Some of these thoughts are things I’ve already posted on Twitter or in comment threads elsewhere. I’m just copy/pasting. If you follow me around EVERYWHERE you will have already read some of this (stalkers). Sorry. I’m home sick today, and alas, it is a bit too much to ask of me, to summon great thoughts twice. Perhaps mW has his own stuff to add.
Devin... we meet again.
On The Great Fallacy of Tyson Chandler Coming Back to Save Us All:
New Orleans fans (and players) have clearly been relying on Tyson Chandler’s return to give hope to this team… and… well, he’s something of an emotional leader for them, but he couldn’t even run in the 4th quarter. He was limping up and down the floor. If it wasn’t the playoffs, he wouldn’t be out there. His big return is just not gonna happen. Dude is hurt.
If we don’t win Game 3 shut him down? Just throwing it out there. I know we relied on him to inject some hope in this team, but it’s probably starting to be time to face the facts.
On Chris Paul and David West’s Troubles:
If you had told me Peja and Rasual would be that good from three, Posey would reappear from wherever he went in Game 1 with some mad hustle, and Devin Brown would have 4 points in 8 minutes and only miss one shot, and that we would lose because David West couldn’t hit jumpers and layups and Chris Paul was tentative, I would have laughed at you.
I know Byron Scott is never, ever going to do this, because he would never go all D’Antoni, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to see the Hornets go small and throw Butler, Stojakovic, Posey, and Peterson out there with an 18-point deficit and 5 minutes left, and just have them jack threes? ‘Sual and Peja were on from three all night. Seriously. Please tell me how that would be any worse when you’re already losing and your two best players can’t get into the paint.
On Denver’s Shooting:
Hot. Damn. I’m not sure if I mean that to be read as two separate words, each expressive of the Nuggets’ shooting last night, or as the phrase “hot damn.” I’m not sure it matters.
Here’s a question I wonder if someone can answer for me: the Hornets’ numbers say they are not a bad defensive team. But can you adjust for pace? What are the numbers on that? Are we really defending well, or are we just slowing other teams down to something approaching our 28th in the league pace?
On TNT’s Awesome(ly dumb) “Team Role” Blurbs Under Each Player’s Name
Oh, the fun I could have with this. “Chris Paul. Team Role: Jesus Figure.” “James Posey. Team Role: Hired Killer.” “Tyson Chandler. Team Role: Ceiling Fan Repair Man.” “David West. Team Role: Beast.” “Kenyon Martin. Team Role: Thug.” “Dahntay Jones. Team Role: Mosquito” …..
On Devin Brown:
Last night at the watch party, there was a great moment. Devin Brown hustled to a rebound. Everyone yelled, “YES!” Then he backed toward the corner and raised the ball to shoot. Everyone yelled, “NO, Devin!” But he ended up hitting the shot, and the whole bar went, “YES! Devin Brown!” and it was all very hilarious.
And, just for fun, Great Moments in the History of Fail… with Devin Brown.
You yell at that douchethug, CP!
On DoucheThuggery:
After watching all the posing and pouty-face-making that went on in last night’s game, I am standing by my inclusion of Chris Andersen in the “douchethuggery” category. Not on the thuggery part, because he’s an all right guy– he and CP helped each other up after one play, and I caught him and D West exchanging a smile once– but definitely on the douche part. And it clearly was a mistake not recognizing Dahntay Jones in the original post for the douchethug that he is. It was my error. It has been corrected.
On the Topic of NBA Determinism:
Does anyone have ANY doubt that it will be LeBron vs. Kobe? I mean, what’s even the point? Sorry, sorry, but this is genuinely how I feel and it makes me so upset because I want to be surprised and inspired and moved. And that… just won’t do those things for me.
[OK, I posted this on At the Hive, and this next part is me stepping back in to clarify, because a lot of people in the comment thread jumped at me for thinking there's a big conspiracy with the refs calling things against the Hornets, but I didn't actually mean to say that.]
I wasn’t really talking about this game. I don’t believe there is a conspiracy against the Hornets. There’s no reason, if there was, that David Stern wouldn’t want CP3 to go deep into the playoffs. People love him, he equals revenue. I watched part of the Cavs game yesterday and it put me into this mood. I’m feeling rather fatalistic about the whole thing in general. I know the Cavs have played great basketball this year, but that article about LeBron being called for an average of less than two fouls per game? Have you read it? Even Kobe, Wade, CP have been in foul trouble. James has never been, not once. And it’s frankly unbelievable for a guy in DPOY consideration who throws his body around that much and goes to the basket that hard.
My frustration is that Stern apparently has no interest in doing something about the league’s rep for sketchy officiating and ridiculous star calls. And CP’s have gone way up this year from last year, I’ve noticed— anecdotally— are there stats on this? I actually read an article where Brandon Roy said something surprisingly frank about that. [mW informs me he saved this article somewhere. Perhaps he will post it.] Said that after his 50 pt game in November he started to notice the fact that he was getting whistles he doesn’t usually get. But you aren’t allowed to talk about the officiating or you get fined. I just feel like there is a possibility it’s allowed to continue, maybe, MAYBE, because then when things are slightly manufactured, it’s less noticeable?
This is really more a tangiential “What’s the point anyway? We know who’s getting to the final” than “Everyone hates New Orleans.”
I relish unpredictability in my playoffs. But does the NBA give us a court on which Cinderella cannot live? What happened to “anything is possible”? Go forth, young flawed Hawks and Sixers and Blazers. Go forth and dunk and leap and shine. Your time is short. I shall cry for you when you are gone.
On Byron Scott’s Weird Refusal to Give Minutes to a Guy Who Was a Starter Last Season:
You know what? I’ve said enough. Just trade Mo Peterson. He deserves to play. Somewhere.
On Buy Your Damn Tickets For Game 3 Already, for the Love of God, the NFL Draft is Terrible and Dull and Jazzfest Happens Every Freakin Year:
I posted this rant yesterday in one of those team-hating forum threads that just really piss me off. I posted it several hours before the game. It is everything I wanted to say and it still stands:
People get mad when the national media/other teams’ fans/whoever criticize this city’s sports fans and their commitment to this team. “Ha, the Hornets have no home court advantage!” And then look at what the SAME people are busting out with in this thread.
I defend Hornets fans a lot on my blog and around the web. Lord, I’m embarrassed. Ugh. You don’t NOT GO to a playoff game because they’re down 0-2. You think the Spurs fans did that last year? Just because the team might lose does not make it a terrible idea to go to a game. You’re there to be loud and show support and help them win.
Or at least that’s how I feel. I watched the Boston Celtics come back from a 30 point hole on the road in LA, in what pretty much turned out to be the NBA championship-deciding back-breaking game. As a fan, if that’s my team, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I never turned off the TV. I want to be able to say I was there, I saw it.
Man, I don’t know. Someday, some of you are going to miss something great. I’m not saying it’ll be this weekend, but someday.
Well, that’s why I’m going, anyway. You do what you like.