Hornets Beat the Rockets
by Junsier on Jan 15, 2011 12:53 AM CST
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Another game and another overtime. The Rockets stayed ahead for the first 3 quarters thanks to the efforts of Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin (and the swollen ankles of CP3 and David West), but the Hornets suddenly started playing defense like usual in the 4th and came back and ended it in overtime. My bullets:
- David West was clearly the Hornets go-to offensive player. West ended with 29 points, most importantly, with an epic dunk to tie the game towards the end of the fourth:
- The other Hornets' All-Star Chris Paul could not drive, tallied 5 turnovers, and could not connect on his jumper even before his ankle injury. But he ended the game with a crucial steal and jumper, finishing with 11 points, 8 assists, and 5 steals. As little as he seemingly contributed, the Hornets could not win without him.
- I don't know about Willie Green. He only attempted one field goal (which he made) and only had one turnover. But defensively, Kevin Martin seemed two steps ahead of him on way to his 26 points. And the Hornets were -17 with him on the court. I figure I'd rather have Beli or Marcus starting.
- The Hornets bench, led by Jarrett Jack (23 off 8-14 shooting), was pretty productive even with Marcus Thornton not scoring. Jason Smith once again hit that jumper on demand. Aaron Gray had a nice 3 minutes where he was able to post up the Rockets bench surprisingly well. If he didn't get a foul every minute I figure he would have played more.
- I've noticed Ariza's play getting better as of late (successfully driving to the hoop and actually making jumpers); he hit a pretty big late game three that gave the Hornets the lead for a few seconds. That being said, he was still 1-5 from 3 point land today, even with a solid rebounding effort (10 rebounds).
- Emeka played very solidly again, with 17 and 15, even making all three of his free throws.
- And lastly, the Hornets could have won the game in regulation with another made free throw, just like the last game.
The Hornets return to Charlotte tomorrow.
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Win!
Great come back!
Some lackluster play in the middle of the game, but we have another somewhat rare road win and that counts!
Monty goes with the hot hand again and it works. Great coaching by Monty.
Monty has been consistent about playing the guys that give the best production off the bench. Green started for Marcus and he had some trouble staying with Martin. Good call by Monty to go with Jack the rest fo the way.
Loved the power slam late in the 4th by West.
Yet, Jack floundered in the 2nd half.
And still no Thornton, even in the anemic 3rd. Jack was okay, but he got the play long after his hot start. Green just sucked, and yet we keep seeing him come back in . I just don’t understand how Monty gives those guys the “trust” and Thornton only can play if he makes his first several baskets. And people wonder why Marcus shoots all the time. He has too. All the talk about doing the “little things” right with Monty is bullshit. Marcus defends, rebounds, and hustles up and down the floor constantly, but only gets play if he scores.
Also, going small was stupid of Monty. Why worry about Gray’s fouls if you’re only going to play him 11 minutes? Go small against a team with a 6-6 center – are you crazy? David West (with a few key plays by Chris) saved Monty’s ass this game.
Posterization!!!
"I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man" ~Jay-Z
CP3 is coming. Quick, hide your Howards!
well...
I had to listen to the game from the perspective of the home team.
They spoke often of Gree.
THEY said his multiple fouls took his mind off the game.
He began avoiding contact so as to stay in the game, so they said.
In fact I watched those and he was allowing at least 3 or 4 players on past him due to this situation.
OK.
I guess that’s what players do.
However, this is MONTY’S man…a man Monty dexcribes as a defensive weapon.
So…if Monty wants this team to believe in him, he has to pratice what he preaches AND treat all players with the same philosophy.
Gray gets yanked even though in 3 minutes he got 3 fouls, many of which we all agree were crappy calls, but still was a force on defense and stopped their inside garbage and opened driving lanes.
Plus he scored , blocked out extremely well and rebounded .
He gets yanked and NEVER played again.
Green doesn’t get yanked…even after the fouls and allowing the baskets due to his foul trouble.
No, come on…we need to all out Monty on this.
It is simply wrong.
It was unfair and the players know this.
please forgive my spelling...
as I do not know how to type as I am old school and also am a recovering strke person.
But doing well these days due to the wonderful world of tennis.
Soon I hope to once again gain full control of fingers.
I'm with you.
Monty is a good coach. Most of the time. But his rotations are insane. I just don’t even understand what he’s doing anymore.
see...that's what comes out of last night's win
a pass on whatever happened during the game.
However, IF coach gets the pass because they won…EVERYBODY gets this pass.
Even the players.
No more ctisizing games IF there is a win.
Even if the team they beat sucked and they should have won by 20…doesn’t matter, they won and all is good.
I know you see what I am getting at…you usually have great things to say.
But this win seems like a loss to me.
The Laker loss looked like a win to me.
It’s all how I look at the big picture down the road and into the play-offs.
One of my great hatred is for Grant during the Civil war.
He was a butcher and nothing disgust me more than a butsher of men.
Ya, he won. But he threw thousand of soldiers to their stupid, unneeded deaths because he knew he had more men to lose than Lee.
F… him and his horse.
I specialize in American history and he is one of the burr issues under my saddle.
So winning is not just a get out of jail free card.
No, not to me.
I'm with PP on this
It’s a notch in the win column but it doesn’t mean much in that you can’t take anything really away from this game. As I said last night, Houston had the game and blew it more than any of our players stepped up and took it. It was nice West found his shot somewhat down the stretch but he really had no resistance. Open jumper from 10 feet, a dunk and at least another layup is what I remember.
Green / Gray
I don’t think Green was able to contain Martin. But Martin is one of the best scorers in the NBA this year. He scored 26 points, incluidng overtime. But his scoring avarage this year is 24 ppg.
Dude put up 45 points just three games ago. That’s the kind of player he is. Other than 2 or 3 games this year, no player has really stopped him.
Let’s keep things in perspective.
As for Gray. I thought he gave quality play. But he picks up tons of ticky tacky fouls. He was on track to foul out after 6 minutes of play. It’s not just this game. Still, he played well in my thought as a backup.
Anyway, aren’t you even slightly happy that we got another win?
extremely pleased.
Gray’s tacky fouls are not his fault, but the refs.
Every big center pulls these and the bigger the name, the free to do them.
However, that’s is a reality of the NBA and Gray needs to understand this.
BUT so does his coach.
And IF you perform, and you still have 3 fouls left and you team is being killed under the net and your down by 10 in the third quarter…
YOU get another chance.
Green, you see, was allowed to stay in and even was allowed to give free lanes to the basket with his fouls…but not Gray, who was NOT allowing for the scoring.
It’s a simple thing to me…
Ref's fault
“Gray’s tacky fouls are not his fault, but the refs.”
Gray’s had a pretty foul plagued career. His foul rate is higher per minute than Mbenga’s who you consider to be a horrible foul hack.
I think at least a few of Gray’s fouls have been his fault, not just the refs, don’t you? ^^
oh. hell yes.
I think Gray has a lot of growing up to do…this includes getting bigger balls.
But he’s just a kid now.
And BIG men always struggle with fouls.
This is true, and you know it.
God doesn’t give you everything…
He gave Gray size and heart.
Me, brains and looks…..
And I wouldn’t call Gray as having a career.
Come on…
He played part time with the bulls.
He atually outplayed the young smart ass Noah who was getting into trouble with both teammates and coach.
Then he got sat so Noah could get his minutes and earn his pay after the money spent.
Got traded.
BROKE his leg and spent last season trying to play into shape.
This year he’s getting pitiful miunutes.
That is NOT a career or reason to missinterpret his abilities.
damn..I wish I could spell!!!!
by the way…
Big men always start slowly in the NBA.
And they last longer.
It’s a rare animal that doesn’t.
But IF Gray were that, we wouldn’t have him.
This would have been a perfect game to go bigger than the opposition
Once Jack had cooled off there was ZERO reason to stay as small as them. As evidenced late in the 4th with so many layups, the key was to pound the hell out of them in the paint. Gray would have been perfect for a few more minutes – who cares if he fouls out. Also, I’m pretty sure I don’t remember seeing Ariza being given a chance on Martin. Battier isn’t a huge threat – just make sure he doesn’t have open looks from range and keep him off the glass.
Man, I love you
Exactly about Gray fouling out.
I mean, early on this is a concern because anything an happen to Oak and you need him.
But give me a break!
At the time when you don’t care if he fouls out but you need some enforcement…what the hell gives!?
really tough game tonight.
NOT because of the competition, although that’s always a given.
But they are really worn out.
Ankles.
Knees.
Late flight so no rest.
Tonight is a lunch bucket workers night.
Not looking foward to pretty basketball.
this MIGHT be a single malt night.
not sure if the big reds will work.
Good Win
Got a chance to watch the replay and David West’s dunk is so good that I’ve been pimping it on facebook. As far as the game itself, I don’t know why everyone is calling it an ugly win and saying that they’re not impressed by it. Any time my team can come back from 16 down in the second half to win without a decent effort from Chris Paul is terrific. Paul closed it out for them and was big in overtime. I get that he wasn’t that good for the majority of the game but who cares?
At this point, a win is a win and I’ll definitely take it. It’ll be tough to fly into another time zone (and lose an hour) and play at Charlotte tonight but they handled business last night. It’s a good win.
"You play to win the game."
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