Game Wrap-ups – Page 5

Pacers-116 Hornets-106 [Wrap-up]

Published on January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 by hugocltLeave a comment

Doug McDermott turned the clock back to his Creighton days and scored 28 points vs the Hornets last night, with an embarrassing (for the Hornets) 22 points in the paint. That 22 points in the paint is especially disturbing when you realize Doug does not have a single post move, so the majority of these were lightly defended or completely uncontested layups. In a season full of role players roasting the Hornets, McDermott, and Justin Holiday for that matter, were happy to follow the likes of Gary Clark and Garrett Temple…

There were some positives to take away from this game for the Hornets, especially their lack of turnovers. Another positive is that the rotations were not identical to the previous 4 games. Borrego started Zeller over Biz and even got a little crazy and gave Monk some pt in the first quarter. I am happy that Monk got some more time and Borrego changed up some things but neither of the two moves do anything to address the fact that we have 1.44 big men on this team. What’s the plan against teams with an actual power forward? Allow them to put up an easy triple double like Domantas Sabonis and his Dawsons Creek ass haircut, I guess…

-The Hornets only had 11 turnovers, but just could not make their shots. PJ and Gordon both shot gross 6/14 with Terry adding a slightly “better” 8/18.

-Need quicker adjustments on the fly during opponents runs

-We get another shot Friday, 1 out of 2 vs the pacers is probably the best we could hope for anyway

-Not a popular take but I think Caleb should get some time, with most of it is getting in opposing PFs grill and pestering the shit out of them.

-Does any of our role players have defined roles? I think the someone needs to have the role of getting inside opposing big men’s jersey and make their life hell.

-Small ball only works when a team has highly skilled tweener type personel, we do not.

-Looks like our two defensive sets are “allow open 3s” or “allow open layups”… -Is anyone having fun? I’m not.

Hornets-108 Magic-117 [Wrap-up]

Published on January 26, 2021 by hugocltLeave a comment

The Hornets failed take two in Orlando as they join the Knicks, Magic, Raptors, Bulls, and Heat with 10 losses in the East. The Southeast Division might end up like the garbage ass NFC east and have a team “win” the division with a losing record. Gordon, Graham, and Rozier all had 20 point efforts and Miles had another 10pts off the bench, other than that the rest of the team played pretty meh. The starters shot a very respectable 44% from deep while the bench posted a gross 0/13…

The Hornets actually managed to win a first quarter last night, handily at 30-19. That lead did not last long as the Magic ripped off 8 quick points to start the second, including a 3 from former Hornet Dwayne Bacon. The Magic continued walking all over charlotte in the 2^nd quarter, going up 9 at one point, marking a 20 point swing in only 8 minutes. I cannot speak for the Hornets, but I sure as shit was demoralized at this point. The small run to bring us to within one before half helped a bit, but I wasn’t buying it.

The Hornets came out after halftime flatter than Taylor Swifts ass and were down 10 in no time at all. More of the same all the way through the 4^th as the magic made easy work of us. The Hornets “won” the fourth quarter 32-30 but that was mostly garbage time consolation prize crap.

-We did not close out well, I’m starting to think that shitty closeouts are part of Borrego’s big brain defensive scheme. The Magic shot over 50% from deep.

-Role player waxed us again, Dwayne Bacon dropped 15 points, yes that Dwayne Bacon

-Is Vernon Carey that bad? How can anyone be that much worse than our bigs at the moment? I’d like to at least see what we have with him so we can make moves accordingly (same goes for Nick Richards but he’s injured currently.)

Hornets–107 Magic–104 [Wrap-up]

Published on January 25, 2021 by hugocltLeave a comment

Heyyooo, it wasn’t pretty but the Hornets are back in the win column after a 39 point performance from Gordon Hayward. LaMelo and Miles provided a spark off the bench in the first half and kept the Hornets within striking distance. The pair (M&M(Melo&Miles)) plus Zeller were the only 3 players for the Hornets with positive +/-‘s in the first half and it showed. Miles built upon his first half with 7 more points in the third quarter but the Hornets turned the ball over 5 times in the 3rd and allowed the Magic to add 4 points to their lead going into the fourth quarter.

The 4^th quarter is where the fun started for the Hornets, with Devonte’ knocking down a 3 only seconds into the quarter bringing the lead down to 9. Devonte’ continued to show out by either scoring or assisting on the Hornets next 9 points while the team defense only allowed a Vucevic’ jump shot, bringing the lead down to 2 points. After some free throws from both sides Devonte’ hit another three to put the Hornets up 1 for the first time since the 4 minute mark in the 1^st quarter. Gordon Hayward, feeling left out on the fun, began his own bucket-fest scoring 8 straight points in the game and pushed the lead to 9 points, which should have been out of reach…. But our young Hornets let the Magic back in the game, and ultimately tie it up behind a couple of nut dragging threes from Fournier and one from ross with 8 seconds to go (which wouldn’t have mattered if Biz hit ONE of his damn free throws.). With the game on the line and 8 seconds to go Hayward eyed Fournier up and blew past him with physicality to hit the buzzer beating layup in traffic, off the glass, leaving only 0.7 seconds left on the clock. After a 5 second call(Cole Anthony is young too) on the ensuing play the Hornets got the win we were desperately needing.

Notes:

-The bench goes as LaMelo goes; Starters go as Graham goes.

-Gordon did everything he could do to not get 40pts, missing 4/8 at the free throw line

-Miles needs to stay aggressive like he was tonight, while not getting happy feet travels

-The defensive scheme needs a lot of work. It’s hard to be a hardass about defense and turnovers(looking at you Borrego) when your whole scheme revolves around seemingly switching EVERYTHING.