover charged to CP3 due to lazily waiting for the lob while his man went for the ball. Not much boxing out either. Unless by some miracle we win this series, he won't ever get another All-Star selection.
Tyson manned up well on Nene. His offense was way off, however.
Byron Scott blew this one when he left CP3 on the bench after Billups returned. Down 2 transformed into down 8 in a flash.
As much as I liked the Daniels move, he stunk tonight. Posey was effective. Butler and Stojakovich made brief cameos on offense, but were poor on defense. Hilton was a complete sieve on defense, and Marks wasn't much better. Rebounding in the last 3 quarters was pathetic.
There was a huge glaring obvious discrepancy in how bumps and touches on Chauncey were called versus bumps on Chris. Those extra free throws were the difference in the first two quarters. As usual, ridiculous offensive fouls were called as needed to stop any brief flashes of Hornets momentum.
On the bright side, if we improve our scoring differential by 15 points every game, we win the series! Wooo!
#5
saltandcarbon
04/23/09 02:50 AM
I feel sick for Chris. He is so talented he is now expected to play through the extra attention of body checks and swipes. The refs don't call it because of how often he can handle it. But you reach a point where you can't play the game getting hammered so much, and then he has to try and sell the contact to make it stop. Whereby he gets labelled a flopper.
Even worse, he is the best point guard in the world. Point. Guard. For that to have any bearing on a game, he needs to have teammates round him who can play their roles and convert. A coach who gives him structure to work within. Right now he has nothing. Like a carpenter without a lathe or a pin up without an airbrush. It's really, really sad.
#6
JChangNZ
04/23/09 03:17 AM
Regarding Tyson and his (dis)ability to jump and contest because of his injuries makes me wonder why Marks (or some better frontcourt player) isn't playing longer minutes. A lot of points given up in the point I noticed wasn't because Chandler couldn't be bothered to move to the player, it was because I could tell he was in pain. Please, Hornets' fans and Coach Scott, I know TC is a pivotal player in our team and I'm fine with him playing some minutes, but Marks has done a fair job for us this season and I think he deserves some more playing time given the situation.
#7
saltandcarbon
04/23/09 05:01 AM
@JChang: Agreed. Marks seems to have done well against other front courts that aren't too physically big. And why Bowen is inactive but Brown is getting burn is not within my understanding...
#8
Juncti
04/23/09 08:26 AM
Here's my brief summary of the post season:
Denver switched into playoff mode
Hornets didn't
#9
commentcava
04/23/09 09:32 AM
Last night, Barkley summed the series up in one sentence when he said, "the hornets don't have the advantage at any position." Before the series, when I read position matchups that gave the edge to the Nuggets I thought they were crap. Now, I believe them.
#10
ticktock6
04/23/09 09:40 AM
It's the same stuff people said last year, this summer, this year. We wouldn't have these problems if the front office had gone/decides to go after 1) a good slashing scorer who can get to the rim and the line, in addition to Paul/West 2) a good backup big. Three below average ones don't equal one good one. That math doesn't work.
hornetshype.com #11
bigindian15
04/23/09 10:12 AM
It's really simple: the rest of the West got better, and we got worse. Look at our lineup:
CP: a little better than last year
Butler: basically replacing Mo Pete but a little better
Peja: much worse than last year
West: about the same
Tyson: much worse than last year
Bench: only 1 reliable guy (Posey) he just can't carry the bench like Pargo did last year
I think West is the guy who gets traded this offseason. Chandler means more to our team
#12
Mikey
04/23/09 10:59 AM
Denver is re-writing the book on how to defend a point guard like Chris Paul. Of course, you have to have the personnel to accomplish that type of defensive scheme, which Denver has. They have an extremely athletic big that can effectively take away your 2nd scoring option. They have a quick-footed defensive back court to close on shooters. They also have the mindset to knock the diminutive Paul on his buttocks every chance they get. It looks almost like how the Pistons used to dominate Michael Jordan in the late 80's. I expect to see a few more calls go the Hornets way in New Orleans. For some reason, that always seems to be the case. But with the way Chauncey Billups is playing, it won't matter. If he can keep this level of focus and intensity up, this will be a sweep.
#13
Mazon
04/23/09 01:08 PM
bigindian, sorry to say this but I wouldn't call Posey reliable. A few times in the third quarter and in the beginning of the fourth, he refused to even put a hand up to contest the shot. I dunno but hes not much of a shutdown defender. Maybe he got old over the summer. But he wasn't signed to carry the bench. Or did I miss something? In the off season when we let pargo go, I thought for sure we were looking to get a more effiecent bench scorer. You can talk about his low shooting perc. but the bench has to have someone who can create their own shots!!! Seriously, no one on are bench can do that. Thats why you see the shot clock dissappear with nothing happening when our second unit is out there.
I'm sad we let chris anderson go but I can understand why we did. But brandon bass too? We just let him go as a free agent, right? Management is starting to get a lot of strikes. . .
P.S.- Not a big fan of the refs in these first two games!!!!!! Biased for the Nuggets but horrid all around. It was entertaining seeing the lady ref seperate tyson and nene :-)
#14
the_terry
04/23/09 02:01 PM
The three double techs in the first two games is the refs way of saying "we're not up to the task of officiating games of this nature". How did Chandler get the teck when Nene got in his face? I was floored at many of the calls myself, but even with better officiating, we still lose both games. We could put a broom in the game instead of Hilton Armstrong and it would be just as effective.
The fact is we're a soft team, and we're getting beat up without putting up a fight. The toughest guy on our team is also the smallest guy.
#15
Caleb462
04/24/09 10:49 AM
"Unless by some miracle we win this series, he won't ever get another All-Star selection."
Nonsense... sometimes players have bad playoff series. It happens.. really has no bearing on future all-star selections. And he still has time to turn it around anyway.
"Billups is showing Paul what it means to be a championship level point guard."
Well, he has the roster around him to be able to do that, and he's getting *very* favorable treatment from the refs. Billups has been getting the "superstar calls" that Denver fans feared CP would get. I'm not trying to play down his performances, they've been exceptional... just trying to have some perspective.
"the hornets don't have the advantage at any position."
Uh... point guard. Granted, it hasn't seemed that way so far... but the advantage is still there. The difference is that Billups has a ton of complimetary talent and Paul has very little. Denver is a pretty deep team compared to the Hornets.
Superstar scorer, elite defensive big man, above average offensive big man, excellent bench big man, bench scorer... Denver has all this.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #16