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The Hornets managed to eke out a win tonight against the vastly undersized Warriors, keeping alive their slim hopes of reaching the playoffs.  West and Okafor routinely took advantage of a rare game where they could outmuscle the opposition and reeled in 11 offensive rebounds between them.

The game itself was decidedly not a typical Hornets game.  Even with Collison running the point, the Hornets are only slightly above the league average at pace, so a 135-131 score would normally require a 2-overtime game.  Tonight, however, the Hornets ran willingly, got the ball quickly inside, and took quick shots.  They also kindly gave up lots of quick, easy shots to the Warriors, making it a fast and furious sort of contest.

Still the Hornets built a couple nice leads, and it was only a furious three-point barrage by the Warriors that let them come back and take a lead near the end.

Marcus Thornton

I'm having a hard time containing myself about Marcus Thornton.  Multiple times during game, I watched him score off a broken play, back-door cut, or explosive drive and swore to myself that THAT play perfectly embodied exactly what Marcus Thornton is all about.  Then the next one would come and I'd be left silently chortling and amazed.  He has what scouts refer to as "a nose for the ball" and its perfectly true.  He kept coming up with offensive rebounds, bad passes, tipped dribbles - basically anything that was in his vicinity that could be considered a 50-50 ball.

In the fourth, his drive to get the Hornets within one was the play I decided actually was the quintessential Thornton play.  It started with an explosive drive to split a double team.  At about the elbow he tucked the ball like a halfback, knifed between two players coming to help, took a hip from the one under the basket, and displaying startling strength and balance, exploded to the far side of the basket and flipped up a difficult reverse layup.

Fantastic.

James Posey

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Lately there has been more than a little Emeka Okafor bashing, with some even going to far as to say that an injured Tyson Chandler is better than a healthy Okafor. It's time that we get into some real detail about Okafor's play, and how much worse he has really been than Tyson.

First let's take a look at Tyson's first year in NOLA compared to Emeka's. Seems fair since it obviously takes some time for centers to adjust to playing a pick and roll offense, especially in a point guard dominated offense. Granted Tyson was a bit younger than Okafor when he started with the Hornets, but they both had accumulated about the same amount of NBA experience prior to coming to the Hornets. Here are some basic stats.

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I was trying to keep from addressing this until the off-season, but the kid from UCLA just won't let it rest.  With every amazing comeback he leads, with every poised fourth quarter, with every explosive foray to the hoop, he's forced the issue.  So here's the question:

What do you do when your team's best two players play the same position?

One answer, and the easiest, is to trade one of them this summer.  There's only 48 minutes available to a point guard, the Hornets have immediate needs in the front court and at the wing.  Both Chris Paul and Darren Collison would demand a major return on the trade market.  The Hornets could move Collison with a bigger contract to pad his outgoing salary, and probably get back a good rebounder or multi-faceted wing.  They could move Paul and would be certain to get a platter of solid talent and draft picks that could shore up a couple positions.

It does sound enticing.  And the grass is always greener, right?

I think it would be a terrible mistake.

The Hornets are currently in the midst of a two-year rebuilding plan.  Sure, they haven't said as much, because in the NBA, "rebuilding" is a euphemism for nuking the team and starting over.  Regardless, they are trying to rebuild while still staying good enough to keep fan support while they do so.  That subtlety may not have served them well, as it has triggered, once more, a set of myths that make it seem imperative for the team to trade Paul, West, or now, Darren Collison.  It's a bit like last summer, in fact, when everyone was certain the Hornets would have to trade David West or Chris Paul to get under the tax line.  Surprise!  Not necessary!

So let's take the time to knock down some of those myths:

Myth 1: The Hornets have no room to breathe under the weight of all their bad contracts

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On the day I write about Darren Collison for ESPN.com's Daily Dime, the rookie point and his "pedestrian" 22 and 10 was upstaged by fellow rookie Marcus Thornton pouring in 37 points in 31 minutes.  On 22 shots.  Oh, and the 23 points Thornton scored in the second quarter surpassed Peja's 2006 record for most scoring by a Hornet in a single quarter. Lil' Buckets enters the record books.

Outside of the personal exploits, however, I was happy on the whole with the way the team played.  The rookies played with poise beyond their years, the coaches were throwing every gimmick in the book at the Cavs to keep them off balance, and despite being massively undersized against a frontcourt of Shaq, Varejao, Jamison and LeBron, the Hornets actually won the battle of the boards as the entire team contributed.

Marcus Thornton

Thornton unleashed the demon tonight, scoring every way imaginable.  He started the second playing point for Collison, and quickly realized that Mo Williams was not up to defending him.  Soon, any pretense of being a point guard was by the wayside, and Thornton was in full attack mode.  He would push the ball hard, and if the drive wasn't there, he'd stop at 10 feet and hit a pull up.  After a few of those went down, the Cavs started playing up on him, and he started driving to the basket, nailing floaters, and an amazing array of quick shots.  In the fourth the Cavs ended up flat out double teaming him, and eventually turned him into a three-point shooter with their quick-footed and always impressive perimeter defense.

If there was anything Thornton highlighted tonight, it was his incredible ability to release the ball at any point on his drives without any decrease in his control.  He launched floaters from his hip, at shoulder height, and the classic above-the-head "teardrop".  As an undersized shooting guard, that skill is a must, as it keeps the shot from being blocked.  Many undersized guards never master it.  Thornton is already there.

As much as his game was a joy to watch tonight, I do have to call him out for one back-breaker play at the end of the game:  After being blocked by Delonte West, he came down the court, checked Delonte once at the perimeter and then basically left him there, cheating to the opposite side of the court and looking for a steal.  Two passes later, Delonte received the ball and had all the time in the world to knock down his three.  6 point game with just a few minutes to go.

The Frontcourt Puzzle

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There were a few developments involving the Hornets yesterday, which got me thinking about Darren Collison. I realized it's hard to judge someone objectively when you feel such a connection with their successes. But to start, let's discuss what led me to put together this analysis.

First off Chris Paul is officially underwent surgery to repair his torn meniscus. Obviously that's not great news, but at least it's over with so he can start recovering. Secondly, Jeff Bower made it clear that he has no intention of bringing on another point guard, even on a ten day contract, opting instead to let James Posey and Morris Peterson (who was on fire against OKC) assist in taking the ball up the court.

Lastly, Marcus Thornton didn't practice and is listed as questionable due to lingering pain from his fall against the Thunder. If he can't play against Philadelphia, the Hornets just might find a few moments without a single guard in the game. James Posey running the point? Color me excited.

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