Motown Got Game

Detroit 91 | New Orleans 76

Thanks to all you fans out there who were emailing me begging to me to stop missing Hornets games and start blogging more often. Actually there were no emails. So permit me to amend that last statement. Thank you fans; I've no doubt your silence is indicative of trust and support. After all, if you disagreed with what I wrote, you'd probably let me know, right? Since you've been anything but noisy I can only assume you are all on board. Allons y!

So, if you are truly a Hornet's fan, you don't need a recap of Monday's game versus Dallas. If you aren't (or sleep in a cardboard box) this href="http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=271201003" > linkmight help. We actually pulled that one off after downing Atlanta with a solid outing.

Then Detroit came to town. Actually, that isn't really the next part of the story. Ok, actually it is, but it isn't of any real importance. The Hornet's held Detroit to 16 points in the first quarter (leading by as many as 12 along the way) and maintained their 10 point lead up until the end of the first half, when Detroit cut it in half. Then the third quarter started. We are notoriously awful in the third quarter. I'm actually very curious to know if this is a common trend (a sort of natural low point in the game) or if it's more of a "we just have to suck for 12 minutes out of the game, so it might as well be then" kind of thing. Honestly, we were outscored 17 to 22, not to mention they had us by a pretty comfortable margin in all other categories as well. And though we never actually trailed by more than 12 until the final ninety seconds or so, we all but went belly-up. How is that possible? I have no clue. We completely lost our rhythm. It wasn't quite the train wreck that the Minnesota game was, but you just couldn't help but sit there and think "there is no way we can pull this off". As per usual, we were graced with pretty poor officiating (a few calls were just absurd... you can't tell me a triple-team on Chris Paul that pushes him out of bounds results in an offensive foul), but it did not disrupt the flow of the game in any measurable way (I think we can thank Dick Bavetta for that).

So we learned that Rip and Sheed are deadly from anywhere on the court, Jason Maxiell is pretty impressive off the bench, and the Hornet's need someone to step up in difficult games (beyond Tyson's 20-15 showing) for us to really oust the big contenders. I should be more worried about our position right now, but honestly, we're still in a good place. Despite what Mr. Hollinger's ridiculous href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds"> play-off prediction machine might suggest, we win 2 out of every 3 (so far... and this weekend brings Memphis and Seattle to town, so that should stay the same), and when we lose, it's usually to difficult teams. Besides, we are still playing the non-contender role that everyone writes off even though we are presently a 4 seed. Things are good.

Attendance still sucks though. I've accepted that we have a problem, but I don't know how rehab works for this kind of thing. As if our attendance woes weren't enough, Detroit had an unusually large contingency of fans at the game considering they're from another conference and play about 1000 miles away. Seriously, if anyone knows how this is possible, they should email me because it's been keeping me up at night. Sort of. I mean, we saw more than one person in a Red Wings jersey. Hockey. Whaaat?

Ok, I was going to go into trade musings I've been playing around with on the ESPN trade machine, but I have to catch a flight up to St. Louis, so I must be departing (Curry, you know you're laughing right now). I'll cover that next time and possibly give a run down of the two games I'll be missing this weekend (oh, you silent legions are too much). See you on the 15... after a totally unpredictable game against Phoenix. Nash versus Paul... wouldn't miss it for the world.