Well, I was only able to catch parts of the game (bad internet and no working TV), but here are some thoughts on the game:

- The first half was pretty sad. I was close to giving up on the game halfway through the third. The Bees had multiple turnovers and missed a lot of wide open jumpers. Even our regular ace James Posey missed more than a couple of pretty open three pointers. Posey went just 2 for 8 from deep. 

- When the Nugs were up 26 in the third, I thought the Hornets might just give up, but I was dead wrong. Instead, we went on a 20-6 run and made it a game once more. CP3 definitely turned it on, he finished with 30 points, 11 assists, and 5 rebounds. The fact that the Bees could make it a game still impresses me.

- Vanilla Ice played at halftime.

- Denver seems a lot better with Chauncey instead of AI in the lineup, they are 22-9 after the trade. And JR Smith continues to impress me as a solid sixth man, he always seems to have great games against New Orleans. He scored 11 of his 17 points in the fourth.

- Hilton Armstrong is playing amazingly. He had 17 points and 5 rebounds, 3 of which were offensive. Hopefully he can continue this even when he comes off the bench.

- Uncharacteristic of Chris "MVP" Paul were his 7 turnovers, especially the last one.

There you have it, an end to the 4-game win streak. A bit of ugly playing by the Bees, but the way they bounced back earned them something. Still, CP3's quote sums it up:

We showed a lot of fight, but we lost. There aren't any morale victories in this game."

Hornets 92, Blazers 77

1) A win over the Blazers isn't exactly the same thing as a win over the Blazers without Brandon Roy, but I'll take it. The W extends the streak to four wins in a row, following a strong 10-3 finish in the month of December. After a lot of word that the Hornets are for some reason "not in sync with their coach", they've once again bounced back up the Western Conference standings. Byron Scott also won Coach of the Month for December (something that surprised me), but today we were once again graced with the mythical Devin Brown DNP-CD, which makes me happy.

2) Of course, the main interest of the game was the Tyson-Prissy "brawl". From what I saw, Pryz threw a forearm into Tyson's 6-pack, causing Tyson to retaliate a bit harder on Pryz's injured wrist. Then for some weird reason, Tyson was given a Flagrant-2 and ejected from the game. Although Tyson did deserve the punishment, I'm quite sure that Pryzbella deserved some justice himself. The Tyson-Prissy fued has been going on for at least the last two years, and this is the third time Tyson has been ejected from the Rose Garden. We'll all be hoping he's not suspended.

Ironically, the ejection gave rise to the Hornet surge of scoring. Said Chris Paul about what happened after the "brawl":

"I think we fed off that energy. We were talking in the huddle and that’s what really hyped the game up. We got excited after that."

The Bees went 13 for19 shooting in the fourth alone, outscoring the Blazers 41-19 in the 15 minutes after the ejection

3) I have to hand it to Hilton in the 23 minutes he played, he went 6-6 with 12 points. Although he only grabbed 3 boards, he was able to actually catch the ball and come up with a couple of really nice dunks. On the other end of the court, he also played some great D on Greg "World War II Veteran" Oden. I'm once again getting impressed with Hilton's play and still have this dream that he will someday become the next Dwight Howard. It was on my Christmas wishlist, but there's always next year, right?

4) David West and CP3 played some great ball (as usual right?). West absolutely tore up LaMarcus, scoring 25 points (12-21 shooting). It seems he's really got it back in the last few games, making his jumpers and getting a goodpost game going. I hardly even noticed Chris "MVP" Paul during the game, until the fourth where he just walked past the Blazers D and scored on a couple of driving layups. Those were the few plays that really delivered the Bees the game and sealed it. He ended up with 17 points, 11 assists, and 7 rebounds. In just 36 minutes.

And that's it for this one. As I said before, a win over the Blazers without Roy is not the same thing as one with him in it. Next game tomorrow against the Nuggets at Denver, hopefully you can stop by the game thread once again. And hopefully Tyson will be playing...

From Ball Don't Lie, an excerpt from the interview with The Glove:

BDL: Is there a point guard in the game who reminds you of yourself?

GP: (Pauses) No. I don't think anybody reminds me of me, because I did it on both ends of the floor. I played defense, I posted up, point guards don't post up [anymore] like I did, and guard somebody end to end, and get steals and stuff. Most point guards now, what they're doing is playing passing lanes, and some of them always talk about why they haven't been on first-team defense. Like Allen [Iverson] and Chris Paul, they're both my buddies, and I like them both, but that's not defense right now. Defense is more like an on the ball type of guy, like Bruce Bowen, but I don't think any point guard plays like that right now.

BDL: Who in your opinion is the best point guard in the game right now?

GP: Chris Paul.

BDL: Not Rondo?

GP: (Smiles) Nooo. No Rondo. Nooo Rondo. Chris Paul and then a close second would be [Deron] Williams.

Go Hornets!

Hope everyone had a good Black Friday. Today, the Hornets take on the Blazers in hope of extending the winning streak to 5 games. At the Hive spoke with Dave from Blazer's Edge for a quick preview of today's game.

At the Hive: Since we last talked, Greg Oden has gotten in Games 4 through 10 of his young career. How is he adapting to the NBA, and what are your early likes and dislikes?

Blazers Edge: I hesitate to use “likes” and “dislikes” because there’s a fair amount of weird angst among Portland fans and their impressions of Oden.  Some are saying he looks like a bust.  Others are objecting, highlighting his contributions and his circumstances (microfracture surgery, year off, etc.).  It’s become somewhat personal and “likes” and “dislikes” implies taking one side or the other.

Here’s the real scoop:  Oden was never going to be an offensive star coming out of college.  His footwork is rough and his shooting form is mediocre at best.  However he’s a beast when he gets the ball low and takes it to the hole with confidence.  His shot is starting to fall more as well.  He is hampered by his recovery, particularly in the area of lift.  That means he’s getting shots blocked now that should be dunks.  But he’s still getting an enormous number of dunks.  Ditto for rebounds.  He’s blocking shots but he’s slow in his rotations and sometimes picks the wrong rotation entirely.  He’s also fouling quite a bit.  On the other hand he draws fouls against opponents when he’s aggressive.  In short, limited offense but devastating to the extent it exists, intermittent defense, good rebounding.  For a guy who’s playing at 75% after one year of college and an entire year off because of surgery that ain’t bad at all.  I am encouraged by Oden’s play.  The raw material there is SO good.  But realistically it’s going to take a while to see the full results.  This season is a no-lose prospect for him as long as he stays healthy.  I hold on to that on bad nights and rejoice like heck on good ones.

@tH: From the looks of it, Portland has been involved in numerous edge-of-your-seat wins- by 1 vs Sacramento, by 5 and 4 vs Minnesota, by 2 vs Houston. What are the primary factors keeping the Blazers from jumping out to and sustaining big leads versus lesser teams like the Kings and Wolves?

BE: Well, we did blow out the Bulls by 42 and the Heat by 38.  There are two answers to your question, though, to the extent the premise is accurate (which it sometimes is).  First, we have a tendency to revert to jump shooting when we get complacent.  We’re a good jump shooting team, but while it’s possible to win with the jumper it’s devilishly hard to blow teams out with it.  Those shots just don’t fall all game long.  Second the Blazers are still young.  Officially we’re the second youngest team in the league behind Golden State, but if you look at the players the Warriors actually give minutes to versus the players the Blazers play it’s pretty obvious we’re fielding the youngest team in the league on a nightly basis.  Young teams ride on emotion and have a hard time stringing together 48 straight minutes of efficient basketball.  To Portland’s credit they’re far better at sustaining leads this year than they were last season.  But the Blazers are still learning that ruthless killer instinct you need to rise to the level of the great teams.

@tH: It's early, but Travis Outlaw's usage rate has declined significantly from 26% last year to just 19.7% this year and he's getting three and a half fewer shots per 36 minutes. Is he the kind of player who'd be affected by this and do you think he may speak out down the road?

BE: He may be affected, though it would be hard to tell.  Travis has been up and down throughout his career no matter how many minutes he gets and no matter what role he fills.  He likes to get touches and he loves to shoot.  If that’s not his primary role he’s being wasted on most nights.  In that sense the lack of opportunity is significant.  On the other hand he’s on a team crowded at forward and about to become more crowded with the return of Martell Webster from a foot injury.  Everybody in that bunch--Outlaw, Webster, Channing Frye, Nicolas Batum--knows the score.  Unless a trade is made minutes and shots are going to be tighter this year and if you don’t perform you’d not going to get them, period.  Either way, Travis is not the kind to speak out on anything.  He’s somewhat reclusive and non-confrontational.  You won’t hear a peep out of him.  His agent could speak up on his behalf, I suppose, but I don’t see the situation going on that long.  One or more of these forwards will be moved.

Hornets 105, Nuggets 101

After botching a couple of double digit leads, the Hornets were able to get the W with some great clutch play.

1) Not having Tyson for this one (against a frontcourt of K-Mart and Nene) seemed like a major problem for the Hornets. However, Melvin and Hilton were able to hold down the fort, limiting the Nuggets' big two to just 8 rebounds. As Byron Scott said, after Hilton's performance against OKC:

That was the most aggressive I've seen him since he's been here. When he caught the ball, he made definitive moves. He didn't wait. So his attack mode was much more evident. Hopefully, that will continue for Hilton, because I thought it was really good.

It continued tonight; I was really impressed with the bench play. Rasual Butler hit his first 7 shots, finishing with 19. He's really emerging as a dependable player for the Hornets, making us wonder where he was last year. To cap it off, Sean "The Kiwi" played his first minutes as a Hornet, slamming in a put-back on his first offensive play.

2) Unfortunately today David West was not the dependable Fluffy we have grown to love. He shot just 6-16 in the 45 minutes he played. Normally he would have dominated the post as an offensive factor, but he finished with just 15. Maybe it was the lack of Tyson Chandler, who stayed home with his new son. Regardless, we're hoping he'll be back and hot for tomorrow's game against the Blazers.

3) Ex-Hornet J.R. Smith was great today. He finished with 32 points in 32 minutes, with 5 three pointers. He's really come to develop as a somewhat dependable 6th man on Denver as opposed to the Byron Scott doghouse-residing punk he once was in New Orleans. He scared us too much today, hitting threes in the clutch and making those "driving dunks". But I give him lots of props, once being one of my favorites during his stint in the Big Easy.

4) The end of the game was great, if a bit nail-biting. The James Posey sequence was great; Posey rushed in on a Melo three, giving him three free-throws, and culminating in a four point play. Then, on the other side of the court, he hits a dagger three. We also can't forget about Chris "Who's Deron Williams" Paul, who had a great second half and a great 7-0 run by himself. He ended the game with 22 and 10, his 10th game (out of 14) with 20-10 stats.

And that's all for today, thanks to everyone who stopped by at the Open-Game thread. It was a lot more exciting than shouting at the TV by myself. Good luck Black Friday shopping (for Hornets apparel, of course) and be sure to stop by for tomorrow's game against Portland.

[Editor's note: First recap of the season! Junsier, Lee, and myself will be taking care of recapping duties this season. Junsier has his "Hive Drive" recap tonight, I'll pop in with a "Hive Five" tomorrow, and Lee should have his first "Hive Live" ("Hive, 325"?) on Sunday.]

And affect it, it did. The extra food made him shoot just 3-10 in the second half, missing two crucial, open jumpers in a stretch that let the Warriors almost come back. Almost. Whatever Paul had for dessert following the meal enabled him to seal the game. Because the game was decided by the food Chris ate four days ago, not because of his actual skills as a player.

1) I was definitely not expecting the Warriors to do so well. Firstly, the team without Baron or Ellis didn't seem particularly threatening. And secondly, Al Harrington asked to be traded, like today evening before the game. And more importantly, the team's mascot's recent troubles should have had the Warriors squad in deep turmoil. So the comeback towards the end of the fourth had me on the edge of my computer chair. Rohan will surely tell you to "tip your hat to them", because they were able to give a Hornets a pretty big challenge. Kelena "Is a Wookiee" Azubuike had a few really nice drives to the hoop. One of the things I was really expecting was a Captain Jack "Chuck-Fest", seeing as he now ran the team. He did have quite a bit of fun, though, shooting 12 three pointers.

2) The Warriors' foul trouble, I think, was a major reason for the Hornets win. Magette had to sit for a bit in the 2nd, having picked up three early fouls. The clincher was Andris "Can't Ever Spell Last Name Correctly" Biedrins fouling out at the very end. Biedrins had 14 and 12, very Tyson-esque stats (Tyson had 13 and 16). I'm sure that if the Warriors had Biedrins for the last few possessions, they just may have had some second opportunities from  Biedrins'  offensive rebounding skills. On a random note, Al Harrington must feel pretty bad, asking to be traded, and then shooting 5-17 with a missed game-tying three.

3) Reading the game previews, I was really, really surprised to see D. Nelson in the starting lineup. I thought it was a glitch, or that Yahoo! Sports was now including coaches as a starter. After seeing B. Scott not being included, I clicked D. Nelson and smacked myself in the head. DeMarcus Nelson. He was taken out really early after Peja rained a couple of shots on him.

4) Chris Paul's bounce back (after his dessert) really saved the Hornets. Paul "felt he put [them] in that situation", but he did a really good job taking us out of it, too. He finished with 21 points and 11 assists. David West is an extremely underrated offensive player, he can seemingly score at will whenever we need him to. He finished with 24 points. James Posey, the key addition to the team, finished with 11 points with 3-6 shooting from downtown. Hopefully, he can contribute with double figures; bench support was definitely what hindered the Hornets most last year. Looks like Rasual Butler is finally out of Byron Scott's famed "doghouse", which imprisoned the likes of JR Smith and Kirk Snyder. He played 12 and a half minutes, with 7 points.

All in all, that was a really exciting game to watch, just too exciting for the average Hornets fan. The game was extremely close, I mean, aren't we supposed to crush the measly Warriors with our playoff-winning, basketball-machine? The Warriors played a good game today, I'll give them credit, but the food Chris ate on October 26th definitely affected our game. For certain, the Bees will pick up the pace and definitely will look better than today.

Hornets play Phoenix tomorrow. Geaux!

1) If you have not heard about the Spanish team photo controversy, here was the picture that started it. In my opinion, the players aren't stretching their eyes at all; they look more like they're trying to imitate some kind of telepathic aliens. But now that the Spanish national team has apologized and said they did not know the implications of posing fotr such a photo, your favorite starting point guard on Team USA, Jason Kidd did bring up an interesting point about possible double standards within the NBA. He basically says that if a USA player did that, they would be thrown out with possible suspensions coming. Anyways, read the Wojroansiawskiwasodjkski article on it if you're interested in disliking the standards David Stern sets.

2) Yeah, anyways, moving on to atual important news, without global racist implications, the Hornets reacquired Ryan Bowen. [Update: and officially lost Jannero Pargo]. I was pretty happy with that decision, Bowen has proven to be a great rebounder and defender. Hopefully he stays on that same note and continues the good hustle he provides off the bench.

3) Speaking of which, there a few interesting things going on about the Hornets trying to help the bench. Now that we have resigned Bowen, our bench reads as follows: James, Posey, Bowen, Ely, Armstrong, and Julian Wright. Of course, you could add in Rasual Butler, but I think we all know the chances of him playing are extremely slim, unless Byron Scott has been saving him as some sort of secret weapon for next year. The Hornets have shown interest in Devin Brown and Devean George. Brown has a nice jumper, especially from beyond the arc. However, George did have the block of the year.

4) A date and time were announced for the unveiling of the new Hornets jerseys, so if you invent a time machine, make sure you check this event out first. Hopefully some brave fan sneaked out with pictures.

Date: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 
Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm 
Location: French Quarter 
City/Town: New Orleans, LA

As a closing note, the Hornets' updated season schedule is on the right side of this site, so instead of setting it as your wallpaper, you should check here and increase our traffic.

Of course the major recent news for the Hornets has to be the very recent sign and trade of Mike James for Ben Gordon hardly a couple of hours ago. Read the breaking news right now if you (for some insane reason) have not yet seen it. But let's go over the other summer news before we get in too much depth about that.

1) Let me begin by being the 4,974th person to welcome James Posey to the team. When I was watching the Finals, seeing James Posey hitting threes off the bench made me wonder how awesome it would be if he was on the Hornets. About a month after that, "Hornets reportedly dealing with Posey" showed up on the headlines. And finally, two weeks later James "The Posey" Posey signed for 25 mil for 4 years. I know a lot has been said about it being a large sum of money, but James is surely worth the cash. We all know the Hornets weak spot is the bench, and Posey has proven himself to be a consistent back-up for two championshp teams. He scores, he plays D, and he rains threes. Perfect.

2) Hornets sign Jeremey Pargo for 5yrs, 35mil. Okay fine, I'll stop now. But while we're on topic of the Pargo Bros., now that we've spent all that money on Posey, I think the chances of resigning big bro Jannero are quite high. Pargo did take a lot of shots to get hot (read one of atthehive's stat % things which no one understands), but he did provide some of the only energy off the bench for the Bees last year; something I think is worth saving. Jannero seems to be a great backup for CP3, seeing as how he can also play the 2 alongside Paul. We'll see if the Hornets have any other plans for the backup PG or if Mike James might actually play next year.

3) Did you know if you semi-reverse Morris Peterson, he becomes Peter Morrison?

4) If you have been blind to all that's been going on on this website, you would have missed atthehive's 14 trillion posts about Chris Paul in the Olympic games. Which would have been a pity because he does have a Kidd-Paul-Williams play-by-play analysis and an extremely long preview for each game. In a better, briefer summary, Chris and Deron are fighting for a point guard slot, which for some inane reason is 2nd string to Jason Kidd. Why? No one knows. In the larger, less selfish scope of things, Team USA is pretty much winning everything in the Olympics. More importantly, however, Chris Paul had a really nice 'oop to Dwayne Wade against Lithuania. 

I hope Ben Gordon plays well for the Hornets *WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE*

Welcome to #29 of the 30 Greatest Hornets of All-Time. It is part of an ongoing series in the summer of '08 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Hornet franchise. Today's contribution by junsier. Today's references: Roto Evil (image). Enjoy!

As an avid card collector through the early nineties, I found that one of the more common Hornets' cards was that of Mike Gminski. It seemed like every other pack had the 6'11" "G Man" striking lanky rebounding positions with his short shorts.

Mike came to the Hornets midway through the '90-'91 season, which was the Hornets third season. At that time I didn't really knew who he was, just that he played for the Sixers and Nets before Charlotte. But Mike did have an exceptional career back in Duke as well; he's currently in the ACC Hall of Fame and averaged a double-double for two straight years. He was pretty good on the Nets too, drafted 7th overall; he averaged 16.5 points and a little under 9 rebounds per game. So this was a solid acquisition for the Hornets when they got him in the trade from Philly.

One thing to remember well was his free-throw shooting. He was a career 84.3% shooter, not too bad for a guy his size. Like I said before, he did have a fairly decent jump shot, which stretched out the D and opened things offensively for the whole team. Mike himself played great defense (playing under Coach K in Duke), and he was the kind of lock-down defender down low that the Bees could count on- a post player that could clean the glass, play solid defense, and score when given the oppurtunity.

All in all, "Big G" was the kind of role-player you might forget after a few seasons, a solid player but not memorable enough to worship. Ironically, he'd be the perfect addition in the low post for the Hornets this summer.

An interesting ending note, currently Big Mike has his own website and blog as a respected analyst of ACC basketball. In addition, Mike is now a passionate cook, wine-taster, marathon biker, and philanthropist. Read about his "personal note" about his life after the NBA.

Teal Tallies: 43rd in Points (940), 31st in Rebounds (643), 29th in Blocks (60), 30th in FT% (79%), Total Salary of $4, 915, 000 from the Hornets