Hornets Fall in Houston by 19; Jumpers Won’t Fall For Us

Indiana-North Carolina Central

So, game 1 without Al Jefferson has been completed. Looking at the box score, everyone freaks out and exclaims, oh my God! When will Al be back? We really need him! While I won’t disagree that winning games is not easy when you’re missing your starting center, I will also point out that when a team scores 17 3-pointers, you aren’t going to win many games. Take that comment into perspective. That’s 41 points. We were 3-18. They were 17 – 43.

 

OK, let me explain why this was a good game in my eyes. Bismack Biyombo had 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 25 minutes of play.   Keep in mind that his counterpart, Dwight Howard had 11 points, 1 block, 1 assist, and 8 rebounds. I failed to mention that Howard had 6 turnovers and Biz had 0. I make this point for one reason, and one reason alone; we didn’t lose the game because Al was out. No one had better blame Biz for a second.   If they do, I’ll argue you into the ground about it. Where Al brings offense and very little defense, Biz gave us typical numbers for an NBA center that plays to defend and rebound. I’m very proud of him for it. As I stated, Howard struggles against Biz, and I thoroughly enjoy watching the 2 of them going at it. What I am saying about the absence of Al is that we can maintain without him, and Biz is a very competent center in the NBA. Very, VERY competent considering he’s been playing basketball for 6 years now…this is his 4th season in the NBA. He played starting at 16, and is currently 22. Do the math there. He’s young and a great student of the game. I have to move on now…can you tell how big of a Biyombo fan I am?

 

So you’re asking how this is a good game even though we lost. Well, I made my point at the center position. Now I’ll move on to the rest of the team. We cannot win games shooting sub-40% from the floor.   We were 29 of 76 (38.2%). That’s rough. Kemba had average numbers for a point guard, giving 12 points, 5 assists to 1 turnover, a steal and a block. With this current lineup, I’d like for that assist number to be higher, but with so many shooting up bricks, that isn’t happening. 4 guys were in double figures. That’s a positive thing. Henderson and Gilchrist were the high men with 16 a piece. These are notes that Coach Clifford needs to take note of. He should take more note of MKG than Hendo because he knows Hendo can do that, but MKG, I think he doubts at times. Hendo was the Hornets player of the game with his 16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists with 2 turnovers, and a steal. I would have given it to MKG, who had 16 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists on 3 turnovers, and 2 blocks. I guess it could easily go either way, but that’s all good. Zeller is not getting enough touches in this style of offense. I would like to see him taking on Al’s role to a certain extent.   Let him post up on offense and take it to some guys. He’s 7’ and a healthy 245-250…let him bang up some smaller covers. If the NBA is going more to a stretch 4, let him be a POWER forward, and bang in there. Hairston and Neal need to become what they were brought here for: 3-point specialists.   They were a combined 0 for 6 last night from the 3-point line. This is why we fail. As a team we were 3 – 18 (16.7%) from the 3-point line. If you can’t hit 3s, shoot 2s. Kemba hit 1, Marvin hit 1 (his ONLY shot made out of 4), and Brian Roberts hit 1 (His only shot made out of 7).

Fans, we don’t lose games because of a lack of Al, we lose because we can’t do the one thing that wins games: we can’t make shots, especially 3-pointers. It’s an easy thing to spot when you watch game film. It isn’t on Clifford either. Everyone that had a jersey on played last night, and 4 of the 11 didn’t score more than 5 points, and 1 didn’t score at all. It’s really simple. Our guys should probably stop focusing so much on practicing 3-pointers at practice, and practice more making ANY shot.   If you struggle from inside 3, you’ll definitely struggle outside the 3.   We got tons of wings and none that are shooting consistently. Consistency is key, and we have a shooting expert in Mark Price. We’ll get this fixed, I just don’t know when.

The schedule isn’t getting any easier as we face Cleveland at home tomorrow, Boston Monday at Boston, New Orleans in Charlotte on Wednesday, and Toronto in Toronto on Thursday.   Another rough stretch coming up, but if we can get our wings hitting shots with some consistency, I’m not concerned. Coach Price, dial them in.

 

Let’s Go Hornets!

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