Game 5: Hive Live

by hldomingue on Nov 5, 2009 1:33 AM CST in Recaps

Dallas 107 (3–2) | New Orleans 114 (2–3)

Great game. Any win at all would have been acceptable; however, the Hornets dialed it up a notch and found a way to win even in the face of adversity (aka Dallas, which is a way better team than Sacramento).

After flying out the gates and finishing the first with an 8 point lead, the Hornets started to sag while the Mavs, who started cold, began hitting open looks all over the court. The lead continued to change hands for the rest of the game until the end, when the Mavs were up 4 with 16 seconds to play to play. Things looked pretty bleak from section 325, and the Hornets seemed to be headed to yet another loss; a hard fought loss, yes, but a loss all the same.

One CP offensive foul and 4 missed Dallas free throws later, the Hornets find themselves down by 3 with 9 seconds to play and deem Peja "0 for the night and then some" Stojakovic the man to fire the tying shot... and he drains it. Un.be.lieve.able.

The Mavs went ice cold in OT, and really, that's all she wrote. The Hornets finished the contest with the advantage in every statistical category but blocks and three-point percentage. Perhaps the most important part was the Hornets owning the paint in the second half. They were able to penetrate and out duel the Mavs to the tune of 26 to 14 down low.

Bullets after the jump.

As we've noted, Chris Paul, who became the third-fastest player to tally his 3000th assist on Monday night, is freaking amazing. As such, it was no surprise that he finished the evening to the tune of 39 points (on 61% shooting), 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and perfect from the stripe.
Jason Terry was also on fire tonight. He single-handedly kept Dallas in the game and made me write a plethora of expletives (in all caps, mind you) in my little notepad. When an opponent drops 35 points (on 66% shooting) on us, I tend to get annoyed. Must be what everyone else in the league feels about CP.
Front court was solid for the Bees tonight as well. Sure, they got jammed up a few times playing zone D (though it looked like we played a fair amount of man to man as well), but Emeka and DX combined for with 36 points (on 60% shooting) 23 boards, 8 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks, and 3 turnovers. Damn, that feels good.
While we're singing their praises, I'll go ahead and thank both of our starting bigs for the superb job they did locking down Dirk. The Big German finished the night with only 12 points and went 4 of 15 from the field. The refs were letting the boys play under the hoops, which led to a few tiffs, and ultimately, I think Dirk's frustration won out. His shortcomings (and his 6th foul with two and a half minutes to play in regulation) was as crucial to the W as those missed FTs from Terry and Berea.
Shawn Marion was also not much of a factor in this game. 8 points (on 33% shooting), 6 boards, 2 blocks, and 5 turnovers. I wasn't expecting "The Matrix Reloaded" or anything, but that's pretty mediocre/bad for a guy who logged 39 minutes.
Bobby "My Prerogative" Brown continued to launch shots (some of which were ill-advised), but managed to sink more than half of them, finishing with 18 points. I still think we're doing a disservice to Collison by letting someone as irresponsible as Brown live ahead of him in the depth chart, but for tonight, Brown was worth his salt (even if I cringed for every shot he took).
And one final thought: late in the game Emeka picked up a loose ball after a missed CP layup and slammed it home. After I was done clapping, though, I realized that we really don't dunk anymore. Ever since Tyson left, it just doesn't happen much. Of course, I'll take Mek's post moves any day over a guy who has to be under the hoop to score, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the excitement.

Composed to: It's My Life by Talk Talk

The Opponents Take: Mav's Moneyball

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Comments

“Of course, I’ll take Mek’s post moves any day over a guy who has to be under the hoop to score, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the excitement.”

Heh, this is a good point I never thought of before. Okafor feels similar to Chandler on offense, even though he’s so much better, because he’s more understated I guess.

I agree on Marion… he was AWFUL. Dropping passes in the paint, missing cuts, he was seriously a negative for Dallas tonight. I’m more than willing to write it off as a fluke… but I never really saw him play in Toronto or late Miami that much, so if he’s actually regressing, all the better for us.

Like you said, DX and Emeka were massive on defense. West did most of the heavy lifting, in my opinion, completely shutting down Dirk. And MekaTron came through with the two (second one was a clean block…) big blocks to save the game. I’ll do a post about this soon, but a Mek/Marks | West/Diogu frontcourt could end up really, really good.

My fear is that Brown has bought himself a couple more weeks at least over Collison. The one new thing was that New Orleans seemed to use him more as a SG tonight than in the first four games. He had a lot of off the ball action (the give and go with West was nifty)… and that’s actually a role I don’t mind for him. Maybe a Collison/Brown duo would be an option… not that it’s gonna happen.

by Rohan on Nov 5, 2009 1:43 AM CST reply actions

Brown

Yeah, I had mixed feelings about Brown all night long. I don’t want him to take so many shots, but if he’s going to, I’d obviously prefer they go in. But then I don’t want that to be affirmation of this process to Byron.

A CP/Brown tandem could continue to work out, but I’d worry about larger 2s taking real advantage of the lack of size.

And while we’re here, is Bower trying to amass as many guards at-or-around- 6-feet as possible? Weird.

Hometown Hornets

by hldomingue on Nov 5, 2009 11:31 AM CST up reply actions

I agree

But what are the odds that DX keeps up his work ethic on the offensive & defensive glass? I’m not attempting to play the role of a tired, trite pessimist but i do think it’s a realistic & serious question to ask in re the potential for getting consistency by DX regarding his board game. Understated is i think the perfect word choice to describe okafor in comparison to chandler or other bigs in the league.

Yes, i have the same ominous feeling regarding brown. With this performance, Scott’s confidence in his choice to give bobby brown the biggest/key minutes off the bench will indefinitely ebb and flow, but never break, meaning brown, no matter how much his selfish guard game sinks the team once, twice, or three times in a week, if he can put together a game that replenishes Scott’s seemingly infinite resevoir of trust in him, he’ll continue to be able to “justify” the huge minutes he’s getting over Collison, Songaila (, and eventually Diogu when he’s back in playing shape).

by Grand Tanyon Sturtze on Nov 5, 2009 1:04 PM CST up reply actions

Hopefully, the Hornets continue their "inspired" play.

by redzero on Nov 5, 2009 2:05 AM CST reply actions

Last nights game

I have seen 3 of the 4 games so far and I must say this was the most inspired play I have seen However:

- The Hornets are still lousy on the Offensive and Defensive boards often leaving players open for easy put backs or boards.

+ Players were ripping the net from all over the court which was great to see.

- Certain bench players still need to see some game time. Rookies or not.

+ Songalia and Brown were huge in this game reguardless of there stat line HUGE!!

+ Emeka Okafur was a monster and continues to make me say Tyson who?

- Can we still try and make a trade for someone that can be trouble for another teams defense other than CP3, D-Dub, and now E.O?

All in all this was a great game I enjoyed the prime time slot.

Geaux Hornets!!!

by Saintsfan4life on Nov 5, 2009 10:18 AM CST reply actions

Agreed.

The Hornets are still lousy on the Offensive and Defensive boards often leaving players open for easy put backs or boards.

Good point. We looked good on the boards at times, but we also watched a lot of Dampier put backs.

Hometown Hornets

by hldomingue on Nov 5, 2009 11:27 AM CST up reply actions

CP3 WOW what a shot

His big step lay-up was off the chain. I was just thinking wow the whole time man this junk aint easy to do.

by Saintsfan4life on Nov 5, 2009 10:26 AM CST reply actions

Boards

I was tired of seeing Dampier going to the sidlines and smirking like COME ON MAN they arent putting a body on me! Seeing D-Dub get pissed and looking around for his help was also pretty annoying. I was trying to figure out what scheme the Hornets had on boxing out Dampier, but It just seemed we would fly in there and grab a board as an act of suprise rather than (like I said) boxing out and pulling em’ down they way it should be done.

All in all we win this one, moving on to Toronto……

Geaux Hornets cant wait to see yall get it all put together.

by Saintsfan4life on Nov 5, 2009 12:24 PM CST reply actions

The give and go passes were flawlessly executed, and looked great, and i feel like these extra wrinkles and their seamless execution in our plodding half-court style offense are going to be key to doing significantly better this season than last, because our margin for error is still extremely small. I especially was impressed with Hilton’s one give & go to Brown, it’s an elementary tactic that can be incorporated into just about any offense but maybe, if Scott is still going to (dumbfoundingly) give Hilton and Brown big minutes, that’s exactly what we need for them to generate any-thing for us offensively when we rest the 1st team.

by Grand Tanyon Sturtze on Nov 5, 2009 1:08 PM CST reply actions

Good recap...but...

Isn’t this Game 5? Or am I getting ahead of myself…

by JChangNZ on Nov 5, 2009 7:04 PM CST reply actions

Why yes it is...

Hooray math!

Guess I was just trying to pretend that the Knicks game didn’t count.

Hometown Hornets

by hldomingue on Nov 6, 2009 12:05 AM CST up reply actions

I love maths/statistics

Statistics – where you can use the data YOU want to make something look good =)

by JChangNZ on Nov 6, 2009 3:36 AM CST reply actions

I had good seats for this game

I was not impressed with the intensity of the Hornets team. They looked out of sync for much of the game. Once they got the game to overtime, they started to really play hard. That and Dirk was fouled out, meaning they only had to guard the INSANELY ON FIRE Jason Terry.

So while this was a nice victory and a needed one, there is a lot of work left to do to get this team playing well. Bobby Brown is not too bad, but the Hornets really need another guard. Why is Thorton sitting on the bench? I really think Hilton Armstrong is maxed out and will never be any good. Okafor is not too bad but he seems shorter than Tyson and can’t run the pick and roll as well. Paul tried 2x on one offensive possession and Ok just wasn’t rolling as well as Chandler. Hopefully they’ll figure it out soon. In general, Paul seems frustrated by the bumbling around of his teammates.

by xen-cuts on Nov 6, 2009 4:13 PM CST reply actions