NeverEnough Presents: Buzz City | A Charlotte Hornets MyGM Experience (NBA2K15)

[NeverEnough]

It doesn't get any tougher than we had it today. Last week we went on the road and lost terribly to the Miami Heat, only scoring 72 total points. This week we come back home, but it's to face the #4 team in the league, the Los Angeles Clippers. We knew this was going to be a game of mismatch as their big guys, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, posed serious troubles for our depleted big man group. If we wanted to be successful on this day we not only needed our offense to come back to life, but also somehow needed to contain Griffin. Easier said than done.

Things did not start off well as DeAndre Jordan started it with an emphatic dunk and Matt Barnes and Jamal Crawford each hit on 3 pointers. Kemba Walker company would however be clicking functionally as a team and bring it back within 2 points. That is unfortunately where things went bad. After bringing the lead back so close, the wheels fell off offensively and we somehow lost our ability to make shots. On the other side, we became so worried about their three point shooters that we got sucked out to defend and Blake Griffin and Glenn Davis took full advantage, extending it out to 11. Gary Neal would come in with the bench players and do his best to bring it back as he hit on 2 straight three pointers to bring it within 6. That would be about the best we could do in the half as we'd trade some shots and miss even more, getting it within 5 at one point, but ending the half down 11.

As we came back from half, we decided to change our defense up a bit as Al Jefferson wasn't being as effective on Blake Griffin as we had hoped, but at the same time Vonleh wasn't doing so great against the strong DeAndre Jordan. We switched that up to see if it'd make a difference. It very well may have as Griffin only had 6 points in the quarter and Jordan only had 4, but it was the rest of the Clippers that seemingly killed us as we were able to at least put up some kind of defense, enough to allow our offense go to work. Brian Roberts was the real surprise for us as he came in and hit a couple big 3 pointers and dished the ball rather effectively. Kemba also did a good amount of scoring in the 3rd quarter and that is what allowed us to actually cut the lead down to 9 points headed into the 4th.

Coming into the 4th we needed something to change, but we knew that was more of a prayer than anything. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist would hit a rare 3 and we'd be down within 8, but that would really be the closest we would ever get in the final frame. Chris Paul seemingly came to life dishing the ball to everyone and everyone was hitting their shots, which definitely didn't play in our favor. Lob city started up and as Paul connected with Griffin for some nice alley oops we knew we were in trouble, as if we didn't know it before. We started pressing a bit as the lead extended out to 15, but nothing we hoisted up would fall. A number of our shots would go in and out of the basket and as the seconds ticked off we just knew it wasn't our day.

[NeverEnough]

Well if we thought that losing Zeller for a couple weeks would be tough, this is going to be devastating. Bradley was one of our key guys in some games so far and am not really sure what we're going to do to try and replace him. Right now it's an internal option between Gary Neal and Gerald Henderson, but in limited time neither has really shown enough to be a true starter. Not exactly sure how we're going to sustain this for 1-2 months

[NeverEnough]

[NeverEnough]

[NeverEnough]

We've been so inconsistent as of late and needless to say this up and down action of our team has been increasingly frustrating. A couple games ago we lost Avery Bradley for 1 to 2 months to a torn MCL, which is about as bad as it could get for us, but somehow we managed to host Portland and completely shut them down for the second time this year with Gary Neal in the lineup. Today we had the chance to host Golden State, whom we beat at their place earlier this year, but we knew it wasn't going to be quite as easy this time.

As the got started, things looked pretty good from the get go as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was getting started, which is unusual since he is usually a second half kind of player. As he was getting going though, our perimeter defense wasn't doing so hot as Thompson and Curry both connected from deep. With Thompson and Curry starting to get going and Harrison Barnes starting to join in with the rain as well, Gary Neal finally hit a 3 to try and keep things close. As the starters went to the bench for some rest, a real disadvantage became heavily apparent as Andre Iguodala and Danny Green started extending the lead up to 12 points. As the starters came back, Thompson and Barnes continued to push Golden State's lead and things were looking bad fast. As the lead went from 10 to 13 to 15 points at one point it was looking real bleak, but Kemba Walker came back and quickly got us back in it and got us within 8 at the half.

Coming back from half, Kemba made a statement right away as he knocked down an open 3. This was then followed up with a 3 point play from Al Jefferson and one of two free throws for Marvin Williams to have us down 1 point. That is about where the fun ended for our Hornets as Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were just too much. They started getting to the basket with such ease it was nuts. Before we knew it the lead for Golden State was back out to 13 points. Our guys definitely played tough though and didn't hang their heads. Al Jefferson and Noah Vonleh both started working it down low and managed some baskets and then Brian Roberts started draining some runners and we were once again only down 3 and only let it get back out to 4 points.

It was definitely going to be a strong push in the 4th quarter with the 3 headed monster for the Warriors doing so much damage. Andrew Bogut was also having so much success it was beyond frustrating at times. Neither Al Jefferson nor Noah Vonleh could even get a rebound when he was around. We still managed to find ways to score though, mainly through Brian Roberts' hands and with 7 minutes left we were only down 2 points! Unfortunately, the happy feeling we were starting to feel quickly deflated as Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes both hit 3 pointers. As our shots started to miss and miss badly and Bogut being a hoover vacuum on the boards, the lead once again creeped up and this time it was too much too late for us to recover from.

[NeverEnough]

Following Avery Bradley's injury, we were definitely hurting for that 2 guard. We tried for a couple games with Gary Neal in the starting role, however, he just seems to be more suited for a backup role at this point, showing hesitation to take the big shots. In Lamb, we feel we get a guy that can step in and at least provide a decent option while Bradley is injured and give us a youthful option off the bench.

[AlphaSlash]

Looking good. I'm following

[NeverEnough]