Hornets – Page 4

Bucks(11-7) @ Hornets(8-11) [Preview]

Published on January 30, 2021 by hugocltLeave a comment

Who’s guarding Giannis tonight? PJ will probably start on him, unless Miles gets the start over him but I wouldn’t bet on Borrego making lineup changes or adjustments. Giannis is going to get his, but what I’m more concerned with (again) is the opposing team’s big men. Zeller should match up fine with Lopez but I have a feeling Bobby Portis might do work (RIP Big Black) on us in the paint tonight. Portis seems like the type of role player that tend to find the seems of this Hornets team. Middleton versus Hayward should be a fun matchup to watch, and Gordon needs to win that matchup for the hornets to have a chance of winning (or us shutting down Giannis but I think this is more likely).

The best chance we have tonight is catching fire from 3, and that’s ok to admit against a playoff team with the reigning MVP. Another team performance on offense and defense would be huge for my morale and more importantly the morale of the actual team. This game could be a turning point for us, in a good way. If we win and 5-6 guys get double digit points again, like the Pacers game Friday, it would be hard for Borrego to not use that as a blueprint for winning moving forward. Who would have thought playing OK ( I almost typed good, lets not get carried away here Hugo) team defense and making the extra pass would win a team more games. Not going to lie, I feel more confident going into this game against the Bucks than I did last night going into the Pacers game, let’s hope Giannis doesn’t take a dump all over that.

Charlotte Keys

4 Players in double digits– If 4 people get double digit points this game I think we keep it to within single digits. If 5+ people have 10 or more points, I think we have a shot at winning.

Closeouts – The bucks are 4^th in the league in 3PT% and 6^th in 3PTA… that could lead to some ugliness versus our aversion to closing out.

Rebounding – The Bucks are great rebounders, we suck at rebounding. With our noted lack of big men we need to rebound with tenacity, especially on the defensive end.

Milwaukee Keys

Get to the free throw line – The Bucks kind of suck at getting to the free throw line. Dominating the free throw matchup would all but hand Milwaukee the win.

Don’t rush – Staying calm and collected would make it very difficult for the Hornets to pull of an upset.

Prop Bets HugoCLT’s Overall Record (8-2)

Khris Middleton UNDER 5.5assists (+100)

PJ Washington OVER 13.5points (-116)

Gordon Hayward OVER 3.5asists (-116)

Terry Rozier OVER 19.5points+assists (-120)

Pacers-105 Hornets-108 [Wrap-up]

Published on January 30, 2021 by hugocltLeave a comment

Huge team win for the Hornets last night in a game that came down to the wire. Six Hornets had double digit points last night and Miles added in 9 of his own. The Hornets also managed to play some decent team defense causing the Pacers FG% and 3P% to drop dramatically from Wednesday night’s performance. There isn’t even a random role player for me to bitch about working us this game!

Sabonis and Turner got their buckets and rebounds last night but limiting Brogdon and the rest of the guards turned out to be enough for the Hornets to hold on and win. The game got a bit hairy in the fourth quarter but it was not very upsetting to me. It felt like the Pacers, who are the better team, got back into this game and not that the Hornets LET them back into the game. Yes, the Pacers outscored the Hornets by 6 in the fourth quarter but that was more because of the Hornets missing open looks and less because of the Hornets having shitty turnovers and boy have we seen some shitty turnovers this season. Hopefully the Hornets will be able to turn this game into some momentum because they’ll need it, the next four games are against the Bucks, Heat, Sixers, and Jazz.

-Shoutout Malik Monk, he’s been playing really well since he started getting minutes again. Hopefully we can get the ball in his hands for more than just 3’s. He probably should have got more time in the second half last night but I’m just happy to have him out there looking comfortable.

-Sabonis has terrible facial expressions that makes him look like a whiney bitch. I haven’t always felt this way about him, maybe it’s the hair.

-PJ should probably be a little more assertive when he literally cannot miss

-LaMelo played great despite missing all 6 of his threes. Hopefully that will keep him getting to the rim because he did that gracefully AF against the Pacers.

-Props will be back for next preview, my bad completely forgot.

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.