Hornets247.com

Hornets back on the road and a big test awaiting them in Cleveland tonight, their first meeting of the season with the Cavaliers. Game tips at 6 Central.

The Cavs have the best record in the League at 43-14 and are a formidable 24-4 at home. They do come into tonight's game with a season-high three-game losing streak (Den, @Cha, @Orl) but that's probably more bad news than good for the Hornets.

Cleveland made a splash at last week's trade deadline by bringing in Antawn Jamison, and he played much better in Orlando on Sunday (19 points, 9-14 FGs, 8 boards) after going 0-for-12 from the field in his Cavs debut against the Bobcats on Friday. Jamison is expected to make his first start for Cleveland tonight, pushing J.J. Hickson to the bench. (There's also a chance Hickson may not play at all due to illness.)

Oh, and that LeBron James kid has been playing some good basketball: averages of 33.4 points, 10.6 assists, 7.1 rebounds and 2.4 steals this month.

Numbers:

Pace: Cavaliers 93.2 (25th), Hornets 94.8 (17th)
Offensive Efficiency: Cavaliers 108.6 (4th), Hornets 104.5 (13th)
Defensive Efficiency: Cavaliers 101.2 (7th), Hornets 105.1 (18th)

Linkage:

• Journals: The Passing Game - Paul vs. Collison
  
• Lagniappe: Chris Paul's blogging, an interview with Marcus Thornton, and a Hornets Hype classic
  
• Rival bloggers: And One | Cavs: The Blog (THN) | Fear The Sword | WaitingForNextYear

(Many thanks to Dariusz for today's banner featuring James Posey. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz's designs in our Wallpapers vault.)

Back at the start of the season, I launched a Blogger's Power Rankings that has been passing its way around the blogosphere.  Today, it returns to Hornets247 for your reading enjoyment.

The fine blogs that joined us in voting and providing commentary this week are;

3 Shades of Blue
A Stern Warning
Blue Blitz
Bust a Bucket
CelticsBlog
Denver Stiffs
Fear the Sword
Hardwood Paroxysm
The Lakers Nation
Queen City Hoops
RaptorsHQ
With-Malice

Whenever voting of this type occurs, fairly clear tiers of teams shake out, so I will group them accordingly below.  An example of tiers are the Contenders at the top.  The difference between the number one team and the number 3 team is only 5 points, but the 4th team is 20 points behind team 3.  That forms a tier.  Here we go:

The Contenders

Continue reading »

In the fourth quarter, both Chris Paul and James Posey decided they were done, drew their second technical fouls and went off to the showers early.  I was in complete agreement with the sentiment.

That was a terrible game, made more irritating by the incessant ranting provided by the play-by-play crew.  Yes, we could see the Hornets weren't playing hard.  Mark Jackson and Van Gundy needed to shut up.  Observations:

• The Hornets were bad.
  
  
• Don't believe anything Mark Jackson said.  The Hornets are NOT a better defensive team from last year no matter what the per game averages are.  Really, it's not even close - and that could be easily seen by the ten or so wide-open three point shots in the first half.  No rotation.  No effort to rotate.  Yeah, the Cavs shoot 35% on average - but that's when people are contesting them.  Leave em open, and surprise, they shoot well.
  
  
• Butler and Peja were the only guys playing hard from the tip.
  
  
• We tried to make a push in the second half, but by that point LeBron was dialed in from 19 feet, and hit enough to hold us off.
  
  
• West had his moments.  In the first half, they were mostly bad moments.  In the second half, they were mostly good moments - other than hitting a spectator in the fourth row with a bad pass, that is.
  
  
• The game was stultifyingly slow - and for a lot of it I was watching it at the lowest fast-forward setting on my TIVO, and it was STILL slow.

I don't have anymore to say.

Tonight the Hornets are in Cleveland to battle the Cavaliers and LeBron James, Inc.

The Cavs are unbeaten at home this season, but they're vulnerable right now. Besides staying up late to lose in OT at Chicago last night, they're also short a few players. Delonte West fractured his wrist in Chi-town, Big Z is out most of the month with a fractured ankle and Ben Wallace might not be back from a bout of intestinal flu. Also, from the image at right, it looks like LeBron is suffering from a severe case of flatulence.

Game tips at 7pm Central on ESPN.

Linkage:

• Ryan's game preview
• Lagnaippe: The adventures of Jeff Bower, Kobe steals stuff, the Hornets aren't underachieving so shut up already, and then some.
  
• Cavs blogs: And One | Cavalier Attitude | Fear The Sword | WaitingForNextYear
  

Not as tough as you might think, actually.

Sure, the Hornets will play at Dallas, Cleveland and Detroit in a four-day span, and those three teams have a combined winning percentage of .796 this season on their home floor. In fact, the Cavs have yet to lose in Cleveland this season.

But let's look a little closer at each opponent...

• Wednesday @ Dallas: The 22-15 Mavs wrap up a 3-game trip of their own tomorrow at Denver, so we get them on the second night of a back-to-back. Dallas have already lost the first two games of their road trip, and the last time they beat a winning team at home was back on December 6 when the Hawks were in town.
  
  
• Friday @ Cleveland: This won't be easy any way you slice it, but at least we get the 29-6 Cavs on a segababa too, as they play in Chicago on Thursday evening. And while LeBron's crew are 5-2 on the second night of back-to-backs, it's worth noting that all five wins came against sub-500 teams, whereas the two losses came against the Pistons and Hawks.
  
  
• Saturday @ Detroit: This time both teams will have heavy legs; our guys will be coming off the game in Ohio, and the 22-13 Pistons will be coming off a date in OKC. Detroit have won their last five at home, but they're battling injuries to Hamilton, Stuckey and McDyess right now.