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Now THAT was a barnburner.  When West got that technical in the fourth, with the Hornets down 3, I was certain that game was done.  Then, Wow.  Three missed Dallas free-throws later, Peja, drills a slightly off-balance three, his first and only made shot of the night, West moves his feet and gets a steal, and the Hornets do their usual unstoppable act in overtime.  Lots to talk about in this one:

• First the Chris Paul Insane Shooting Update:  He went 14-23 tonight, and 3-4 from three.  Incredibly, that lowers his shooting percentages for the season to 64% from the field and 75% from three. 
  
  
• Tonight we got to see the difference between Bobby Brown the point guard, and Bobby Brown the shooting guard.  He had some of the best cuts I've seen by a Hornet player in years, and he's starting to get more comfortable with his teammates.  He still has a too-quick trigger finger at times, but tonight something huge happened:  Early in the second quarter, Bobby was getting out of control - he had already had two bad posessions dribbling the ball too much and was about to launch into another one when a piercing whistle cut the air.  Bobby stopped, looked up, and Byron yelled out instructions, gesturing furiously.  Moments later, the ball was in Songaila's hands, the play was being run, and Bobby never looked out of control again.
  
  
• Byron also made some other important moves tonight.  He had Posey on the floor to start the fourth - and when Posey couldn't even stay in the same area code with Jason Terry on two straight posessions, he put in Chris Paul, shifted Mo Pete to Terry and went with that.  Now, that may seem like no big deal - but for Byron, that's a HUGE deal.  He's always been one to settle on rotations, and try to stick with them, even when things start crapping out.  Tonight, he yanked Posey quick.  He yanked Armstrong quick after a couple bad offensive and defensive lapses, and went with Songaila.  When Peterson couldn't harass Terry, he yanked him and went  with Bobby, who could at least stay in front of him most of the time.  Can we hope Byron is turning the corner? 
  

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Before you get to the preview, be sure to watch Niall's excellent first stab at video analysis as he reviews the pick and roll being run by Okafor and Paul.

Game Preview

Matchup: Mavericks(3-1) @ Hornets(1-3)

Dallas has opened the season in impressive fashion, falling in their first game to a hot-shooting Wizards team, but then winning their next three against the Lakers, Clippers and Jazz by an average of 10 points.  Dirk Nowitzki has been tremendous so far, pouring in 30 points a game and contributing everywhere with assists, steals, rebounds and even a good number of blocks.  Last night, he led a comeback against the Jazz and dropped 29 points in the fourth quarter alone.  29 freakin' points in 12 minutes.  Hopefully that tired him out for tonight's game.

For a team that has a reputation for being all offense, little defense, Dallas has been getting their wins done by riding Nowitzki's scoring, and shutting the other team down.  Opponents have shot 42.5% from the floor, and 32.8% from deep.  The Mavericks are also managing to draw 28 free throws a game(12 from Nowitzki alone), while only giving up 19 free throws a game to their opponents.

The Hornets have been riding a big gun as well, as Chris Paul has so far averaged 28 points a game.  Strangely enough, Paul has managed to score that much on one less shot per game than he took last year, compensating instead with other-worldly shooting percentages of 66% from the field and 82% from three.  The dude is crazy.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, Paul may be on fire, but their interior defense has been terrible, allowing opposing players to shoot 52% inside the three-point stripe.  They've also been unable to control the boards, giving up a two to one advantage on the offensive glass.(6.8 orebs for Hornets, 12 on average per opponent)  Since rebounding is a particular strength of the Mavericks, as Dampier, Marion, and Kidd are above-average rebounders at their position and Nowitzki is no slouch, things could get ugly tonight if the Hornets don't clean the glass.

Injuries:

Mavericks: Josh Howard and Tim Thomas remain out.  Drew Gooden is Day-to-Day but did not play last night against the Jazz.
Hornets: Diogu's knee has healed enough to allow him to practice.  No word yet if he'll be able to play.

Positional Analysis

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The Hornets led at the start, kept it close the rest of the game, and then were out-executed by the Celtics when the Boston starting five entered with a few minutes left.  As usual, there was some good, some bad, and some ugly, but the guys played hard, displayed improving familiarity with one another, and generally showed enough that I came away satisfied.  Let's get to the observations.

• First and foremost, the Hornets lost the game because of Kevin Garnett.  After keeping him in check fairly well through the first three quarters, the Celtics went to him consistently in the fourth and he couldn't be stopped.  David West played excellent defense on him, contesting every shot and anticipating his moves, but Garnett kept drilling tough shots over the top of him.  It was a tour de force.
  
  
• On the offensive end, West and Okafor had a terrible game.  The Celtics battled West all game for position and then attacked him aggressively every time he managed to catch the ball in the post, making it impossible for him to work.  Their traps came from all sides, and sometimes he ended up taking some very bad shots since he had no open avenue for passing out. Okafor had the same problems that Dwight Howard encountered last year playing against Kendrick Perkins.  Perkins is limited, but he's as strong as a bull and defends the post extremely well.  Okafor missed some point-blank shots he normally wouldn't early, and by the second half he was so tired of battling Perkins he took a trio of mid-range jumpers.  I haven't done a full Emeka Okafor post to detail his offense, but as a mid-range shooter, he's terrible.  Terrible.  As in 30% shooting from there last season.
  
  
• Chris Paul was very quiet in the first half, picking his moments and trying to get his big men going.  In the second half, he realized it wasn't likely to happen and dropped fifteen points and four assists in the quarter.  It was vintage Paul.  I also wanted to point out that Paul's jumper, if he's given only a little room, has been automatic so far.  Until a forced three at the end of the shot clock in the third, he'd hit every three-pointer he'd taken this season, even the three-quarter's court heave he put up just after the buzzer to end the half tonight.  I know it won't happen, but if he continues to shoot this well, I'm going to have a Paulgasm.  That could be messy.

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The Kings roll into New Orleans tonight to take on the Hornets in the home opener for New Orleans.  Both teams are 0-1, but both teams have wildly differing expectations for the season.  The Hornets are expected to make the playoffs, the Kings are expected to push to be the worst team in the league.

You'd think I'd be salivatin' for this matchup.  I'm not, really.  The Kings worry me.  It's not because they have a lot of awesome players.  It's because they are are good at one thing: shooting a lot of threes.  The Hornets are really good at one thing:  giving up lots of open threes.  Last year, some of the Hornets worst defeats were at the hands of three-happy teams, so it's not inconceivable that the Kings get hot and the Hornets go down.

Now, the Hornets should absolutely win tonight, as you'll see in the player matchup section below, but that still doesn't stop me from worrying.  And if the Hornets do lose, the Cleveland Cavaliers won't be alone in the disbelieving, mournful fan basement anymore.  I'd rather not have to deal with that, because that would mean I was sad for Halloween.  Who wants a sad Halloween?

Oh - you may have noticed I didn't start this preview with my usual stat pack.  It's because we are one game into the season, and the sample size is so small it makes it meaningless.  That, and our defensive numbers from last game were so depressing that trying to type  them made my fingers twitch uncontrollably, so I gave up.  I'll probably start including the stat-pack again once we hit the 10-game mark.

Injuries:

Kings: Beno Udrih may return from injury tonight.  Francisco Garcia is out after injuring himself on an exercise ball in the pre-season.  If there is anyone in the league who needs to work on their ballhandling, it's Garcia.
Hornets: Ike Diogu is still fighting knee trouble.  Sean Marks has a stiff neck and should remain inactive.

Positional Analysis

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After the LiveBlog and game were over, I went back and watched the game again, wanting to closely watch Wright and Okafor's performance, and then determine what caused the blowout.  After seeing it the second time, I actually felt a lot better than I did during the game, because what caused the Hornet's downfall is eminently correctable.

The Hornets, despite the dearth of points provided by the bench, had a strong enough offensive attack to have won the game.  They shot 50% from the field and 50% from deep.  They only had 10 turnovers, and actually drew two more free throws than the Spurs.(though they hit one less)

What killed the Hornets was their defense, and defense that could not be laid at the feet of the bench.  Yes, Songaila didn't get back on defense fast enough.  Yes, Bobby Brown was incapable of getting back into a play once his opponent got a step on him.  Yes, Hilton Armstrong couldn't corral a defense rebound in traffic to save his life.  Still, other than Bobby, those guys were not on the floor during the major 2nd quarter run.  It was the starters.

Now, why would that make me feel better about the game?  Aren't the starters supposed to be better?  True.  But they have an excuse.   They weren't playing badly on defense early on.(other than Paul and West failing twice to defend a pick and pop with Bonner appropriately)  But then, early second quarter, there were four miscues on defense in five posessions.  Okafor stepped out twice to contest shots, and West and Wright failed to fill in behind him.(To be expected.  Chandler never stepped OUT to defend.  He stayed home.)  Then Okafor, Wright and Peterson got confused on a defensive rotation, followed by Okafor, West and Brown doing the same.  Faced with that series of mistakes, Byron made a defensive change, and it proved disastrous:

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