Seriously, how money has Mo-Pete been this playoffs in general, and this series in particular? In the second half of the season, as his shot flagged a bit, he fell into Byron Scott’s doghouse, as most Hornets players not named Chris Paul or David West have. He’s a demanding coach who only accepts the best. With the acquisition of Bonzi Wells and Mike James, Mo seemed to be getting less and less time as those other guys played (although shortly thereafter the trade, James was relegated to the bench, and Julian Wright’s ascent began–to the same effect). The Playoffs, however, have changed Peterson’s fate.
Since B. Scott is a big proponent of going with the guys who are playing well, Mo-Pete has steadily got more and more time in the playoffs, and is almost always on the floor in crunch time. Always considered a good defender, Peterson has been outright vicious this series, locking down on Ginobili and aggressively rebounding (any one see that one late last night, when stuck in the corner with a Spur on his back, he just slammed the ball down and effectively dribbled it back into his hands with a mean growl on his face?). Moreover, the man has shot 54% from the field overall and 50% from long-range. So just when the Spurs think they have Peja solved, and are ready to double CP and DX–while Timmy suspiciously watches TC, lest the Crescent City Connection be put in place–Mo steps along the baseline and catches and shoots his way to 4-6 shooting from 3-point land in a crucial Game 5. He was an absolute run-killer, draining 3s every time the Spurs thought they could put some points together and helping the Hornets build their lead bigger and bigger.
We, like most other bloggers, have focused on CP and DX, and often secondarily on Peja and TC (ticktock’s crush aside), and have even tried to give shout outs to Ju-Ju, Bonzi, and the role-players that contribute in big ways unexpectedly and impressively. Yet Mo is no role player. He’s a starter. And as one co-blogger posited, seriously, how many teams have a better 5th player on their line-up? I mean this as no disrespect to Mo by calling him a 5th player, but rather try to point out how quality he is in a league where salary cap, free agency, and ego often prevent a massive collection of talent. But the Bees got it. In spades.
And my man Morris is one of the big reasons this team has a legitimate chance to make a championship team this year. So keep it up Mo!
Entries (RSS)
May 15th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I like Mo because he works very hard when he is on the court. He’ll run all over the halfcourt with Mano on defense and then run that catch and shoot curl. His level of effort on offense or defense never changes if his shot is not falling and that is why Coach Scott stuck with him. I know he had bad streaks in the regular season and some fans wanted Pargo to take his place, but now Coach Scott’s confidence in him and Mo’s hard work is now paying off.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Great post, Mo doesn’t get the love he deserves even from us Hornet fans. But if he plays in Game 6 like he did in Game 5 (4 triples), look out for the floating Mo heads on sticks.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:12 am
And what the heck is up with Mo’s eyes in that photoshop? Did you change it any?
May 15th, 2008 at 5:31 am
We need to develop a Hive Chant for Mo-Pete. A Flaming Mo graphics would be a good idea too
ATH, the shot looks to have a blur filter on it (look at the shadow on his neck) and his eyes are in shadow.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:33 am
And by flaming, I mean like ‘on fire’, not “love those shoes!”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that….
May 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
All the man wants is his head on a stick. I guess he will have to settle for his head on a 100 dollar bill.
mW, it’s all good. If you want me to start having crushes on DX, CP, and Mo too, I got nooooo problem with that.
Our starters > Utah. You know what I’m talking about. Uh huh.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Do you think we could get Mo Pete to sign up for Movember this year? Its a thing in Australia where dudes wear a tash for the month of November to raise money for prostate cance research. C’mon! A Mo for the Mo! GOLD!
May 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am
“mW, it’s all good. If you want me to start having crushes on DX, CP, and Mo too, I got nooooo problem with that. Our starters > Utah. You know what I’m talking about. Uh huh.”
I believe its your patriotic duty to have crushes on them.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Well, since I am “The Girl”…
It’s sort of a plus. While some guys would be like, “I think I have a man crush on D West” after Tuesday night, I don’t even have to add the qualifier. I can just be like, “D West is a sexy sexy man who beasted on the Spurs last night. WORD.”
May 15th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Puts a whole new sping to FAN UP!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
‘Spin’, dammit.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:35 am
he looks like he just finished smokin a joint
May 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
All I’m gonna say is there is a reason that Jeff Bower and Byron Scott have been after this dude for the past 2 or 3 offseasons. I really think that Mo’s back hurt him more throughout the season than anyone would care to admit. What we’re seeing now is a healthy Peterson. Mateen Cleaves would be so proud. As would Joe Block, the Hornets radio voice from the Hornets Studio and Gordon Biersch, for that matter. Block is a Michigan State alum just like Mo Pete.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Mikey– Also, if you do a quick internet search you realize that people in Toronto LOVE Mo Pete. Still do. Gotta be a reason for that. (Actually I found some pretty good MoPete YouTube stuff… gonna have to remember that for later posts.) I’m glad to see him getting more time, and he’s really seemed to step it up a notch in the playoffs.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Thing about Peterson early in the season the hornets were automatic from three, but once the league got notice of it and made it much harder that’s when peterson started to struggle abit. He’s always been a great all around shooter and after it took awhile I’m glad he’s taking more two’s and driving to the basket more. His clutch shooting is necessary for us to finish strong this season so I’m really glad to see him pick it up in the post season(also props to our other three point threat Peja for showing people he isn’t a choke artist in the playoffs, he’s maybe had maybe one or two bad games so far). So lets go Hornets, lets finish off these spurs and head into the western conference finals so we can finish this season the right way, with a championship.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I’m in Toronto and I’m glad Mo is playing well in the playoffs. He is still a huge fan favourite here. He got a standing ovation when the Hornets played the Raptors here in late March.
ticktock6, one Mo YouTube video that is very popular is the circus shot against the Wizards back in March 2007. He made a ton of those tough shots when he was a Raptor.
One nickname that former Raptor TV voice Chuck Swirsky used is “that’s a MP3 download” (everytime Mo hit a three-point shot).
Go Hornets!
May 15th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Because ticktock’s officially taken the responsibility of totally crushing on the team, I would like to take the time to relieve myself of my previous position of falling for the team and, instead, undertake crushing on the Honeybees.
Hey, *someone* had to step up.
May 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Mark, Im way ahead of you there………
May 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
….Second…
May 15th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
OK, which one of you Evil Genius (r)(c) web-savvy people is going to set up a Honeybee fansite or fan section on their site? Hmmmmm?
I have a lot to *AHEM* contribute….
May 15th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Unfortunately, you’d have to ask the other half of the site about THAT.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Actually, prior to us getting TrueHoop and NBA blog links, some of our highest hits came from Honeybee posts, rare as they were. So…I’ll pass the idea to our Marketing Department and see if the New Concepts committee approves it…
Or I might just do one to test the water…
…stay tuned.