Yeah...nice jumper, but it doesn't really matter when you gave away the ball inside of four minutes right before then.
What do you expect Nate to do when his #1 option isn't even playing and his #2 option is struggling? Aldridge needed to step up, but he didn't. Not Nate's fault.
This was a winnable game. Had a ton of momentum after the Chandler ejection, and we failed to capitalize it.
Its too bad Blake and LMA were not able to step up and play half way decent tonight. Neither Oden or Batum provided a spark, that the team really could have used as well. To split with New Orleans and Boston w/out Roy is totally acceptable, but these home losses sting.
I guess you pretty much have to sit Roy on Sunday now. We pretty much don't have a chance to win down there WITH him at 70-80% (or whatever he is right now) Why bother? Just get him healthy for Detroit so we aren't talking about a 3 games losing stread. How did these guys beat Boston the other night? That was just fugly tonight. FUGLY. Rudy and Joel are exempt - everybody else was trash. Not for lack of hustle though. Blake fought his ass of tonight to get through screens and when he couldn't he fought off West and Chandler a few times down low. The effort was there, but the execution was gross. On another note, I think West is a bad match up for Lamarcus. His strenght and physicality are in his head.
Blake battled Paul tonight and for 3 quarters was a big part of why the Hornets offense was sputtering. All they had was David West ISOs and Posey hitting threes. I can't blame Blaker tonight - he was rat tough, just didn't have anything left for offense. Oden has to learn to play in foul trouble. We needed him tonight to give us more than 4/4.
New Orleans is a half-step ahead of us in terms of team development. They have more veterans that are capable of contributing now than we do, and without Roy it promised to be a tough game. Oden's poor decision-making (d00d... I love you, but STOP FOULING GUARDS ON THE FLOOR) was brutal and the team just couldn't capitalize on the post-dustup game. It's OK. Everything's OK. I've got a lot of Absolut 100 in me and I've got a broken Xbox 360 and a malfunctioning Sidekick LX. Tonight's rocked so far. Time to go make an ass of myself with the ladies of Seattle. Be kind to one another. I'm not here to moderate the rest of the evening. Ed O.
They beat Boston because they really played the underdog card well and came out with a lot of extra energy. They couldn't sustain it tonight and West was hitting some crazy shots throughout the game - then in the 4th the entire New Orleans team got hot and it was over. I really thought Nate planned a better offense against Boston but tonight it didn't seem like he knew what to do with Blake and LMA struggling. Rudy was pretty awesome offensively tonight and I thought we should have found a way to get him more shots. Travis continues to make me go Oh Travis and I pretty much think that should be his nickname. Just integrate Oh into his name somewhere. Joel was a warrior and definitely deserves props. Oden did well in his limited time and he's starting to show even more athleticism which is a great sign. His hook wasn't falling like it was the last two games but he'll start to get consistent in it. I liked what I saw from Bayless. He only made 1-5 shots but he drove a lot and drew about four fouls if I recall - him running through the Chandler screen and knocking over Tyson was great just because of the size disparity. I'd say sit Brandon against the Lakers and just try to play with the same energy and intensity like against Boston and keep it close. We'll still lose but Brandon should be ready to go against Detroit then - hopefully.
Nate is obsessing mostly on defense when our offense is still a mystery. Just part of the baking process.
