Posts for category ‘new orleans hornets’

I spent some time last night charting the Wizards responsible for each point scored by the New Orleans Hornets as Washington fell 97-89, putting their road record on the season at 0-25. Some of the blame assignment certainly comes via judgment calls, but from watching some plays countless times, I think the chart below gives an accurate survey of the landscape.

As you can see, exactly which Wizard was responsible for how many points a specific Hornet scored is listed. The PA column indicates how many total points were allowed by each Wizard on the night; PPM indicates the points allowed per minute of court action — sure, points per possession might paint a more accurate picture, but all Wizards fans have is time … so seeing what a player does with his time on the court defensively still tells a story.

[Link to Wizards defensive charting vs. the Hornets, 2.1.2011]

Things to note: not all defense allowing points is “bad” defense.

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One of the difficulties of working at a relatively new TrueHoop Network blog, as opposed to a major newspaper or a well-known website, is the ability to nail down good relationships with actual NBA players.  Veterans like Michael Lee, David Aldridge and Marc Stein, have been around long enough to cultivate solid, trustworthy relationships with certain players, and they are granted more access  because of their well-known employers (The Washington Post, NBA.com/TNT, ESPN.com).  When you’ve only been around for only three years like I have it is more difficult–but not impossible.

My quest to get to know some of the NBA players a bit better has been even more difficult this year, because I mainly cover the opposing locker rooms (thus the title of this particular post).  I see the Wizards players in passing, and if I’m lucky I’ll get a head nod or a “What’s up man?”, but nothing close to a substantive conversation that produces some juicy bloggable information.  When I’m in the opposing locker room, the beat writers for whatever team is in town that particular night usually have a monopoly on those close relationships–as they should.  Players are friendly to me, and they are willing to answer questions, but I can never really get over that hump where they are comfortable enough to truly talk to me–with one exception.

I first caught up with New Orleans Hornets forward, David West in March of 2009, when they took on the Wizards.  I had seen him talking to Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson (Dr. Dyson is a minister, a professor, a radio talk show host, and he has written numerous books on race and cultural matters in this country.  He’s also a frequent guest on the HBO Show, “Real Time With Bill Maher), and I wanted to ask him what they talked about.  Before disappearing in the training room for treatment, West explained that he admired Professor Dyson, and he just wanted to finally meet the man.  He thanked me for noticing, and we parted ways.

Seven months later in January of 2010, the Hornets came to town again, and I caught up with  West before the game.  I introduced myself to him once again, and he didn’t remember me.  But when I asked him about Dr. Dyson, he instantly remembered my name, and shook my hand before resuming the interview (which can be seen here).  After I wrapped up the interview, he told me to have a happy New Year and said he’d see me next time.

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Limbs get tangled all the time in the NBA. But for some reason, when it involves tangled arms, you can depend on a two things: arms from two opposing players will become inexplicably intertwined so fast that you’d think elastic were involved, and the result is going to be tension filled until there is separation.

Sometimes the tangles and locks are unintentional. Sometimes the maneuver is enacted by a foe with the simple intent of getting under someone’s skin by quite literally, getting under their skin … knowing that referees are more likely to see and respond to retaliation rather than the instigator’s act. And the instigator can be an offensive or defensive player.

Such an instance happened in the waning minutes of Saturday night’s game versus the Hornets. Nick Young had just made a shot with 1:36 left in the fourth, still keeping the Wizards just outside of striking distance at what would be the final tally, 92-81 New Orleans.

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{Wall vs. Paul - photo: K. Weidie}

I’ve been a Philadelphia Eagles for over 25 years. I’ve endured ups, downs, mediocrity and everything else associated with loving a team too much. But because I’ve lived in Washington for most of those years, and NFL League Pass is still a relatively new invention, I’ve seen more way more Redskins games than I have Eagles games — which means I saw plenty of Joe Gibbs in his heyday.

One of the staples of the Gibbs era was his ability to make halftime adjustments based on what the other team was or was not doing. Part of this ability was based on his stellar assistant coaching staff, and part of it was that Gibbs often paid attention to even the smallest of details.

New Orleans Hornets coach Monty Williams is from the Washington D.C. area (Oxon Hill, Maryland to be exact), so maybe he was somehow inspired by Gibbs last night, because his team’s second half play was key to the Hornets’ 92-81 victory.

Prior to the game, Williams was asked if he was concerned about his team’s energy level against the Wizards.  Starters David West, Emeka Okafor and Chris Paul had all logged 40 or more minutes against the Boston Celtics, and now they had to turn around and play again the next night, on the road no less. Still, Williams had no concerns, saying: Read more »

Andray Blatche’s play is becoming a thorn in the Wizards’ side. Sure, he puts up numbers here and there. Sure, he’s only whatever young age people keep citing as an excuse. He’s also induced boos from the home crowd on more than one occasion … and for good reason.

I’ve seen grown men, eyes reduced to glowing red from rubbing in despair at his ineptitude on defense (and I wasn’t looking in the mirror). It’s an abomination to the game of basketball, I say. And that’s why I’m here, simply as a concerned person for the game. There will be more to dissect and observe about 7-Day Dray’s defense, but let’s take a look at the equivalent of 4,000 words about his bad help defense on a particular hand-off in Saturday night’s 92-81 Wizards loss to the New Orleans Hornets.

Blatche’s man, David West, is in hand-off mode to Rashard Lewis’ man, Trevor Ariza. Lewis is trying to stick his hand in there to keep this from happening … and maybe Lewis’ own defense got him a bit behind the 8-ball in this situation, but it looks like Blatche will need to help nonetheless.

Yet, Blatche has yet to move his feet in this next shot.

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This is Capt. Jeff Bower, been with the ‘force for years … too long to count. He was a Lieutenant forever, but then finally said, “I’m getting too old for this sh*t,” the prerequisite about of times and Bam! … he was promoted to Captain. You’ll never find him without a wad of chaw tucked in his cheek … Chattanooga Chew is the preferred brand, but he’ll settle for Brown’s Mule should the situation become dire. Cap’n Bower has often impressed with his ability to drink coffee and eat donuts while he’s working on a fat tobacci wad. Otherwise, he holds the distinction of being from Pennsylvania while also looking like he’s from Pennsylvania.

In another life, Bower is the current head coach/GM of the New Orleans Hornets and coached Rik Smits at Marist.

This is Rufus McKenzie. Rufus has looked the same exact way since the sixth grade — haircut, body-type and all — except that he’s now bigger, much bigger. Rufus was “discovered” outside of a Louisiana Wal-Mart where he was accepting a challenge to see how many shopping carts he could pick up at once. He could tell ya how many he lifted, but then he’d have to kill ya. Ever since, Rufus has been a bodyguard/roadie on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. He’s also holds the Arkansas state record for amount of Lil’ Smokies consumed in one settin’ (that’s “sitting” for you city-folk). Again, he could tell ya how much he ate, but he’d have to kill ya.

In another life, Rufus is really named Aaron Gray and is a center for the New Orleans Hornets of the National Basketball Association.

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Well, the Wizards lost again on Sunday, nothing new. Thing is, they actually looked decent, as they did on Friday, but shot themselves in the foot, if you will, with 19 turnovers. By the way, go read this interesting piece on True Hoop regarding the NBA and gun-play analogies.

Stepping back, it’s still hard to fathom how surreal the deplorable state of the franchise is. Whether it’s Gun-Gate related or not, every day more of the shit show emerges from the sewers, literally. Tales of Gilbert Arenas taking a dump in the shoe of Andray Blatche … I mean Christ, how immature can you get?

Let’s see, what else? Caron Butler, while off games are okay, is still a quandary — hey, Caron wanted to be “the man” and then got all sad with his second fiddle when Arenas returned, but now that Arenas is gone again …

Of course, unfortunately it seems that Caron’s definition of being “the man” involves taking bad shots and halting ball movement. I don’t mean to unfairly pick on Butler, but again, for someone who all but rested his laurels on defensive improvement before the season, it was interesting, as pointed out to me by Mike Prada of Bullets Forever, that on Friday against the Magic, Butler was matched up against Matt Barnes while the just returning Mike Miller had to take on Orlando’s big gun, Vince Carter.

Ok, what else? Well, Mike Miller is turning into Mr. Glass, aggravating his calf muscle against New Orleans on Sunday. He’s supposed to get an MRI on it Monday … and the saga of woes with the Wizards’ training staff and team doctors continues. It also says a lot that the Wizards are seemingly so dependent on Miller for ball movement (see Brendan Haywood’s quote below).

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Went to the Wizards-Hornets game last night … thanks to KJ the ticket provider, my boy Adam and I had a chance to catch the bedazzledry (word/not a word?) of Chris Paul. Didn’t have a chance to get home and DVR the game, so Bullets Forever will not feature a game blog.

But….I did twitter at the game, which is what all the babies, babies’ mommas and babies’ momma’s mommas are doing.

So, below is the lazy twittering man’s game blog, featuring tweets from the proprietors of NOLA blog, Hornets Hype, ticktock6 (purple) and mW_ (red).

Enjoy…..or not.

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Well, I’m not doing a game blog for the Wizards-Hornets match-up……which was soooo last year……because I actually attended the game. I’m down South visiting family for the new year, and my pops lives a couple hours from New Orleans (he’s a Hornets fan), so it was natural that we attended the game.

So in place of a game blog, me and my amateur photography skills present a photographic slide show of what I saw:

Game Observations:

• Gilbert Arenas was on the bench during the first half……I can’t remember if he was there for the 3rd quarter or not, but he was definitely absent for most of the 4th and down the stretch.

• Ivan Carter questioned Southeastern Conference loyalty when the local LSU fans booed players from Alabama’s football team in attendance (and then chanted “L-S-U! L-S-U!)…….but Carter forgot to mention that there’s more passion than usual between these two teams. LSU fans absolutely hate former coach Nick Saban with a passion (starting when he left the program to coach the Miami Dolphins). That hatred was magnified once Saban returned to the SEC to coach ‘Bama.

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I’m going to get more down on Javaris Crittenton in the future, among others (Dee Brown, and of course, Antonio Daniels), in the wake of today’s big trade (well, maybe not “big” in the grand scale of all things NBA, or even your fantasy team….but big for the Wizards’ point guard situation), but wanted to post something quick in the interim. You can also go to Bullets Forever to join the trade discussion.

Crittenton is the big “get”…some are saying “steal”…for the Wizards. But until I’m able to do a more exhaustive write-up on the former Yellow Jacket/Laker/Grizzly/high school teammate of Dwight Howard, I wanted to remind everyone that Javaris Crittenton has once walked in the shoes of Gilbert Arenas, literally.

From a June 2008 story in the Washington Times, “Arenas’ shoes are on other feet” –

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Jeff from CelticsBlog.com is doing the grunt work to put together a comprehensive NBA preview from bloggers ’round the ‘sphere. The Atlantic Division Preview was first, and now the Southwest Division is out. Here are the highlights from the participating bloggers for each team:

Dallas Mavericks

[Mavs Moneyball]
The single biggest move made in the offseason was the dismissal of head coach Avery Johnson and the hiring of Rick Carlisle. The Mavs have the luxury (or curse) of having their core team signed for some time. This continuity will certainly help the team transition under a new coach, as they only need to adapt to him rather than a bunch of new faces.
Prediction: 55-27

Houston Rockets

[Dream Shake]
The Artest trade will go down as one of the biggest steals in NBA history if you ask me, and since you did, that’s my stance. Even if Greene turns out to be a solid player, we got a top 30 player for a rookie, an old PG and a future very late round pick (I can only assume). That’s a steal as long as Ron Ron can play more like No Lay-ups and less like Crazy Pills. I believe he can.
Prediction: 63-19

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All of us NBA bloggers recently got off the couch and collaborated to vote on the 07-08 NBA season ending awards. We then got the beer out of the fridge and went back to our couches to send our votes in via an online survey tool. My first participation in the NBA blogger vote came in this 11th and final installment. The highest commendation goes to the team at We Rite Goode for their Bobby Thigpen-like performance in closing this out. While this post concentrates on the MVP award, I strongly suggest that you check out both links below for the full results.

End-of-season Basket-Blogger Rankings [Pt. 1 - ROY, COY & MIP]
Rankings: The 7th Man of the year (oh, and MVP, too)

The masses [of bloggers who read other bloggers] have spoken…..and Chris Paul is the people’s choice for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player [that being those people who blog]. Who knows if this vote of bloggers, and not the opinion of those who get paid to assess the game [as most in the main stream media have chosen one Kobe Bean Bryant for MVP], truly reflects the voice of humanity. I say yes.

2008 CP3 All-Star Campaign Poster – yup, those are C-3PO’s limbs

Even though I’m a Wizards fan in DC, I have a vested interest in the city of New Orleans. While I’ve never lived in the city, I’ve visited more times that I can count. My father was born in the NOLA and I’ve lived in the region, along with having current ties to friends and family in that neck of the country. Needless to say, the NBA League Pass has allowed me to follow the Hornets at various times this season.

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Before last night….I was all about Chris Paul for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. And if I had to vote right here, right now, it would still be CP3. (by the way, I wrote this on November 13th 2007).

But the match-up between Kobe Bryant’s Lakers and Chris Paul’s Hornets was dubbed the game that decides the MVP race (sorry Bron Bron, you lost to the Bulls….no dice), much less an important game for Western Conference seeding. The Lakers won…..so yea, I’ll follow the crowd.

Actually, I’d rather not…..what I’d rather do is stop hearing all the bitching and moaning from those in the ‘Kobe for MVP’ court.

SIDE BAR: Advisors/Handlers/Latin Mami Wife of the Kobster:

Kob, to get back on track….you need to get the public loving you again, you gotta get gangsta with it (excuse me, I mean ‘wit’ it).

Yea papi…….you gotta get on the net and blog it out…..get ‘viral’ with it…..make a video of you jumping over a car-ra. (I don’t know Kobe’s wife, but imagine Rosie Perez’s accent in White Men Can’t Jump.)

But the way, what’s the deal with this “viral marketing” term? I get it, spreads like a virus, right? Last time I checked, viruses were killing fools and Kobe is killing me with his fugazi video. He might as well get a triple threat match going with Kenyon Martin and Tim Thomas.

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Back in the country, but taking more flights to more places, I was unable to catch the Wizards-Hornets rematch live or on TV. Thankfully, my friend Chris the Hockey Fan picked up the coverage again:
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They stopped the bleeding a little bit on Friday but this team is still free falling and needs to get some wins in a hurry if they are going to keep their sixth spot in the playoffs.

Missed the first half due to an early start and the fact that the game is on Comcast plus. I did catch the end of the first half in which the Wizards stretched their lead to thirteen with some great shooting that included back to back 3’s by Pecherov.

Jamison is leading the Wizards in scoring with 13 but watching DeShawn Stevenson to see if his big night on Friday is the sign of things to come down the stretch.

3^rd Quarter

With the Caps home on Monday night I’m wondering if Ovie is taking in the game tonight with his Russian internet girlfriend.

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Links I like from the past week or so……

• Pat Forde of ESPN.com writes a pretty nice article about New Orleans and the continuing recovery process (pre-BCS national championship game). I hope that NOLA continues to receive media coverage…..anything to further assist the rebuilding.

• Have you ever wondered what a wad of cash looks like spread all over the floor of a Virginia Tech football player’s abode….err…. the dwelling of a “friend”? — thanks to the Big Lead for showing us how the Flo-Rida dope boiz do the damn thang.
• Ahhhh memories…..I’ll admit it, I used to have a pair of Redskins Zubaz pants, much like the ones worn here by Jim Lachey and brought to the us by Mr. Irrelevant. I’m not sure what happened to my pants….can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. But I used to be the flyest 8th grader who never wore ‘em out in public. What I can’t figure out is why the good folks at zubaz.com are still in business. They even have pictures on their site of people from modern times modeling the ‘baz.
• Winnie Cooper is still kickin’, lookin’ tasty, and just about a third of a century old.
• Speaking of hotties, Co-Ed Magazine.com has the run-down on the top 25 sexiest female athletes of 2007 – Not sure about you, but my #1 vote goes to #6 on the list, Allison Stokke, University of Cal pole vaulter. College Candy has the coverage — easy gents, she’s just a college freshman, for now.

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