Just got back from the New Orleans Arena, so: How’s everyone doing tonight? Hopefully, you’re doing well. How am I, you ask? I had nachos and a nice milkshake at the game. But, how do you think I’d feel if I told you the New Orleans Hornets lost to the Houston Rockets tonight despite leading by 16 in the second half? Not too good. Yup, that’s about right.
Everything was great in the first half. The Hornets looked to keep their form since the All-Star break and ran out to a 15-point lead behind their defense. The crowd was having a good time. I was laughing with my friends and making fun of the Rockets’ fans behind us. Halftime came and the wheels fell off. The Hornets scored 34 points the rest of the game and allowed Houston to come back and win. The Houston fan now made fun of us, and my friends and I walked back to the car in silence. This game hurt. Throughout the entire 4th quarter I kept thinking that this couldn’t be happening.
This loss should raise a lot of concerns for the team–especially with a 5 game road trip coming up. Let’s do this…
The Hans Gruber Villian of the Game Award
This is pretty obvious: welcome to the club Kevin Martin! How’s it feel to be linked to Sebastian Telfair for internet-eternity? Martin had his 3rd straighth 30-point game and finished with 33 on the night. He was perfect at the line (13 for 13) and nailed four 3-pointers. I may be wrong, but didn’t the Rockets trade Carl Landry to the Sacramento Kings for him? Someone send him some poison muffins or something.
Notes:
-I hate to do it, but I need to question Monty Williams on his rotation in this game. How come Aaron Gray didn’t get in the game? He’s been playing well and has been active on the glass. The Rockets pulled down 13 offensive rebounds and the Hornets only grabbed 27 defensive boards. Jason Smith played four minutes, so there was no backup for Emeka Okafor tonight.
Also, with Willie Green playing ineffectively how come we didn’t see Marco Belinelli in the lineup at the end of the game? We needed shooters on the court and he had been scorching hot off the bench.
–Chris Paul disappeared in the second half again. He looked good the last two games but let’s hold off on saying he is back to his old form just yet. What concerns me the most is that the best game he has played recently was the All-Star game–with LeBron, Carmelo, Amare, etc. you know the guys he might want to form a superteam with elsewhere–and not a game in which the outcome matters.
-Houston went 11-26 from 3-point range tonight. The Hornets are 1-11 when their opponent makes more than 10 3’s.
–Kyle Lowry hit four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points. But maybe we should have seen that coming.
–Trevor Ariza finished 6-12 with 13 points. Of those 6 misses, 4 were just terrible shots (I remember 1 of them being taken as the shot clock expired).
-Carl Landry made his home debut for the Hornets tonight. When he entered the game the reaction was very tame, mostly just golf-clapping. He started off slowly but got his shot going later on. He had 13 points but finished with a -11 on the night. Regardless, I like him. He had a couple of dunks including one slam which got the crowd on their feet cheering for him. He also had a gorgeous spin in the paint which led to a bucket. Jason Smith would never be able to do that.
-8th sellout of the season! It’s nice to see all the support!
-Follow me on twitter: @NOLAJake
Longest road trip of the season coming up. Mardi Gras time, grab yourself a daiquiri, head on over to St. Charles and grab a spot on the neutral ground, enjoy the parades, hopefully you catch some good stuff, personally I want a Zulu coconut, don’t forget about food. In po-boy mood? You can’t go wrong with Parasol’s. Oh, it’s bbq you want? Ms. Hyster’s is the place to be. Just don’t forget to support your Hornets throughout the next week.
And here’s this to remind us of what CP3 can do.