The Hornets fell into their patented hole again tonight, watching the Mavericks click on all cylinders and go up by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. Luckily, New Orleans also seems to have a patent on unlikely resurrections, as they fought hard to get the Dallas lead down to 4 points with 2:45 left on the clock. It seemed Hornets fans might be in for their second incredible comeback of the weekend, but alas, Dirk Nowitzki was sipping the unstoppable and dropped in enough turnaround jumpers over James Posey to seal the deal for the bad guys.
108-100 the final score. Some quick game notes before the full moon takes me...
Okafor anyone?
If any one guy turned this game around for the Hornets, it was Emeka Okafor. I've been down on his performance the past few weeks, but in that third quarter he was playing all kinds of great defense. His numbers for the period: 4 points, 9 rebounds (3 offensive), 4 steals and 2 blocks. He was that guy the Hornets desperately needed to step up and make a defensive stand after the Mavs had poured in 69 points on 67 percent shooting in the first half. Okafor was quick with his outlets too, hurrying the ball into Marcus Thornton's hands and allowing the rookie to unleash some of that funky fury on the break.
Okafor started the fourth quarter making the same impact, grabbing three rebounds (two offensive) in two minutes. And then... he was gone: benched in favor of James Posey for the rest of the game, a move brought to you by the letters W, T and F.
Now we've seen Jeff Bower keep Okafor off the floor down the stretch several times already this season, and much more often than not there has been a good reason for such a move. (Usually it's because Okafor is having trouble defending the high pick and roll.) But tonight, I can't for the life of me see the logic in it. The Mavs weren't dragging Okafor out high. He was being left under the basket and happily doing his shot-blocking, pass-deflecting, glass-cleaning thang.
It's not like Posey was on some superstar ish either, since Dirk was quite content to back him down, turn and fire home clutch jumpers. Granted, not much any defender can do about that, but I would have loved to have seen David West trying to handle Dirk down the stretch while Okafor was reinserted into the middle to do more goodness. If that had happened, you know Brendan Haywood would have been less likely to get those two back-breaking offensive rebounds.
SMH, as Julian Wright would tweet.

The Hornets just got done knocking off the mighty Magic on ESPN on Friday, and tonight they'll look to slay another formidable foe on national TV. Game tips at 8:30 Central, and you can
Tough game for the Hornets tonight as they're back on the road and taking on the 17-7 Dallas Mavericks. Game tipping at 7:30 Central.

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