Hornets-Mavericks tonight at the Hive; this one's going national on ESPN (watch it online here). Tip off is at 8:30 p.m. Central.
Our 1-3 Hornets have struggled out of the gate and are making the wrong kind of headlines, while the Mavs come to town feeling oh-so superior with their three-game winning streak. Dallas hosted Utah just last night, and Dirk Nowitzki was playing all kinds of very good basketball, scoring 29 points in the final frame alone and finishing with 40 (highlights here).
After giving up 102 points at home to the Wizards in their opener, the Mavs have allowed the Lakers, Clippers and Jazz to score just 80, 84 and 85 points respectively.
Health check: For Dallas, Drew Gooden, Josh Howard and Tim Thomas are all injured, Quinton Ross is questionable, and assistant coach Popeye Jones is suffering from a real bad hangover. The Hornets will likely stick with the same inactives of Diogu, Marks and Thornton, though Byron Scott has said that changes may be coming soon.
Linkage:
- Ryan's game preview
- Video analysis: CP and Okafor on the pick and roll
- Former Hornets coach Tim Floyd: breaking up a cat fight
- Rival bloggers: Mavs Moneyball | The Two Man Game
(Many thanks to Dariusz for the banner.)
12 exceptional comments post your own
JChangNZ
11/04/09 08:19 PM
On an interesting note: Sean Marks will be blogging for us this season. I think this is his first one :http://www.nba.com/hornets/news/sean_marks_blog_2009_11_04.html?rss=true
And on a side note: I cannot believe he spelled "neighbour" as "neighbor". He's turned American!!
#1
Akademik_Hooligan
11/04/09 09:19 PM
Was that Hilton Armstrong playing a back-door bounce pass from the post for a baseline-cutting Bobby Brown?! *faints*
#2
Mark
11/04/09 10:37 PM
Akademik: Did it end up in a turnover/rimmed out shot? Then that would be believable.
www.dogpile.com/ #3
Lancelot
11/04/09 10:42 PM
Quick observations
- Posey looks TERRIBLE. He's slow footed, and just looks like he doesn't give a damn.
- I love how analysts, and commentators are noting that Bobby Brown should not be running an offense. I would much rather see him play a limited starting role over Mo Pete.
- Songalia really is reminscent of Ryan Bowen. He has all the hustle, but what seems like a much better IQ.
- I DO NOT like seeing 3 slow footed defenders on the court at the same time. Peja, Dwest, and Songalia should not be on the court at the same time.
#4
SaveYourBoredom
11/04/09 11:11 PM
So it's basically a tie game with 2 minutes left, and Jason Terry's hitting any and every shot imaginable, and as "lockdown defender" James Posey rots away on Byron Scott's bench, 3-foot-9 Bobby Brown tries to prevent yet another successful haily mary three from the JET.
My god. I'm so upset right now.
#5
SaveYourBoredom
11/04/09 11:12 PM
Hail Mary, I mean.
#6
Mark
11/04/09 11:28 PM
So... how was it? :)
www.dogpile.com/ #7
Zwie
11/04/09 11:30 PM
welp... i just official, denounced my religion from Christianity to Paulsanity!!!
#8
LSUhornet17
11/04/09 11:45 PM
Grad school ruins lives...had to turn down a ticket to do an essay. Kill me.
Incredible game. We needed that after all the doom and gloom. I'm not allowing myself to think about the game play in depth. I'll think about that tomorrow. Just enjoying the moment.
#9
stormsurge
11/04/09 11:46 PM
Paul-sanna in the highest!!!
www.stormsurgephoto.com #10
urgmasdaughter
11/04/09 11:49 PM
The thing that saves us in the final minutes is Bobby Brown's DEFENSE?!? BBrown isn't quite off the hook yet but he hit a big 3 in OT and played some stellar D late... Good Win!!!
#11
Lancelot
11/04/09 11:55 PM
Um, there is NO WAY that Posey would have been able to keep up with Jason Terry the way he was darting around screens, and back picks. Even CP was having a hard time doing it. I hate to say it, but I think Bobby Brown was easily our best option in that situation.
FURTHER ANALYSI
- We should not have won that game. Poor defense at the beginning of the 4th quarter, and Jason Terry knocking down every shot put the Mavs in a dominating position. Had Jason Terry or Jose Barea made one of the three free throws they missed in the closing seconds we wouldn't have had the privelage of going to overtime with them. This is definitely a game where we should count our blessings.
- Dwest and Mek continued to struggle in communication on defense. There were too many times where they both rushed to defend the same open man leaving Eric Dampier open for an easy put back, or some other extremely high percentage shot. Mek did have a couple of clutch blocks, and continues to look extremely solid.
- Bobby Brown played 30 minutes, and finished with 18 points on 8-15 shooting. Towards the end of the game he played pretty decent defense, and his enthusiasm for hoisting up unnecessary shots was curbed by scowls from CP. There were multiple shot opportunities available for him that he passed up in the 4th, and in OT. I think he is best suited to play alongside CP, and as much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't mind seeing him start alongside CP. He's quick footed, plays with a ton of energy, and isn't too far away from being an above average defender.
With those things being said, I think the lineup will be shaken up slightly over the next couple of games. Julian had his minutes extremely limited tonight, and Hilton barely saw any playing time. He was swapped out for Songalia, as he played alongside both Dwest, and Okafor in the front court. I think we'll continue to see Bobby Brown play big minutes, though it may not necessarily be off the bench, and we may see Julian's minutes kept around the 20 minute mark. You'll probably see something similar happen to Mo Pete's minutes. After Byron's benching of Posey during the 3rd, you may see him banished til the end of the bench, at least until he looks a little bit better out there. Maybe that will give us an opportunity to use Diogu, Marks, Collinson, and Thornton as parts of the second unit with Peja. I know it's ridiculously unrealistic to think that we would introduce four players to the already shaky second unit, but we're not going to have many more games where we squeek by teams like this. Changes like this need to be made soon.
#12