Final Standings: the chart

New Orleans 56-26
[final league standings]

Yeah, Yeah, I know. We dropped our last game of the season to none other than the team that we will be hosting for the first round of the playoffs. I was too busy basking in our Southwest Division title to notice, but if I had, here are the points I might have made:

1. Our starters played roughly 30 minutes, which is nowhere near their normal totals.

2. We owned Dirk. He put up one of his worst performances of the season with 12 points, 5 boards, and 25% shooting.

3. In the process of shutting down the big German, we left Jason Kidd wide open. Ordinarily, this would not even remotely be an issue. Why? He's averaging 11 points on 39% shooting for the year (never mind him going for 1.5 for 4 behind the arc every night). That game (27 points, 5 treys, 10 dimes, 10 rebounds on 64% shooting) was a fluke for him. He still has some gas in the tank, but those numbers are not indicative of his nightly performances.

4. We had nothing to lose int hat game. They had everything. Had they lost, they'd risk playing the Lakers in round 1. Had we won, we might have played Denver in the first round. Denver... Dallas... Denver... Dallas... yeah, that's what I thought.

5. For those who watched the game, that dumb stat they showed concerning the Hornet's 0-11 record in the Dallas arena is misleading. First, that stat only extends to 2000, and for 4 of those seasons we were in the Eastern Conference. This means that, despite making the playoffs in those 4 years, we only played 1 game a season in Dallas. Second, the current team is only 0-2 in that arena... and that's what matters. Not how Baron and company fared.

***

Anywho. While I continue to attend Hornets' pre-playoff celebrations all over the city, I will leave you with a pretty cool encapsulation of the season that the crew down at ESPN the mag posted on their blog (if you click on it, it will enlarge to a legible level). They also put up a post that explores an alternative way for the media to cover the playoffs. Enjoy.

Hooray design geeks!

The "Ouch" Game

Utah 77 | New Orleans 66
[league standings]

The Anti-Statement Game. The "CP-who?" Game. The "Don't we usually score that much in one half?" Game. Call it what you want, but last night's home loss to the Jazz was a completely brutal experience for the team, coaches, and fans alike. Utah's defense came swift and hard, holding our hometown hero to a lousy 4 points and 7 assists (and 2 of those points came on a trash bucket at the end of the game) and the team to a season-low 66 points. In a word: awful. In another word: ephemeral. The Hornets are in a near dead-heat to score home-court advantage for the entirety of the Western Conference playoffs. Despite the loss, the ugly playing, the bewildered fans filing out of the arena, the Hornets cannot afford to dwell on this. Reflect on the mistakes, make improvements, and blow Minnesota out of the water tonight as an appetizer to the showdown that awaits in the Staples Center on Friday. That should be the new game plan.

That having been said, I do have a few thoughts on last night's perfor... errr... implosion.

1. I should have seen this coming. We were in the midst of an 11 game home win streak. We were getting a comfortable lead in the standings (by beating a few easy teams). I had floor seats right behind the Jazz bench (a perk from Mr. Shinn for renewing my season tickets). Curry made CP smile before the game with his sign: Chef Paul: Best Dishes in the NBA. We were both sporting our CP34MVP shirts. There were just too many good things in one place, and the universe saw fit to provide balance. We were doomed from the get go. Good thing this wasn't nationally televised or anything.

2. Utah is unbelievably physical on both ends of the court. Their defense was brutal and they continued to push until the Hornets couldn't take it anymore. They just flat out wanted it more. And I hate using that kind of baloney/intangible/malarkey to account for a team's ability to outplay another one. But the truth is, they pushed harder, boxed out better (we were out-rebounded 47 to 36), and forced an unbelievable amount of bad shots (Hornets % from the field: 36.5%). Though we were "off" shooting-wise, they certainly weren't "on" at 43%. They just played harder. Basketball cliche number 5, or something like that.

3. The refs were terrible. It was on both ends for sure, but man they were awful. Seriously, I actually made the Utah bench laugh by screaming so much. They missed tons of hard fouls that were easy to see and then settled for calling soft crap late in the game as though they realized they hadn't hit their quota. In the first quarter the fans started booing during Jazz possessions in protest (think Boston and San Antonio), but none of the fouls (or lack thereof) were outrageous enough to sustain the booing. Instead, fans sat bewildered at the train wreck in front of them.

4. D.Will totally outplayed Paul. Sure, he was pitiful from the field (4 points on 2 for 11 shooting), but he created 16 shots (to Paul's 9) and played such good defense that Paul couldn't get into the lane for his signature soft-hands-pull-up shot. And Paul's poor contribution ended up being the big difference.

The one bright spot? We were so close to the court that during the shoot around we might as well have been involved in the game of HORSE going on between CP3, Bonzi Wells, and Jannero Pargo. In fact, Pargo came off the court and sank a shot from (sort of) behind the goal about 2 feet away from me. Seriously. I could have blocked the shot. So cool.

After it was all over, we listlessly filed out of the arena in a stunned silence. It wasn't like the silence from the buzzer-beater loss to Washington. There was a distinct pain in this silence. Maybe even a little fear. A loss is one thing. A dismantling is another. Ok, 11 points does not a dismantling make. It wasn't the loss itself... it was how we lost...

But hey, you didn't come here for gloom and doom. Let's not forget that since my last post the Hornets not only clinched a playoff spot in what is easily the toughest conference in the history of the sport, but they also tied a franchise record for wins in the season. So what if we drop one to Utah? So what if they own the series on us? Utah is one of only three teams (and the only one in the West) that we have a losing record against. Detroit. Washington. Utah. 3.

There's no loss of love here. When I married this team in the holy sacrament of fandom, I swore to stay by its side in good times and bad. And right now? This is the equivalent of an extended honeymoon (6+ months worth) with the sudden realization that my spouse sometimes gets a bad case of gas after eating dairy. Gas? Dairy? Who even cares?

Admit it... even with the occasional flatulence, my wife's hotter than yours.

Buzzer-beaters and the Shaq Attack (ish)

Washington 95 | New Orleans 92
New Orleans 120 | Phoenix 103
[league standings]

I've been to major sporting events all my life. I've managed to attend multiple games in just about every professional sport (except for hockey... one was all I needed). And in that time, I've never seen a game go to extra innings, a shootout, sudden death, or over time. I'd never seen a walk-off, or any other game-winning play... until Wednesday night.

You spend your whole life as a sports fan waiting for the amazing to happen. This is partially because you want to be able to say, "I saw Secretariat smoke everyone and their mom at the Belmont". You want to be a part of the history you are witnessing. This year's Super Bowl was an excellent example of this phenomenon. And it was particularly special because it was win-win: you were either going to tell your kids that you witnessed a perfect season or that you watched a perfect season completely unravel on the national stage with the finish line in sight. Either way, it was going to be epic.

DeShawn Stevenson is not epic. He isn't even close. In fact, in my 14 team fantasy league, I drafted him in the 15th (and final round). This means that according to the fantasy world (which doesn't really measure defense all that well and is characterized by the name "fantasy"), you would pick 196 players before considering DeShawn Stevenson. But none of that mattered on the court. Stevenson drain 33 points against us, including the nail in the coffin with no time on the clock. And with that, the Caron-less, Gilbert-less Wizards walked out of the New Orleans arena with "W". We had a sizable lead until the fourth quarter, when pissed it away. Was it the 16 turnovers? Was it the 50% from the stripe? Who knows. Had Stevenson been Kobe or LeBron, it might have been less depressing, but with Stevenson I'm left with only bitterness.

Never mind that the Washington game was the "easy" game during a nearly impossible two-week stretch... and marked our third loss in a row... Let's move on.

***

Hooray, Lee is happy again! With the win, the Hornets moved to 4-0 vs. the Suns this season. In fact, my devoted readers will remember an earlier post when I mentioned that the Hornets went 0-12 vs. Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix last season. Well, the mark is now 7-3, with one a piece left for San Antonio and Dallas.

CP3 put up major numbers again: 25 points, 15 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals. On the other side of the coin, Nash was his usual self in the passing game (13 assists), but only went 1 for 6 from the field (finishing with 8 points after free-throws). For anyone who's interested, here's how the 2 have matched up for the 4 games(per game):

Paul: 29 points, 11.25 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 turnovers
Nash: 18 points, 10.75 assists, 2.5 rebounds, .5 steals, 5 turnovers

I don't have to do any detective work to prove that both guards put up excellent numbers in these games, but Paul clearly dominated statistically. The steals and the turnovers sum that up extremely well (and that's before considering points). Just for fun, let's compare assists/turnover ratio from those four games:

Paul: 11.25
Nash: 4.3

This is not an effort to dethrone Nash as a great point guard. He is one of my favorite players and, despite his age, one of the best point guards in the league, if not the best. Paul may be slowly stealing that title (along with Deron Williams, who we'll discuss later), but Nash is still nothing short of phenomenal. What these numbers actually show is how ineffective the Suns have been at locking down CP3. The fact is Nash cannot guard Paul, so they slide him over to the 2 to cover Peterson (who rarely drives and mostly just spreads the floor). Bell then has the task of stopping Paul. So the Suns have to alter their defensive approach and, so far, they haven't been able to make it work against us. I imagine they run a similar defense against San Antonio, since Nash is mostly useless on Parker, but I'm forgetting what those games looked like (probably for the better after last post-season). And for any naysayers who think that the Suns will eventually adjust and shut down the Hornets, my buddy Nat has the solution: Byron just puts Bonzi in at the 2. His physical play would be too much for Nash to contain and they'd have to keep Bell on him. So who guards Paul? If the answer is Barbosa, think again. He may be quick, but in 27 minutes Barbosa managed to foul out by repeatedly attempting to draw fouls from CP3. You could try to keep Nash on the jump shooters by swinging him to the 3 and letting Hill cover Bonzi and leave on Paul, but now you have Peja with an 10 inch advantage shooting over Nash's head all night.

I would now invite you to take a break from this entry and read Sam's comments as proves me wrong on everything I just wrote.

***

Let's skip forward for a minute and talk about playoffs. Yes, playoffs. It's early and the West is still wide open, but it isn't too early to start thinking about potential match-ups. It isn't actually important for me at all. It's important for our coaching staff. Here's why: we match up well against 6 of the 10 potential playoff teams, we match-up so-so against 1 team, and I am terrified of the other 3. What does this mean? It means, even if we have a playoff spot locked up, we might still be pushing hard at the end of the season to force a more advantageous seeding for ourselves. Ordinarily this is an easy task; you win more games, you play a lower seed, and a lower seed is easier. Not this year. Golden State is lurking about the 7 seed, and while I think we match-up with them so-so, I don't want to be anywhere near them (until I have to) in the playoffs. I'd much rather drop a few games, rest Paul and West, and end up playing Dallas or Phoenix in round 1. Let's take a look at my comfort level with match-ups in the playoffs on a scale of 1 to 100 with 1 being the most terrified:

1. Lakers
2. Jazz
3. Spurs
7. Warriors
12. Dallas
13. Houston
14. Phoenix
70. Denver
82. Portland
180. Sacramento

I know, I know. Sacramento doesn't have prayer, but they technically are still in the race. It isn't impossible yet (but I'm sure it will be soon).

So while we match-up well against teams like Phoenix and Dallas, I don't even want to consider having to play any of the teams on top of that list in the first round. Our boys (individually and collectively) have no playoff experience outside of Peja, and while that didn't stop the Warriors last season, I think we're going to need to ease our way into this battle the best we can. The problem is that the seeding changes almost every day because the West is so close. Whew, I'm getting antsy just writing this...

None of this even takes into account that the Yao-less Rockets ascend to Tiki-theory-like status and hone a version of small ball that devastates everyone and their mothers. Think about it. Carl Landry and Luis Scola in the post, and Battier, McGrady, and Alston to run fast breaks and spread the floor. It's preposterous and highly unlikely, but it could totally happen. Especially now that Yao and his "Even though it' a fast-break, I'll just wait for you guys when you get back on defense appoach".

***

So, what happens next, you say? We avoid getting our tails handed to us on national television by none other than the Utah Jazz. D.Will and CP3 are going to go head-to-head in front of the whole country... nay... the WORLD. Seriously, everyone should tune in... it's going to be a hell of a game. For what it's worth, Chris is destroying Deron in terms of statistics; however, in head-to-head match-ups, the Jazz own the Hornets at 7-2 with these two guys at the helm[s]. I sincerely believe tomorrow will make or break Paul's run at the MVP title...

Oh Lord, do not forsake us now...

Holy Yao, the Rockets are on fire!

Houston 100 | New Orleans 80
[league standings]

The big victory over Dallas marked the beginning of a virtually insane schedule for the next few weeks. Consider this: after the All-Star break (but before March) we play six straight playoff-bound teams. Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Washington, Phoenix, Utah. Boom. (Ouch is a better descriptor). The good news? If the Hornets continue playing as well as they have all season, they have a legit chance of sweeping (or almost sweeping) that set. The only problem is that we can't afford an off night. Actually, at this point, no team in the West can afford one. Regardless, the win against the "revamped" Mavs was a strong statement that would hopefully provide some steam to keep the ball rolling through the hellish eleven days that laid ahead. Even though we were on a four game winning streak heading into the break, the bulk of those were fairly ugly wins against sub-par teams.

I'm not trying to sound all gloom and doom because I know we have a great squad, but the truth is we had been playing sloppily before the break. Now, the league has given us an opportunity to make up for that stretch and prove our worth with a difficult lineup.

So what happened in the Houston game? Well, not much by most counts. We appeared to be sleeping as they coasted to their 11th straight. Despite being our third sellout (that Yao sure can draw a crowd), the Hornets faired poorly and lost by a much larger margin than they're used to. Where did it all go wrong. For starters, Houston shot the lights out, draining 50% of their shots to our 40%. We had a remarkable inability to rebound anything and finished with 38 to their 55. The real problem here is that none of our jump shooters showed up. Peja and Mo were MIA (Mo's been like that lately). And Pargo couldn't pick up any slack. Usually when Pargo struggles, Byron shifts control to Bobby Jackson; however Bobby's absence (and the fact that Wells and James showed up, but weren't dressed) forced Byron to try other (futile) tactics.

David was about the only person who matched his averages. CP3 was close to his nightly contributions, but the presence of Yao in the lane thwarted his typical drives to the bucket. You could tell he was hesitating at thought of tossing one of his signature shots over a guy who dwarfs Tyson (dwarf is a strong word as only 6 inches separate the two, but still Tyson soaking wet might equal half of Yao's weight). Interestingly enough, Byron put JuJu in with seven minutes to play, and he promptly dropped 10 points. Granted, he was playing against mostly scrubs towards the end, but some of those came against TMac.

You win some, you lose some. We were outplayed and that's the bottom line. We couldn't have hit sand if we'd fallen from a camel. But am I worried? No. We still have a very talented squad and I sincerely believe that the new members of the team will make a positive impact... even if it's an expensive one. There are good things in store for this team... and I couldn't be more excited about it.

***

Before the game, I had the opportunity to meet none other than Melvin Ely. Admit it, you are all jealous. He's a man of few words, but he does have a sense of humor... or maybe he just laughed at my jokes because he wanted to get out of there quicker... hmmm...

Melvin and Lee say, "Drink 7up... forever."

***

One final thought before I leave you. I was going through some old podcasts and found a PTI one from February 8 where they did their "5 Good Minutes" segment with CP3. He is quite mature for his age. He didn't boast and he was very thoughtful in his answers. He's very aware of his role and what he can affect and control. This is a good thing. He also thinks the post-blockbuster Suns might be a bigger challenge than the post-grand-theft-Spaniard Lakers. Only time will tell.

And the Lord said to Abraham, "Let them rule the Power Rankings"

Golden State 116 | New Orleans 103

So that whole tagline about a "devoted fan" is probably coming into question given the fact that I've taken quite a sabbatical from writing. But never ye fear my beloved [4] readers, I have returned and am glad to be posting once again. For those of you who were concerned for my well-being in my absence, you may rest assured knowing that the combination of Mardi Gras and women have been the poison that has kept me from writing (but not rooting) for my team.

Quick shoutout to Mike, whose Giants have inexplicably stunned the Pats for a victory in the Superbowl. Not that I didn't believe in their abilities (I gave them a 25% chance the day before), but honestly, did anyone really see this coming? Nope, didn't think so. Much congratulations to you, Michael. Your years of frustration have paid off... here's to relieving the NFL woes of the Crescent City in 2008. Now, on to basketball.

For those of you who have been paying attention, you've probably heard that the Hornets are on quite a run right now. A 9 game winning streak put the Hornets on top of all 3 power polls ( Stein, Hollinger, NBA.com) before a 3 game skid bumped them back down to reality. However, the boys are still in the top five and sport the fourth best record in the league presently (33-15, good for a tie with Dallas). The 3 sequential losses were followed by an unbelievable double-OT win in Phoenix (which was dominated by Paul: 42 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 8 steals, 1 turnover). The W puts us at 3-0 against the Suns with the final game to be played on our turf. Yes, it's safe to say that the Hornets have proven that they are no joke and, in a year in which Western Conference surprises are as common as mint in a julep (at least down here), the Hornets continue to dominate headlines and dwarf other impressive feats.

As if the team's record weren't enough, 2 Hornets will be gracing the All-Star team with their presence. Both CP3 and David West were voted onto the squad by the coaches poll (the latter edging out Matrix and Baron "I dipped my face in hair and now I am a basketball god" Davis). Additionally Byron Scott was named head coach for the Western Conference, and Peja and CP3 will be participating in some of the extra contests during the weekend (Peja in the 3 point challenge and Paul in the skills challenge). The timing on all of this could not have been any better as New Orleans will be the stage for this grand event (right in the middle of its post-Mardi-Gras recovery). With the Hornets making such a strong All-Star showing (as well as grabbing headlines along the way), it seems as though this city has awoken from its drunken disappointment over an underwhelming Saints season to find a national title contender hitting the paint hard almost every night. And, it turns out, they're fun to root for.

Take the Golden State game from last Wednesday. Sure we lost, but the point is that amazingly enough we had home court advantage. I've only heard of this phenomenon myself, but I hear all of these bloggers and experts saying that it's pretty useful to fans in the seats for home games. We aren't exactly selling out, but we are drawing over 10,000 a game (probably closer to 12). Does this actually help? Consider this: a lack-luster performance by most of the squad (save CP3: 28 points, 12 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover) coupled with Golden State shooting the lights out from everywhere (52% from the floor, 48% from beyond the arc, 92% from the stripe) should have resulted in a rout. Instead, the game was back and forth (with a dozen or so lead changes) up until the six minute mark in the fourth quarter. The fans were carrying the team through a slight slump. Did we win? No. Am I thrilled that the city is getting on board with this team? Abso-@#&*%!-lutely.

There are other things to be excited about. Ju-Ju continues to throw down nasty dunks during his scant minutes on the court. Uncle Bowen has been scoring points, including a night in which he had 8. In fact, that particular evening featured an dunk in transition that ended up in the coveted Sportscenter's top 10 plays (Pargo had some kind of faith let Bowen take that shot... or he was partially blinded by Bowen's whiteness and thought he was passing to Hilton Armstrong). Hell, Pargo himself has been quite a story as well. He's been lighting it up from all across the court and has proven to be more than up to the task of bench-igniter in Bobby Jackson's absence.

But through all of this delightful mayhem--in which my world of Hornets fandom has been turned upside-down--one thing sticks out to me more than any of these. On January 28, the Hornets played host to a Carmelo-less Nuggets. The boys proceeded to blow Denver out of the water in the kind of rout that reminds you of a video game. CP3 himself had 23 points, 9 rebounds, 17 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block, while Tyson asserted that he doesn't like being in Camby's shadow (Chandler: 10 points, 16 rebounds, 1 block -- Camby: 3 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block).

However, two moments in the game stand out. In the first half, one Hornets possession results in 4 straight offensive rebounds. After the last of these Tyson kicked the ball out to CP3 beyond the arc. As he did so, the crowd rose in unison and cheered louder than I'd ever heard them. All of sudden the fans in New Orleans got it. We always joke about how no one in this city knows how to root for a basketball team. Well, Denver was the tipping point. Oh yeah, then D-West posted up for an easy bucket. In the second half (with a sizable lead in place), Paul attempts an assist and, after the missed bucket, got the rebound dribbled back toward the arc while drawing the foul. At that moment the crowd rose to cheer, but instead found itself chanting. MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP! I thought the roof was going to cave in, but I didn't care because I was overwhelmed by a type of joy that I had never experienced as a fan. I felt a true connection to the team at that moment and couldn't help but believe that I was witnessing something special. It was as though Paul was being lifted to the Pantheon of New Orleans Sports icons... with Archie and Pistol Pete waiting to shake his hand. The best part? When asked about the chanting after the game, Paul's response was something like "Yeah, David and Tyson... they could be MVP."

Bring it on... the world. We are ready to take you.

***

(For the convenience of those who care, I've taken the liberty of including the scores from all of the homes games I didn't cover as well as a link to each of the game recaps from espn.com... Enjoy.)

Los Angeles Lakers 80 | New Orleans 109 Loss

New Orleans 114 | Miami 88 Win

New Orleans 123 | Seattle 92 Win

New Orleans 112 | Charlotte 84 Win

New Orleans 106 | Milwaukee 92 Win

New Orleans 96 | Portland 81 Win

New Orleans 111 | Los Angeles Clippers 92 Win

New Orleans 117 | Denver 93 Win

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.

There are no words, only tears

Minnesota 103 | New Orleans 94

This piece was supposed to be a glorious recounting of the Hornet's second route over Minneapolis while diffusing all erroneous beliefs that our attendance problems are really dragging this team down. I stand by my previous postings and can attest to the fact that (the 76ers game notwithstanding) that attendance was in fact on the rise. It wasn't where we wanted it to be, but it was getting better. Then the Timberwolves came to town on a Monday night. We sat in horrid disbelief as they outshot, outplayed, out-everythinged us in front of maybe 7,000 people. It was the kind of game where everything goes wrong. Your team doesn't show up to play, when they do show up, nothing falls, and every time you get momentum swinging to your side the refs screw it up with a call my blind aunt could have gotten right. The worst part: we had no sixth man. This scenario happens all the time. Bad teams will have good nights and good teams will have bad nights. We were down by 15-20 for most of this game, but we pulled within 7 with 2 minutes to play. Just as it looked as though we might emerge unscathed against all odds, the final nail fell hard into the coffin. No one could be heard. It seemed as though the Hornets were out there alone, with no one giving support. It didn't help that the refs really blew it in the second half, but in all honesty, this time the blame falls to New Orleans. Everyone keeps making comparisons to the Saints, suggesting that if New Orleans really cared about this team, they'd have sold out every game like the Saints. The Saints play eight games a year in New Orleans, and the had the privilege of returning before the Hornets. Basketball is also a star driven sport: if you want to go to a game, odds are you are going to pick your game based on what star will be on the other team. Tonight is a great case and point: who would you rather see, Kobe or Marko Jaric and company?

I know, I know. I'm fighting a losing battle. Every journalist who has anything to say about basketball can't write about the Hornets without mentioning their attendance woes. Meanwhile, I sit here and try to prove otherwise. Today, I was ousted. I feel like someone planned an intervention with me by scheduling this game. Now I know there is a problem. I will stand by my argument that poor attendance is not a reason to move a team (see the Adande posting from November 14), but if we can't get people into the arena, we will be financially up a creek before we know it. Actually, we may already be there.

Bill Simmons was right. He said that we would be a contender for the title if we had a home crowd to lift us over the bumps of the everyday grind. I can't even begin to deny it. I get sick to my stomach over this. I'm seriously going to have a heart attack before this season is over. It's hard for a fan to watch his or her team fail, and then notice that no one cares, and then (as if that weren't enough) realize that they are actually a very talented group of players who will probably start getting demoralized soon if something isn't done about the aforementioned problems. Benson won't let anything Hornets appear in the Superdome, Charter Communications won't broadcast the Hornet's games on Cox Sports to the Northshore (for those of you who aren't from the area, the Northshore refers to the area north of Lake Ponchitrain which is home to a sizeable percentage of the population all of whom are in the highest tax bracket), and ESPN decided to only broadcast 2 of our games this year--one of which was cancelled since Mr. Oden is out for the season. Conspiracy? Not quite. Unfortunate? You betcha.

Saturday night's game should be a good litmus test for how much this city does care about basketball. We host the Mavericks in a pretty crucial in-division game. If we can't sell out that game, I will promptly check myself into the same institution that New York Giant's fans frequent about this time of year. Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, my youthful idealism... still missing. Probably boarding the plane back to Minny.

Hyperextensions and a guy named Hedo

Orlando 95 | New Orleans 88

So there's bad news, worse news, and sort of good news. The bad news: CP3 is still out due to an ankle roll courtesy of Pau Gasol. He is expected to return soon, but after last season, anything with his ankle makes me nervous. The worse news, Tyson Chandler left the Orlando game in the second quarter after hyper extending his knee. Supposedly the x-rays came back negative and there's no ligament damage, but he's still on crutches. The sort of good news: a Tyson-less, CP3-less Hornets team held up against the Magic and only lost the game in the final minute even after being down by as much as 21. Actually, that's probably better than sort of good. Our two star players missing from action and we almost beat one the few other teams with a record as good as ours (both teams were 9-2 going into the game).

After a poor start and Tyson's injury (which had the arena silent with anticipation as he rolled in agony), I had pretty much resigned myself to a loss. A dignified loss considering the circumstances, but a loss all the same. And then Melvin Ely dropped a killer dunk and the whole arena went nuts. After that, the Hornets rallied to within 10 at the end of the half. I never thought I'd see the day when Melvin Ely would ignite a rally, let alone the first real fans-equal-sixth-man level of the season. We also need to credit to Hilton Armstrong (forced out of Byron Scott's "doghouse" because of the Tyson injury) and Jannero Pargo. Pargo did for an admirable job at the point in the Chef's absence. However, despite his 18 points and 7 assists, he was still a shoot first, pass second point guard, which led to many (many) missed shots (he was something like 9 for 25). Actually, it was a poorly executed drive to the basket in the waning seconds of the game that signaled the beginning of the end. Dwight Howard (aka A GIANT MONSTER) promptly send the ball back into the floor boards, which was then followed by a 3 pointer by Rashard Lewis. After that, our 2 point deficit equaled 5 and he we had to start fouling. Game. Set. Match.

Give some credit to the team, though. They held their own even when the\y were horribly mismatched, and they played well together without their normal leadership. Good things are coming for this team. (Bad things are coming for Orlando, though. The fire in Chris Paul's eyes as he sat courtside in a suit were screaming, "I can't wait until April first when we show up on your turf and I run laps around Jameer Nelson, and Tyson trips up Howard by asking him to spell the word basketball". His words.)

I will not be in town for the Pacer's this Wednesday, but I will cover that game and the road games over the weekend at some point. Perhaps when I'm bloated and lethargic from cranberries, tryptophan and stuffing. Have a great Turkey Day.

Close, but no cigar (no love, either)

San Antonio 97 | New Orleans 85

One thing I vowed to never do when I started this blog was to blame a loss on poor officiating, and I can tell you that the Hornets home loss to the Spurs last night really had me rethinking such a seemingly short-sighted notion. Truthfully, I can't blame the loss on the officials. We shot anemic percentages from behind the arc and from the line (27% and 64% respectively), Peja had better odds of hitting the fans than the rim, and Tony Parker/Tim Duncan duo shot 65% from the field and finished with a combined 51 points. Despite those numbers the game was back and forth for most of the first half, with the Hornets trailing between 5 and 25 points in the second half (at any given point). My biggest problem wasn't so much the way the Hornets played (although "off" would be a decent descriptor), but rather that Byron Scott benched our starters for most of the fourth quarter. It made zero sense. Granted, we had an awful third quarter, but when we brought the score to within 10, all of our star power went missing. And for what reason? My buddy, Curry, and I knew the game was over when the score gap starting getting wider in the final two or three minutes and Byron Scott saw fit to put in Uncle Bowen. Victory seemed so close yet so far away.

I would like to at least offer a brief description of the terrible officiating that I do believe contributed to the Hornet's loss. Interestingly enough, the Spurs had 2 more personal fouls as a team than the Hornets; however, theirs went mostly to marginal players and poor shooters. Who cares if Fabricio Oberto has 4 fouls and has to be benched? What killed me was that Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili were invincible with the ball in hand. Seriously. I mean, I almost advocated punching Manu on fastbreaks because he was going to get the call anyway, so why not at least give him a real reason to flop. He had zero (0) personal fouls. 0. It was disgusting. And Duncan? He's even worse. Despite having 3 fouls, he managed to be the cause of so many Hornets fouls by throwing that ol' hip of his around. Never seems to fail. Especially when he's being guarded by a hotheaded Tyson Chandler who's trying to keep his cool.

I still can't get on the Duncan bandwagon. Everyone says he's the nicest guy, but I don't buy it. It could be my general disdain for all things Spurs, it could be that I am a converted Suns fan, it could be that I just can't stand to watch them get every call in their favor. My friend Sam has claimed for years that Duncan is the best player in the league, and you'd be hard pressed to argue against it. But I still can't stand him. You know what, it's probably because even though he makes all of his shots, his turnaround-kiss-off-the-glass-that-looks-remarkably-like-Shaq's-freethrow is annoying. I always see that shot and think, there's no way that's going in. Always wrong.

Anyway, before I depart, it is worth noting that the Hornets did start 4-0 with a big win over Denver and an unbelievable record-setting night against the Lakers. A hard fought game in Portland (without technical fouling Tyson for the second half) ended with the Hornets only three points behind. All in all, we're playing solid. Peja seems a bit streaky, and Byron is making odd coaching decisions, but we're still 4-2. After all, it could be worse. Ask Ken Mauer tomorrow how much worse it could be when I send someone to find him in a dark alley. See you next week.

The Comeback

Wait, this is a fan experiential summary of every home game he attends from crappy (albeit cheap) viewpoint of section 325 in the New Orleans Arena? That's right. And why do you care? I'm not sure. What I do know is that the Hornets are going to be great this coming season, and remarkably no one seems to be taking notice. Is it because they play in a stacked division that is definitely the hardest in the league and may be getting harder if Memphis decides to contend? Are they being pushed from the spotlight? Who knows... and frankly, who cares? It doesn't matter because this lineup is killer and it's only going to get better.

I had the good fortune of meeting the two rookies from the 2007 draft. Adam Haluska of Iowa and Julian "JuJu" Wright of Kansas-- how amazing is it that New Orleans next star's nickname is "JuJu"? I mean, what were the odds?. Thanks to my being a "rookie" as well, I got to meet both players as part of some function the organization throws to try and hide the fact that they're a small market team floundering in a city that isn't paying too much attention. So financially, it looks bad, but talent-wise, things are looking up. A preseason game followed this mildly entertaining event, and Haluska dropped over 20 points in an otherwise anemic lose to the Pacers. I would care more that we lost this bout (and the other preseason home game against Atlanta), but it's the preseason. As a fan, I'm doing what the coach is doing. Observing each player in his potential position on the court and how well he moves and communicates with the other members of the team. That sentence was a whole lot of bull essentially adding up to "in the preseason, we see who's good enough to play backup." Regardless, Haluska did excellent, JuJu dropped two nasty dunks (one on each team... he's like J.R. Smith with feelings), Hilton Armstrong put up huge numbers against Atlanta (20+,10+), and CP3 looked more capable than ever at the helm of this young squad. Things are looking up, but as we know, in the Big Easy happiness is always fleeting. Ask Sean Payton and company if you don't believe me.

As such, I must also be a realist. There are plenty of deficiencies on this team as well. Byron Scott felt the inexplicable urge to continue giving minutes to this Ryan Bowen guy, who: a. looks like my father, b. has the apt number of 40 adorning his jersey, and c. made next to nothing happen when he touched the ball. It's crazy. How this guy is even on the team is totally beyond my grasp. Supposedly Scott loves this guy cause he hustles. Guess what... I hustle, too. It takes a little more than gumption to be in the NBA. It's not like we're developing this guy; I mean, he's been in the pros for 7 years. Someone shoot me.

Other problems include the lingering health issues with Peja , and Mo Pete 's inability to score consistently from beyond the arc or... from within it, for that matter.

Other than that, I'm predicting this team will finish a solid third in the Southwest earning themselves at least a seven (7) seed in the playoffs. Now, for my wish to come true, I need Byron to stop "believing" in the David Eckstein of the NBA and quit using Melvin Ely as the go-to man as the shot clock winds down (I could think of ten other guys on the roster that would be a more appropriate choice). If you think I'm crazy, go ahead and review the stats for the last professional sports team that returned to the Crescent City. See you on Halloween after opening night against the Kings.