The Hornets roll into Philadelphia this evening, searching their souls for a way to beat the 11-25 Sixers sans Hilton Armstrong.
The Sixers have split their last six games. On Saturday they dealt the Pistons their 12th straight loss, and have had impressive wins against the Nuggets and Blazers in recent weeks. All those victories came on the road, where Philly are 7-13 this season compared to just 4-12 in Philly.
Lou Williams, Andre Iguodala and Samuel Dalembert have been playing well for the Sixers, while Elton Brand returned from a stomach illness Saturday to drop 25 on the Pistons. Allen Iverson missed that game in Detroit due to arthritis in his knee, and is expected to be a game-time decision today. His play of late has been consistently erratic, as you'd expect.
Some numbers:
Pace: Sixers 91.4 (24th), Hornets 92.0 (20th)
Offensive Efficiency: Sixers 104.0 (16th), Hornets 103.7 (18th)
Defensive Efficiency: Sixers 107.9 (28th), Hornets 105.8 (20th)
The Hornets are riding an NBA-best six-game winning streak but have had to battle to the final minutes for all of them. Here's hoping they can take it to the next level this evening. Game tips at 6 Central.
Linkage:
- Lagniappe: Nets-Hornets last play breakdown, plus a rumor that the Spurs offered Parker for Paul
- Rival bloggers: Depressed Fan | Liberty Ballers | Philadunkia (THN)
(Many thanks to Dariusz for today's banner featuring Devin Brown. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz's designs in our Wallpapers vault.)
30 exceptional comments post your own
JCS
01/11/10 05:03 PM
I don't think we have anyone who can guard Iggy Pop, but everyone else should match up well. All things considered, this game will be another final minute throwdown.
lovethegame.tumblr.com #1
Mark
01/11/10 06:01 PM
If we down to the wire against the sixers, then who do we really have a chance to win convincingly with any team? Haha.
BTW, nice colourway on those kicks, JCS. Those the Spizike's?
www.dogpile.com/ #2
JCS
01/11/10 06:16 PM
@ Mark
Yes they are. It's the Do The Right Thing colorway.
lovethegame.tumblr.com #3
420ftJesus
01/11/10 06:41 PM
I'll take last minute heroics at this point, 4 minutes into the second...
#4
Caleb462
01/11/10 06:42 PM
Not looking good early, but important to note... Philly has had a habit of building leads and then flushing them away this season.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #5
Grayson
01/11/10 06:44 PM
I thought we might lose to Philly. We just cannot score, I see no easy baskets out there.
#6
Caleb462
01/11/10 06:47 PM
Man JuJu looking completely out of control with his handle.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #7
420ftJesus
01/11/10 06:50 PM
That 8s violation was called in error according to the CST timer (not echoing the official time?) and Bower.
Julian did bad, Julian did good.
Winter then Spring.
#8
Caleb462
01/11/10 06:55 PM
Yeah that didn't seem like 8 seconds to me.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #9
Caleb462
01/11/10 07:02 PM
See guys? Philly coughs up leads...
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #10
JCS
01/11/10 07:07 PM
Dalembert is having a Block Party
lovethegame.tumblr.com #11
Grayson
01/11/10 07:19 PM
@Caleb Haven't quite yet. But could happen.
#12
winze
01/11/10 07:29 PM
good work hornets back on even terms, and the scary part is Chris Paul hasn't gone into scoring mode and is just racking up the assists.
we need to close this out now and avoid 4th quarter heroics :)
#13
Caleb462
01/11/10 08:10 PM
Love Thornton crashing the boards!
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #14
Caleb462
01/11/10 08:17 PM
Haha... tied with 40 seconds to go. Yeah I want domination, but I can't help but love it.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #15
Caleb462
01/11/10 08:23 PM
Ugh, that was not a good posession.
neworleansbasketball.blogspot.com #16
MaxALM
01/11/10 08:30 PM
Peja = moron. Couldn't ask for a worse shot. I don't know why Bower put in took out Thornton, who was crashing the glass with the putbacks. "Hey, that seems to be working for us...let's abandon that." And offensive rebounds? Your best chance is to leave Okafor in. Why take him out for someone who has been slumping for game after game after game?
#17
peronas
01/11/10 08:44 PM
Loved the resolve to keep fighting back, especially on the second game of a back to back on the road following a close one yesterday.
An I loved Thornton's fight late.
But, ugly ugly finish, brought about flashbacks of West's ill fated attempt to win that miami game early in the season. It didn't look like anyone was on the same page after West gave up backing down Dalembert. Not sure if that Peja shot was really option B but the play looked broken and everyone seemed lost to me...
#18
Mark
01/11/10 08:53 PM
That 11-0 run really put us in a bad place. I didn't watch most of it, but I'm guess at least we're consistent. Consistently mediocre.
Baby steps.
www.dogpile.com/ #19
JCS
01/11/10 09:04 PM
The Hornets are turning into the Bulls (my hometeam) with this last minute nonsense. We need to start dominating our opponents and stop messing around.
lovethegame.tumblr.com #20
QueenBee
01/11/10 09:53 PM
I looked at that 8 second violation in slow mo a few times on my DVR and it definitely was NOT 8 seconds. That was a terrible call. I know this was the tail end of a back to back on the road but the Hornets CANNOT allow themselves to get into such a huge hole early in the game the way they did. We better take care of business on Wednesday!
#21
Grayson
01/11/10 09:59 PM
I hate Peja Stojakovic.
Terrible shot. Hey why dont we keep the ball OUT of CP's hands...
#22
Scooter
01/11/10 10:02 PM
anyone know the whereabouts of collison tonight?
#23
420ftJesus
01/11/10 10:06 PM
The points we needed were all sitting there in the first quarter.
That being said, we let bad teams get the best of situations we broke defensively along with letting them disrupt our offense on those last few possessions.
That being said, we're better than a month ago.
Cheers, Hornets, I'm proud of you. Keep it up. I'd like some playoff basketball.
#24
420ftJesus
01/11/10 10:07 PM
DC bruised knee.
That rhymes.
#25
Chung
01/11/10 10:18 PM
Peja....choke artist. Just another exhibit in his gallery. That shot wasn't even close.
#26
Scooter
01/11/10 10:24 PM
i was at the game.. a couple personal highlights:
-getting a head nod from devon brown
-my girlfriend getting hit in the head with a ball after a mo pete brick during shootaround
-my short, but sweet, convo with sean marks:
me: "hey sean, how you feeling?
sean: "good. thanks man"
#27
420ftJesus
01/11/10 10:40 PM
Nice personal highlights. I got a wave from Peja at a Rockets game last November. That's the only time Teal comes in handy: as a Hornets fan beacon.
#28
Ryan Schwan
01/11/10 10:47 PM
A little harsh on Peja guys. Considering the number of big threes at the end of games that he's hit for us, I don't have any problem with trying to get him that shot.
I do have a problem with him trying to draw a foul rather than hit the shot.
www.hornets247.com #29
MaxALM
01/11/10 11:34 PM
Peja has certainly had his highlights, yes...but the fact that they gave him the ball on that last possession was just purely ridiculous. He was struggling all game (shot something like 1-7 from 3 pt), has been struggling for a very long time. Terrible coaching decision. Peja BLEWWWWWWW IT.
This is the second time I can think of where the Hornets lost simply because of 1st quarter performance. Like today, the game @ Dallas saw the Hornets go down by so many points, they used up most of their energy just trying to get back to tying it. Abysmal shooting the in 1st was really the only reason they lost this game. Gotta come out tough and stay tough, guys.
#30