Game 23: Hive Five

To steal a quote from one of my favorite games of all time- NBA Showtime- "This is what they came to see today!!!"

Regularly scheduled joke about Byron's vacant eyes has been pulled. For Mo-Pete played tonight, and all is forgiven.

Let's skip the stats and head straight to bullet land for this one:

• Not to complain after a 34/9/8 night, but Chris Paul was uber close to pulling off a mystical 40/10/10. Three free throws and a layup put him dangerously close to 40, and if Devin Brown and Rasual Butler hadn't made Eddy Curry look like Reggie Miller... Oh well. Let us bask in the glory of this: our PG put up 34/9/8/4 with 1 turnover, and he could've played better. Seriously. Are you enjoying your basking?

• Wait, I'm still basking. Give me a second.
• Okay done. Let's move on to leading scorer #2, the Ring Bearer, James Posey. I play a ton of pickup basketball. Every time I play, there's always this one guy that throws up absolute garbage that somehow goes in. The shot looks different every time- left hand off the right foot, right hand off the left knee, etc, etc. The point is it goes in. It's impossible to guard because you have no idea where the shot will come from. Every time he scores, you shake your head and go "jeez, that was the luckiest shot I've ever seen." But next time up the court, it goes in again. And again. In a nutshell, that is James Posey's offense. He is that guy at your local pick up game (give or take 25 million dollars. And the ability to hit 25 footers at will). His game is ugly. He does not care.
• Definitely an off night from Mr. West. Oh well. Remember last year where he'd go off on the next team after a bad game? The Lakers come to town Tuesday.
• I like Spencer Hawes a lot. Maybe not so much in this game, but I really love his game in general. Great range, great soft touch around the hoop, excellent rebounder. I don't get why Greg Oden gets all the love, and nobody talks about Hawes. What's also amusing is that Hawes is pretty much Brad Miller ten years ago. Miller was a very, very similar player to Hawes when he broke into the league with the Hornets in '98. 
• John Salmons seems to destroy us on a regular basis, doesn't he? I decided to do a quick little check and uncovered perhaps the most amazing stat in the history of humankind. Salmons' point totals against New Orleans since he's been in the league, chronologically: 0, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 22, 29. I shudder to think of 2015 when he will clearly shatter Wilt Chamberlain's single game scoring record.
• Finally, it looks like I can remove my domain request for FREEMOPETE.com (though I'm still involved in an on-going legal battle royale for FREEJULIAN). Mo came out in force tonight, knocking down a couple trifectas; props are in order to mW for noticing his three point shooting in pre-game shootaround. Here's a bit of news that should make all you Mo fans happy: according to a source of mine (oooh, mysterious), Peterson was never seriously a piece on the trading block. He might move if a great deal came along (which I assume means initiated by another team), but I was probably reading a little too much into his lack of playing time.
  
• We're rolling at exactly the right time with the Lakers visiting on Tuesday. I mentioned this in the Game Thread, but it probably bears repeating. Despite the plethora of injuries, we've slowly crept to the 5th best offensive efficiency in the L, and the 10th best defensive efficiency. At season's end last year, we were 4 at offense and 7 at defense. So basically, we're returning to last year's levels without a handful of games from two of our top contributors (Chandler and Peja). I fully expect this to be a top 3 offense and top 5 defense as we move along. The only teams in the league that can claim to be top 5 offense and defense? Boston, Cleveland, and L.A.- good company to be in.