Hornets.com postgame: Rockets 91, Hornets 82
Saturday, November 15, 2008
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
During the Hornets 3-0 start to the season, they racked up a league-best average of 107 points per game, while defeating Golden State, Phoenix and Cleveland. Six games later, the NBAs premier offensive attack of Week 1 of the regular season has become a major weakness.
The Hornets were held under 90 points for the fifth time in their last sixth games, resulting in a wire-to-wire Rockets victory. Houston (6-4) moved a half game ahead of New Orleans (5-4), into first place in the Southwest Division.
Why have the Hornets experienced such a drastic downturn in their offensive production? The player and ball movement have stagnated at times, but simply put, we're also seeing several Hornets shoot poorly and miss open shots that they normally make. New Orleans will have three days of practice to try to make adjustments prior to Wednesday's home game vs. Sacramento. In the meantime, let's take a look at how individual Hornets have fared in the shooting department through the first nine games:STARTERSChris Paul: Hes shooting exactly 50 percent from the field (61-for-122) after his 2-for-10 outing at Houston. Fifty percent is obviously outstanding for any guard, but especially a point guard. The only PGs who consistently shoot this well are Steve Nash, Deron Williams and Jose Calderon.Morris Peterson: Hes not taking as big of a chunk of his attempts from three-point range in comparison to last season. Overall, hes shooting 42 percent from the field, and 30 percent from three-point range. Hes a 37 percent career three-point shooter.Peja Stojakovic: His 1-for-5 in Houston continued a recent shooting slump. For the season, hes at 37 percent, almost 10 percent below his career number.David West: A bit below his norm, shooting 46 percent thus far. His jumper has been somewhat inconsistent. West shot 51, 48 and 48 percent over the past three full seasons, respectively.Tyson Chandler: Hornets TV analyst Gil McGregor noted Saturday that opponents seem to be focusing more on preventing the Crescent City Connection alley oop, a play that resulted in countless dunks for Chandler last season. It was back in Houston, though, three times. Chandler is always going to shoot a high percentage based on the close-range nature of his attempts, and is at 62.5 percent right now.RESERVESJames Posey: The teams overall dip in shooting hasnt affected the free-agent pickup. Hes made numerous big shots in the fourth quarter. Hes been the teams best three-point shooter, just under 50 percent. Rasual Butler: Saturdays 1-for-7 was a rarity for Butler, who has been an excellent marksman off the bench and in fourth quarters. Hes 10-for-23 from three-point range (43 percent).Hilton Armstrong: Hes 12-for-28 (43 percent). Shot 54 percent as a rookie and 45 percent last season.Devin Brown: Went 5-for-10 in Houston and played a second straight solid game at backup point guard. He was 5-for-20 from the field prior to Saturday, though, so his season rate is still low (33 percent).Julian Wright: Played double-digit minutes again Saturday, this time logging 17. Hes 5-for-14 overall in five appearances.Mike James: Was 8-for-25 (32 percent) from field prior to being bumped out of rotation by Brown on Friday vs. Portland.Melvin Ely: Has only played in two games and is 4-for-9.Obviously nine games is an extremely small sample. Making sweeping judgments on anything through the equivalent of 10 percent of the season doesn't make sense. Still, if you go through the list, you can begin to see why the Hornets are not producing offensively the way they did in 2007-08, at least to this stage.
The good news is that veteran players tend to return to their career norms as the season progresses. For several New Orleans players, you have to believe they will begin to shoot the ball much better, based on their track records.HORNETS POSTGAME QUOTES (courtesy Houston Rockets)Byron Scott(on his teams play) We didnt have any life to start the game and it carried over as the game went on. We have to be ready to play games early and we cant spot good teams with early leads. Im concerned about our offense, period. We have to get back to the point where we are knocking down our shots.
(on the game) Houston is a very good defensive team and they came out ready to play. We just didnt attack the goal. Chris Paul(on the teams play) We have to be aggressive and not let teams fight back so easy. We have to jump on teams and put them away early. Its not panic mode yet, its too early in the season. We expect so much of ourselves. We have to reach down inside and bring more energy every night. Every time we step on the court we have to fight and play hungry and not just go through the motions.Peja Stojakovic(on the teams play) We could have come out with more energy. We didnt play well from the beginning. We have to play better on both ends of the court. We need to play smarter and not be so predictable.David West(on the game) I thought we didnt have any continuity or ball movement. We have to make teams defend us. Defensively, I think we did enough but our offense was stagnant. We cant seem to get everyone going on offense at the same time.(on the teams play) We win one and then lose one and we cant keep pace in the West playing that way. We have to do things on offense to make teams defend us.