No matter how old and inconsistent he gets, apparently Peja Stojakovic will always be able to light up the Suns. In what could have been one of those rock-bottom moments for the Hornets — national TV, no Chris Paul, interim coach, hosting a red-hot opponent who could conceivably drop 130 points on ‘em and get them booed out of their own gym — N.O. showed some heart and pulled off an upset win behind Peja’s 25 points, 13 boards and seven threes. It wasn’t the first time Peja has taken down the Suns on a big stage: Read More »
At this point, it appears that it’s not if, but rather when, Monta Ellis will be traded from the Warriors. With his agent, Jeff Fried, scheduled to meet with team management in Oakland tomorrow, apparently at Don Nelson’s urging, Golden State has been calling teams and offering to trade Ellis all week. Read More »
It’s safe to say that things are bad in New Orleans. Byron Scott is gone, Chris Paul is hurt and now their big free agent acquisition of the summer is already the subject of trade rumors. According to Sam Amick of The Sacramento Bee, a source with knowledge of the situation says the Kings are discussing a trade with the Hornets that would send veteran Kenny Thomas (and his $8,553,125 expiring contract) to the Hornets and in exchange for Emeka Okafor. Read More »
The New Orleans Hornets have been declining ever since their magical 2008 Playoff run where they were one game away from the Western Conference Finals. After a disappointing 2008-09 season and a 3-5 start this year, it looks like the Hornets aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. David West’s stats are down, Morris Peterson and Julian Wrighthave been horrible, Okafor is struggling to fit in and Chris Paul seems unhappy. While the blame can be passed around in N.O., Byron Scott will probably be the scapegoat. Read More »
Don’t let the fact that Chauncey Billups shows little emotion on the court fool you into thinking he’s any less fiery of a competitor than Kobe, Dirk, LeBron, Wade or any other big-time clutch player who punctuates his daggers by making funny faces. You have to be iceberg to have hit as many fourth-quarter threes and last-second free throws as Mr. Big Shot has hit, but you also have to have a fire inside you to show up in the kind of shape he does every year and bring it at the high level he brings it every night … After Chauncey (17 pts, 6 asts, 3 stls) made the go-ahead free throw with 0.6 seconds left in last night’s Nuggets/Bulls game, he missed the second FT on purpose, giving the Bulls only 0.3 to make a game-winner. Read More »
Although Dwight Howard was the one guy on the Magic who didn’t look like he should give his paycheck back after last night’s embarrassing loss to Oklahoma City, that didn’t stop the Thunder announcers from using Dwight for a punchline or two. “Superman has met Lex Luger tonight,” joked commentator Grant Long. His broadcast partner came in for the correction (”Lex Luthor“) but Long had made his point: Orlando looked nothing like a championship contender on Sunday, their second such alarming performance in the last four games. Read More »
Erick Dampier was almost the headline photo for today’s Smack. Seriously. In the late stages of the fourth quarter of Mavs/Hornets, Damp (16 pts, 14 rebs, 3 blks) was the most clutch player in the building, getting a putback off a Dirk Nowitzki miss to break a tie, catching an alley-oop from Jason Kidd on the next possession, then scoring on another tip-in with 16 seconds left. That should’ve been the dagger, but Dallas killed themselves at the free-throw line in the final seconds: Jason Terry missed one after Chris Paul got T’d up for arguing a push-off call (CP had pushed off on J.J. Barea like 3-4 times in the fourth, but didn’t get called for it until what looked like N.O.’s last-chance possession), then Barea missed two freebies to keep the Hornets alive. Read More »
By now, you should know that when NBA announcers keep saying, “Kobe is really frustrated,” it’s actually code for, “Kobe’s shot isn’t falling and he’s battling with the refs.” … That was the case during Lakers/Mavericks last night, as L.A. got smoked on its homecourt and Kobe (20 pts, 6-19 FG) struggled between breaking out his best whiny faces. Read More »
It would have been assumed that the young Bobcats were not headed in the right direction after drafting both Adam Morrison and Alexis Ajinca in the first round of the draft. But when Sheldon Williams drops a near double-double on you, things really aren’t looking too good. Read More »
On night number two of the 2009-10 NBA season, 20 more team will make their debut. Probably the most intriguing matchup of the 12 games on schedule tonight is between the Hornets and Spurs. It also happens to be the most accessible game since it will be part of the ESPN double header (the Jazz/Nuggets being the other). These two teams battled it out for seven games in the 2008 Western Conference second round in what was one of the most thrilling playoff series in recent years. Read More »
