Hornets in Washington to play the Wizards today, trying to build on those two road wins earlier in the week. Game tipping at noon Central.
The Wizards have been in turmoil lately with the whole Gilbert Arenas gun fiasco, which saw him get suspended indefinitely. They're also expected to be one of the more active teams leading up to the Feb. 18 trade deadline, with rumors abound about the likes of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.
For right now though, the Wizards are 12-22 basketball team coming off a surprise win over the visiting Magic on Friday. Jamison has led them in scoring the past three games with at least 26 per, while guys like Butler, Randy Foye and Nick Young have been taking turns having big scoring nights. Some numbers:
Pace: Wizards 94.1 (8th), Hornets 91.9 (20th)
Offensive Efficiency: Wizards 101.8 (23rd), Hornets 103.2 (20th)
Defensive Efficiency: Wizards 105.8 (21st), Hornets 105.6 (20th)
The Hornets are gunning for their sixth straight win overall, and hoping they don't need all 48 minutes to secure it after struggling against the Nets on Friday.
Linkage:
- Journals: Hornets' Store Lacking in Team | Trade Talk
- Lagniappe: More make-believe trades and stuff
- Rival bloggers: Bullets Forever | Truth About It (THN) | Wizards Insider
(Many thanks to Dariusz for the banner, today featuring Morris Peterson. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz's designs in our Wallpapers vault.)
34 inspiring comments post your own
DutchHornet
01/10/10 10:45 AM
Finally a game I can watch without having to adjust my sleeping rhythm. Go Hornets!
#1
notoriousBEE
01/10/10 12:34 PM
peja is 3 for 3 from downtown. maybe he's finally gonna break out of this slump.
#2
notoriousBEE
01/10/10 01:18 PM
Last year, it seemed that the hornet's first unit would always finish the first quarter with an 8-10 point lead, which would be immediately blown by the second unit in quarter 2. The second unit is sooooooo much better this year, I actually look forward to guys coming off the bench - these guys are actually extending leads in the second quarter. Surely, this has lots to do with better players like Collison and Songalia, but I notice that Bower likes to leave at least one starter on the floor with the rest of the second unit. In contrast, I seem to remember Scott preferring to rest the entire starting 5 early in quarter 2, so they could watch their lead disappear. It seems like Bower's rotations don't disrupt the flow of the game like Scott's sometimes appeared to do. Am I imagining this? Perhaps my impression of smoother rotations is just a byproduct of Bower leaving CP3 on the floor for 40 minutes/game (CP3 = smooth) Any thoughts?
really nice first half for the hornets here. let's hope they don't take the third quarter off.
#3
Julia
01/10/10 01:18 PM
Let's hope so! Even though Chris Paul is a superstar, he hustles for every single loose ball and rebound. It's those hustle plays that can really make a difference in games sometimes. It's so refreshing to see!
#4
420ftJesus
01/10/10 01:22 PM
I remember Byron's rotations became
more 'chunky' last season compared to before. In the happy time we'd sub out people in ones and twos and end the half often with Pargo instead of Mo. Last year it seemed he started the quarters either with all or without all the starters, make changes once the damage was done, rinse, and repeat.
#5
Julia
01/10/10 01:43 PM
I love how Chris just picks up the ball from next to Foye out of bounds when Chris missed the fastbreak layup and completely ignores him and he just cradles it but on the other hand, I hate how we gave up our lead...
#6
notoriousBEE
01/10/10 01:51 PM
Looks like we're in for another close one. I'm still waiting for the game where everything just clicks for 48 minutes. It will happen. Let's hope for a strong final 12 minutes.
#7
MaxALM
01/10/10 01:53 PM
Can we please take Songaila out of the game? When he makes shots, i love him, when he doesn't i hate him. He can't rebound for his life.
#8
MaxALM
01/10/10 01:55 PM
4 missed free throws and he can't even put up a jumper without getting blocked!!! what a moron
#9
pinoyballah
01/10/10 02:05 PM
wow...yet another game going down to its final minutes.
#10
QueenBee
01/10/10 02:13 PM
Let's play some defense Hornets! The refs like close games because there were some terrible, terrible calls in the 3rd and looks like they're continuing into the 4th. I was beginning to think Songaila was trying to help his former team by missing free throws he normally makes. No, players don't make every single free throw but he sure as heck is a better ft shooter than he's been displaying today.
#11
QueenBee
01/10/10 02:13 PM
Note to refs: Most people are watching football. They are not watching you.
#12
QueenBee
01/10/10 02:18 PM
Put a body on Nick freakin Young!
#13
QueenBee
01/10/10 02:18 PM
DEFENSE!!
#14
notoriousBEE
01/10/10 02:24 PM
6 in a row and still plenty of room for improvement. Lots of missed free throws in this game and last. That's a sure fire way to let teams hang around.
#15
420ftJesus
01/10/10 02:25 PM
Nice close, guys.
Can anyone explain why the losing team who's playing foulsies waits even an instant to foul once the ball is inbounded? They waited over a second to foul Posey with about 20s left.
#16
Caleb462
01/10/10 02:29 PM
6 in a row... 6 in a row! 3 in a row on the road!
Another too close win? Sure, and giving up 58%(!) shooting is uh... not good, but it's still six in a row.
Good to see CP break out of his kinda/sorta scoring slump. 26 points on 20 shots. And one of those bounce back games for Peja too... 20 points on 13 shots.
What makes me most happy though- 15 points, in 15 minutes, for lil buckets... on 8 shots. That's some potent and efficient offense right there.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #17
peronas
01/10/10 02:30 PM
Agreed, notoriousBEE, good close but the FT shooting was woeful at best...
#18
berlinhornets
01/10/10 02:32 PM
Nice win. The Wizards are coming together as of late. They just beat Orlando before. One might call this the"T-Mac effect". Without Gilbert they playing a little harder right now. You acually can see that very often when the star of a team is missing. Especially the first couple of these teams tend to be dangerous. It levels out after that usually. What I want to say is that this win is really good, despite being so close against a sub .500 team again.
#19
Jib
01/10/10 02:34 PM
@420: Usually for 2 reasons:
1) force a turnover before having to foul
2) They want to get it out of that player's hands into someone else's to foul. (though it was likely the other reason haha)
good win though, I don't care if we can't blow a team out, We're one of the hottest in the NBA now. Keep it goin tomorrow against Philly, AI and CP3, should be a good game.
#20
QueenBee
01/10/10 02:41 PM
There were quite a good bit of Hornets fans in the DC crowd. Nice to see. :)
#21
Julia
01/10/10 02:41 PM
And the streak goes on...
#22
YoungFella
01/10/10 02:42 PM
Mmmmm.... Crow.
/wants some more
#23
ticktock6
01/10/10 02:42 PM
Technically we are not "one of' the hottest teams in the NBA. We ARE the hottest team. No one has a streak of more than 3 except us.
hornetshype.com #24
420ftJesus
01/10/10 02:43 PM
Thanks for the reply. Good points.
#25
MaxALM
01/10/10 02:44 PM
Songaila had no business playing the entire 4th quarter. I would have yanked him after going 0-4 on free throws. No show for Okafor in the 4th....i dk what thats about.
#26
YoungFella
01/10/10 02:46 PM
Mmmmm.... Crow.
/wants some more
#27
Jib
01/10/10 02:48 PM
@tick tock: never before have I been so happy to be corrected lol
And just throwing it out there, I though West should've had some more shots, he had 15 on 6-9 (his high percentage shooting as of late has been more than pleasing). I was disappointed with the 2 rebounds though but the way he had to guard Jamison i never saw him with much opprotunity to crash the boards so I won't mind it much.
#28
notoriousBEE
01/10/10 05:09 PM
17-10 since Bower/Floyd took over, and that is without CP3 for 8 games - not too shabby. I can't believe I wanted the hornet's to trade D-West for anthony randolph. I'm sorry David, what was I thinking!
#29
MaxALM
01/10/10 05:35 PM
@ Notorious -- I'm kind of in the same boat. 10 days ago I was drooling at the thought of a trade involving Anthony Randolph. With the way D-West is playing though, I can't say I would want anybody in his place. It's great to see West fully motivated again! This team looks completely different when West is playing with energy and passion.
#30
QueenBee
01/10/10 05:37 PM
Am I the only one seeing the header up top saying Hornets @ Celtics?
#31
420ftJesus
01/10/10 08:00 PM
You are not the only one seeing that.
#32
nikkoewan
01/10/10 08:18 PM
i was about to comment on the same thing, but thought other wise because this is a hornets site :))
#33
Niall Doherty
01/10/10 09:57 PM
My bad on the banner mix up. Switched it to an old one by mistake this afternoon.
www.ndoherty.com #34