Bringing Back the Buzz: Zo & '92-93 Hornets

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It’s opening night across the league, and the reigning champs welcome the Milwaukee Bucks to town. The Bucks are expected to finally make the leap this year; they better, since they have 9 guys on expiring deals. Many even have them ahead of the Hornets in their power rankings.

Despite winning the title, the Hornets find themselves being doubted and second-guessed in Coach J’s second season. “Nobody got hurt,” “The Cavs lost in round 2,” “They came out of the East,” “They should have lost to the Heat.” Those are all things they are hearing, and then they see all the preseason predictions making them a middle of the pack team? No way the young and cocky Hornets are standing for that. The Hornets got better over the offseason, even if they did nothing but bring in some of Coach J’s former players. Asked about the guys he brought in Coach J had this to say. “I love the makeup of our roster. Wallace allows Kendall to spend more time at the 2 and provides some more excellent wing athleticism. Noonan pairs with Curry to provide a pair of excellent shooters off of the bench, and we’ve got some of the great vets still around in Sessions, Olynyk, and Aldrich. I look forward to defending our crown.”

Last season, the Hornets had their way with the Bucks, letting MCW take all the shots he wanted and clogging the lane. We’ll see if the Bucks can counter that this season, or if their lack of shooting will still hurt them.

The Bucks gave the Hornets all they could handle for about 44 minutes and Michael-Carter Williams had 20 first half points, but missed free throws, poor coaching, and some cold shooting down the stretch doomed the Bucks to a 15 point loss that was much closer than the final score.

The game started out quite slow, especially for the Hornets, but the Bucks weren’t much better as their offense consisted solely of isolation plays. Finally, the Bucks put in their 6^th man Giannis (who should definitely be starting), and their offense came to life as he kept getting to the rim and MCW made shots like he was Khris Middleton, as Coach J’s plan was backfiring. The only thing that kept the Hornets ahead was, once again, a sharp-shooting Dell Curry coming in off the bench to make some key shots.

The middle part of the game was uneven, physical, and neither team could get ahead. The Bucks were not letting the Hornets play their game, and it showed. The Bucks owned the offensive glass and regularly got the foul line, but couldn’t pull ahead as they kept missing one or both of their free throws. When Giannis was on the floor, the Bucks were near-unstoppable, and he had a +/- of 6, where most of the other key Bucks were -10 or below (-24 for Monroe).

Headed into 4^th, the Hornets were barely ahead, but a tired Milwaukee team (MCW played 47 minutes, Middleton played 41) combined with superior talent of the Hornets starting 5 let to Milwaukee pulling away with easy buckets, especially with Giannis on the bench to end the game.

The Hornets definitely spread the offensive responsibilities around, with 5 players in double-digits and 3 players over 20. Alonzo Mourning led the way on both ends of the court, providing 27 points on the offensive end through steady play and contributing 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and a block.

Fans were also buzzing about two of the Hornets new signings: the Boise brothers Anrin and Noonan. As Kendall Gill played a bit more of a perimeter and distributor game, Anrin stepped right in as a slasher to get 22 points and was very physical down low and on defense. Noonan didn’t get many minutes, but opened up his account after being on the court 10 minutes with a monster slam and a 3 pointer a few minutes later.

The Hornets have the Raptors next, then a tough upcoming stretch with a home-and-away with the media darling Wizards followed by a dense schedule that includes a matchup with the Spurs and Knicks.

[studbucket]

FYI that I'm loving the new sliders. The game I just played was the craziest I've ever had. I'm trying to make an article and video(s) that do it justice.

I may not be the best writer or run the most interesting dynasty, but I recommend checking out the next post, hope to have it up today.

Hope I didn't over-hype it

[studbucket]

This was and will be the most hyped game of the first few months of the season, and it didn’t disappoint. With one of the craziest finishes you’ll see this season, this is one game that won’t soon be forgotten.

Following a modest win over the Raptors, the Hornets welcome the Washington Wizards to town for the first leg of back-to-back games among the East’s 2 best teams. At 2-0, things are mostly starting well for the Hornets, but the Wizards first game was not a great one. They opened in Miami and after going down early in the game, they never led by more than 1 and lost by 17 points, not even managing to reach 80 points as a team. LeBron played well, but he got no supported from John Wall or Tim Duncan and the Heat got an easy win.

After a few early struggles, both teams not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it. In a furious comeback, the Hornets overcame a 12 point deficit with 1:50 left, and a 9 point deficit with 1:04 left to win the game by 1 point.

Check out how the Hornets got their last 8 points to win the game.

Super clutch performances from Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk and Paul Noonan to get the win, after the Hornets stars couldn’t quite get it done the rest of the game.

Even though the role players won the game at the end, the stars were key throughout the game. With Gill, Anrin, LJ, and Zo attacking the basketball early on, both LeBron and Duncan got in foul trouble, and LeBron sat out most of the 1^st quarter because of that.

With or without LeBron the Wizards couldn’t play defense and the Hornets took advantage to get an 11 point lead early in the 2^nd quarter. However, JR Smith and John Wall would not let the Wizards go quietly into the night. They led he Wizards on a 16-6 run late in the first half as JR Smith had 20 points and Wall had 16 points and 10 assists. They also would have found themselves up 1 at halftime if it weren’t for this crazy sequence right before the buzzer: steal, breakaway, blocked dunk, missed jumper, throwback slam.

With a 71-70 lead, the Hornets were powered by Alonzo Mourning’s 23 and 7, LJ’s 19 and 7, and Avery Bradley’s 9 first half assists.

In the first half, Mourning was finding points in the paint especially easy as the Wizards gave him space and rookie center Houston clearly didn’t have his head in the game. However, Zo only had 2 points the entire 2^nd half and ended up fouling out.

The lack of defense continued as Sessions was basically a turnstile when guarding Wall and Tim Duncan also fouled out. Even though they were at home, Charlotte started to fade at the end. When Coach J looked up and saw his team was down 12 with 1:52 left, he thought they were done. However, within 9 with 1:03 left, he put in his 3 point shooting lineup: Bradley, Curry, Noonan, Johnson, and Olynyk and hoped for a miracle…which he received.

0:47: Larry Johnson with a layup (135 – 128)
0:27: Paul Noonan with a three off of LeBron missed jumper (135-131)
0:20: Olynyk with layup after Bradley picked Wall’s pocket (135-133)
0:17: Olynyk with layup AND-1 after Bradley stole the inbound pass (136-135)
0:03: John Wall missed long thee pointer.

Larry Johnson led the way for Charlotte with 39 points, 19 rebounds, and 4 steals. Paul Noonan and Kelly Olynyk were key off the bench as they combined for 21 points in only 27 combined minutes. Despite the shocking losing, John Wall was amazing as he dunked and juked his way to 33 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists and 3 steals. JR Smith only had 3 second half points, but LeBron finished with 16 points and 10 assist after a slow start and rookie Greg Houston had a strong second half, finishing with 10 points and 13 rebounds (6 offensive) and a team-high +/- of 10.

In 2 days, the teams head back to Washington for a rematch. There’s no way it can be as thrilling as this game.

[studbucket]

The Hornets won back to back games by nearly 40 points against the 76ers and Spurs, but it came at a cost. First, backup point guard Ramon Sessions broke his leg and will be out another ~6 weeks.

And then locker room leader and fan favorite Dell Curry dislocated his patella and will miss up to 6 months. With these 2 injuries, Coach J needed to adjust his lineup and gameplan. Expect to see Andre Roberson as the backup point guard while rookie Jerret Carmichael and substitute Paul Noonan see more time off the bench. Roberson was especially happy, as his offensive deficiencies saw him removed from the rotation as he saw Paul Noonan steal most of his minutes.

In some positive news, Kelly Olynyk has signed a 1 year contract extension with the Hornets, and he'll be around through the end of the 2017-2018 season.

[studbucket]

Played the Spurs last night. Sim Bhullar is a monster, LOL. 7'5", well over 300 pounds.

[studbucket]

Despite 2 relatively significant injuries, the Hornets are on a 4 game winning streak, with several 40 point wins, including one in San Antonio just 5 days ago. With the Spurs coming to town tonight, the Hornets are very confident because of their recent results, the Darren Collison injury, and subpar, yet gigantic (7’5” 360 lb) center Sim Bhullar.

The Hornets jumped out to a big lead early on the Spurs as Sim Bhullar was a huge liability and Zo took advantage. Popovich saw these problems and stuck Bhullar on the bench for a more smallball lineup with Green at the 3, Kawhi at the 4, and Aldridge at the 5. This lineup played much better, especially against the Hornets backups and got it back to a 1 point game after being down double-digits.

It continued to be a tight game all the way through the 3^rd, with both the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters ending with a 3 point Hornets lead. As the Hornets doubled key Spurs players and protected the paint, they left wide open shots for role players, and the Spurs hurt them through most of the game. However, San Antonio just couldn’t contain all of Charlotte’s offensive options and eventually the Hornets pulled away by about 10 points in the 4^th and kept it there.

The turning point was when Coach J went to a super smallball lineup, putting Noonan or Carmichael at the 4, which pulled them ahead and helped lead to Kawhi Leonard fouling out with 5:30 left, forcing the Spurs leading scorer to the bench.

Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning scored 31 and 30 points, once again leading the Hornets and Avery Bradley continued to embrace his playmaker role, getting 13 points, 12 assists, and 6 rebounds.

Around the league, there are 2 injury updates on some of Coach J’s former college players:

• Varney Shepard can’t catch a break. Now that he’s finally healthy and back in the league, he tore his left Achilles and is out for the season after only 7 games. He averaged 1.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.6 bpg in 13.7 minutes. It’s not too surprising he got hurt again, although the achilles injury is a new one, given the previous bone injuries.
• Freddy Tobias started out as Utah’s point guard, but was demoted after a few games to the bench. The trend of his decreasing minutes was accelerated as he tore his right calf, putting him out for 8 weeks.

[studbucket]

As the Hornets get ready to head into Madison Square Garden to face Carmelo and Joey Fletcher, they sit at a healthy 8-2 and are on a 5 game winning streak, having won each game by an average of 27 points. Most are predicting an easy win for the Hornets, and Coach J has had a way to coax poor games out of Joey Fletcher, even as he lit up the rest of the league.

The Knicks played admirably in this game, finding open shooters and making it hard for the Hornets to play their usual style. In the first quarter, it appeared the Hornets may have blown the game open after hitting 3 straight 3s and going on a 17-4 run, but the Knicks came battling back and kept the game very tight until Paul Noonan sealed the game with a 3 with 0:42 left.

Once again, it was the Mourning and Johnson show as they combined for 63 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists. 5 other Hornets had double digit points scored. Carmelo and Thaddeus Young had effective games for the Knicks with a combined 63 points and 10 steals, but couldn’t get enough help from their teammates to get the win.

Next up, I was going to play the game against the Suns, but with Hope Law picking up a small injury, that game got less interesting. So I picked the Mavs game, then Hassan Whiteside got hurt, so I’m playing the Nov 26 game at New Orleans. I’ll sim until that game and give an update afterward. Thanks!

[studbucket]

I declined this trade from the Celtics:

Not that I am super high on Roberson or Banjo, but I don't want Richard Jefferson at all, Roberson has a useful (though limited) role, and I don't want to disturb the team's chemistry.

And for fun, here's a few pictures of Zo's monster dunk the other night.