The frustration’s continue for New Orleans as the Hornets dropped their 5th straight game losing to the Denver Nuggets 96-88. Just like in previous games the Hornets went into the 4th quarter with the lead only to once again see it evaporate and not able to recover. Denver got it started in the 3rd quarter and early on in the 4th going on a 19-0 run to take the lead, putting the game out of reach.
Grievis Vasquez was a bright spot for the club, coming off the bench and providing a spark. Vasquez lead the team with 16 points, giving a 4-7 performance from beyond the arc to help break the club from woes they have been suffering from back there so far this season. Other positives from the 26 minutes on the court was the fact he only turned the ball over once and had a solid 4 assists on the night. Starting point guard Jarrett Jack also had a solid effort putting up 15 points and dishing out 6 assists in 40 minutes of action. His shooting from beyond the arc wasn’t impressive going 1-4, but then again he certainly isn’t the only player struggling from long range. Squeaky Johnson jumped in for the final couple minutes and finished with just one assist.
Starting shooting guard Marco Belinelli, yet another player that has not been too sharp from three point range, finally found some rythm hitting on 3 of 6 of his 3 point shot finishing with a respectable 13 points. Maybe, and we can only hope if this team is to start winning games this is a sign he is starting to find his shot. The other shooting guard Trey Johnson played a mere 6 minutes, once again hitting his only shot to finish with 2 points.
At small forward we saw Al-Farouq Aminu get the start, Aminu played a total of 22 minutes and wasn’t all that impressive scoring 6 points and pulling down 1 rebound. It was also interesting to see the team use Carl Landry at the small forward position at different times in the game. Landry finished with 15 points in 26 minutes while grabbing 6 rebounds.
Starting at power forward for his first start was big man Chris Kaman, who brought down a team high 12 rebounds. His offensive game was a different story finishing with 6 points and also turned the ball over 4 times in 28 minutes on the court. Much improved Jason Smith saw 21 minutes and continues to do a very good job in the time he does play. Smith finished with only 8 points, but his overall hustle on defense has improved vastly getting a couple blocks. I personally enjoy watching Jason when he is on the court, his shot is smooth and everytime he takes a shot it seems like it’s just gonna go in.
Starting center Emeka Okafor finished with 7 points and wasn’t a big factor on the boards pulling down just 5 rebounds. He did lead the team with 4 blocks, but offensively Okafor really has not been much of a factor underneath. Also seeing time at center was Chris Kaman, who also started at power forward.
Overall the team has been playing very aggressive, except going into the 4th quarter. The past few games it just looks like the team is confused and lost on the court to start the final period, once they fall behind they are able to make a valiant effort to stay in the game and have come up short. This seems to be a coaching issue that needs to be fixed right away, it does not help their star player is out, but Monty needs to motivate the club to start the final period with confindence and aggressiveness. The three point shooting that has been a problem all season so far did look much better in last night’s game so players like Belinelli and Grievis need to continue to hit the long range shots moving forward. Sadly it will be at least 2-3 weeks before we have a chance to see this team play at full strength, that is barring any further injuries, so a positive from some of these games is they are playing hard keeping themselves in games without their start player. The downfall, they have no go to player to close the game out and that has hurt them the past 5 games. So at 2-5 the Hornets next foe is division rival the Dallas Mavericks, who themselves have struggled out of the gate sitting on a record of 3-5. Expect another hard fought game from New Orleans, this team is talented and have been in every game this season. All they need is someone to take over in the 4th, outside of that they have been a decent ballclub that plays hard every minute of every game.
