Hornets.com postgame: Hornets 92, Bucks 89
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
Hornets (6-23), Bucks (12-17)
It was over when
Marco Belinelli made a heads-up play, catching an inbounds pass and immediately throwing a long pass ahead into the frontcourt to Greivis Vasquez, who dribbled out the final few seconds before the Bucks could foul to stop the clock. New Orleans won its second straight game, the team's first winning streak since Dec. 26-28. It was also the Hornets first road victory since Jan. 9 at Denver, ending a streak of six consecutive away defeats.
Hornets MVP: Belinelli delivered arguably the best shooting night of his NBA career, going 6-for-7 from three-point range, setting a new individual high (hed made five treys in a single game five times previously in the league). The 6-foot-5 shooting guard made at least one three-pointer in every quarter, including three of them in the third period. Overall, he was 7-for-10 from the field.
Hornets Sixth Man of the Game: Of the five Hornets who came in off the bench Wednesday, three of them are on 10-day contracts (Solomon Jones, Donald Sloan, Lance Thomas), a rarity in the NBA. The quintet all made contributions with no one standing out above the others statistically, but give the nod to Xavier Henry, who made several key plays in the fourth quarter. The second-year pro connected on two baskets in the final stanza, part of his six-point outing.
The buzz on
Hornets point guard in the first half of 2011-12. With only a handful of games left before the All-Star break, its time for a positional breakdown of New Orleans at the midway point. Although its been an extremely frustrating season overall for the Hornets, point guard has been a bright spot, despite the trade departure of arguably the best player in franchise history. Jarrett Jack was enjoying one of the best seasons of his NBA career prior to an injury that hopefully will not keep him out beyond tonights game. Vasquez has been given a golden opportunity to play major minutes in Jacks absence and has produced several big-assist games, including 10 in Mondays victory over Utah and seven in the triumph at Milwaukee. Vasquez logged a total of 859 minutes as a rookie in Memphis last season, but is already at 670 in 2011-12 despite still having 37 games left on the schedule. The University of Maryland product and native of Venezuela still needs to improve his perimeter shooting, but has shown a knack for setting up teammates for open shots and running the Hornets offense skillfully.