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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jan 23, 2006 22:13:09 GMT -5
It was a solid all around game for the entire team. We didn't rely on any particular player. Ricky got hot from the perimeter in the 3rd, but honestly, we didn't need him to explode in the 3rd quarter (scored 17 in that frame) to beat the Hornets. It was a combination of everyone doing their part and coming through for us.
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Post by esco33 on Jan 23, 2006 22:31:08 GMT -5
Solid win tonight. I won’t get too excited. The Hornets are a pretty young team. Good comeback game from Ricky. He was pissed at Dickerson for saying he was in a slump. Good thing he got out of it. Perk hit the o boards well, and was a defensive stopper – 4 blocks I think.
Big Al was decent. Almost had a double-double I think.
Raef was hitting his shots. Best game in a while
Pierce was sub par tonight forcing a lot of shots.
Overall our team defense was excellent. T Allen had a few blocks. Delonte hustled as usual. Perk and Big Al were playing tough down in the box. NO is not that great of an offensive team to begin with other than Paul and West. Chris Paul was basically shut down. Solid effort. Hopefully this keeps up.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jan 23, 2006 23:09:10 GMT -5
I think our defense was the reason why we won. In the first half, we played well, but the Hornets were able to stay close to us. But in the second half, our defense stepped up, as Perkins had 3 blocks (5 for the entire game), Tony got a couple of tough blocked shots, and Jefferson came in and did a solid job on the boards. Heck, I'll even give Scalabrine a thumbs up because he came up with a couple of plays that kept the Hornets down.
The biggest aspect of our win may have been the defensive work we did collectively on David West and Chris Paul. In the first half, West was scoring at will (I think he had like 19 1st half points). But we shut him out in the 2nd half and the Hornets just couldn't get it going. And Chris Paul could not get anything going all night. Delonte made sure he pressured Paul and forced him to put it on the floor. And anytime Paul penetrated into the lane, we swarmed him and forced him to kick it out.
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Post by Roadrunner on Jan 23, 2006 23:36:04 GMT -5
Seems like the defensive effort on Paul was the key to the victory.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jan 24, 2006 3:15:45 GMT -5
Seems like the defensive effort on Paul was the key to the victory. Very much so. If you stop the engine, the car won't work. But lucky for us, we were also able to shut down David West in the second half as well. If not, things may have turned out differently.
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Post by The Eye of the Q is upon you! on Jan 24, 2006 8:05:27 GMT -5
I liked how we opened it up in the third qtr. My boy, Raef, finally had a big game. Then Doc Rivers pulled him out and we relied on RD's hot hand until we ran out of energy. After a defensive battle that seemed to follow the tone, New Orleans simply dominated Garbage time and made the score a lot closer than it should have been. Banks was brought in to supervise garbage time and was simply terrible.
Our success with Oklahoma this year was predicated on stopping Chris Paul and our team did exactly that. I wish we could trade Blonut to Oklahoma for Chris Anderson but they will never do that.
I hope the Hornets will stay in Oklahoma since that means NBA basketball is only a 2 hour drive south for me.
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Post by ferbo on Jan 24, 2006 11:47:44 GMT -5
If DA is intent on trading blount, I don't think Doc is helping any by keeping him on the bench.
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Post by The Eye of the Q is upon you! on Jan 24, 2006 12:58:32 GMT -5
If DA is intent on trading blount, I don't think Doc is helping any by keeping him on the bench. I think Blount is certain to be traded now and knows it. It's just a matter of where he will be sent and when. So why would you bother playing someone if he knows he will be traded. Judging by Banks pathetic 4th qtr garbage time effort, he is a Celtics short-timer, too.
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Post by esco33 on Jan 24, 2006 13:07:22 GMT -5
If DA is intent on trading blount, I don't think Doc is helping any by keeping him on the bench. I actually think the reason he was on the bench for a few straight games was becasue the supposed Minny deal was about to go down, but fell through. Kandi and Hudson were not playing for Minny as well in those games. (I do not buy the Kandiman's wisdom tooth excuse.)
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jan 24, 2006 13:09:50 GMT -5
We sure can't showcase him by playing him because he plays without any energy most of the time, and has more turnovers than rebounds most nights. We are better off keeping him under wraps and offer him as a 7 ft scorer and try to make GMs forget how bad he is at everything else.
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Post by eja117 on Jan 24, 2006 13:45:14 GMT -5
I think he's on the bench to keep him from getting injured in case of trade
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Post by mev17 on Jan 25, 2006 2:26:37 GMT -5
Nice to see defense key a victory. I read that since we have benched Blount and gone with Perkins and Jefferson more (ie: since the Minnesota game) we are only yielding 93 per game (vs 100 per game for the season). Plus NO had won 8 of its last 11 IIRC, so we beat a half-way decent team (they actually had a better record than us coming into the game). We've won 3 of 4, with actually all 3 wins vs teams ahead of us in the standings, so this qualifies as our best streak of the year. If Perk and Jefferson can improve with their new-found increase in PT as did West, we can have a nice run in the second half. Reminds me in a way of Miami a couple of years ago (pre-Shaq) who struggled early then ended on a hot-streak and finished above .500 and in the playoffs.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jan 25, 2006 3:30:34 GMT -5
Seems like Blount had a bigger negative effect on the team than we imagined. Doc should be ashamed of himself for waiting this long to play Perk and Jefferson a lot more.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2006 17:32:32 GMT -5
Seems like Blount had a bigger negative effect on the team than we imagined. Doc should be ashamed of himself for waiting this long to play Perk and Jefferson a lot more. Damn Straight!
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Post by ferbo on Jan 25, 2006 17:44:52 GMT -5
Dare I offer a contrary view and saty that maybe the increased PT as a result of Doc's assessment of how they w2ere playing?
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