Hornets Hype

See what I did there, Gil.

(By the way, for those of you watching on CST instead of the Blazers’ feed on League Pass, Gil was dropping the puns in rare form last night. After Travis Outlaw nearly airballed a free throw, he cracked, “That shot was a crime by Outlaw.” Ho ho ho! Gil, you slay me.)

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to recognize our boy Hilton, who was forced to play big minutes against Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden after Tyson Chandler was ejected in the third quarter. If you come here a lot, you know that we’re relentless believers in Hilton Armstrong. Sometimes we get made fun of. Sometimes we cringe. But sometimes the second biggest of the Hornets big men comes up strong. It’s usually when he has to– we haven’t lost a game this season that Hilton started, I believe.

The joke around these parts is that, at least once a night, Hilton receives his obligatory “because you’re Hilton Armstrong and the other guy is not, sorry” foul. Usually, as well as a couple other offensive fouls of a dubious variety. The other story is turnovers. The Hilton Armstrong turnover is sometimes impossible to spot in the wild. Like, all three Hornets blogs and various fans don’t recall seeing it happen, yet there it is in the boxscore. It’s like, “Oh, that hotel guy’s playing tonight. Spot him his turnover,” and they check the box.

Well, last night in Portland, Hilton Armstrong played probably the best quarter (game?) of his career, ending up with 12 points on 6-6 shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, and… wait… wait for it… 0 turnovers. He also took a key charge from Greg Oden that forced the Blazers to sit the old man. After being called for two consecutive fouls at the 6 minute mark of the 4th quarter, Hilton could have caved. Instead, he raced back down to the other end of the floor and appeared out of nowhere to put back a monster dunk of a James Posey missed three.

Oh, it has been brought. Whatever, NBA. I just dare you to suspend Tyson Chandler. Our boy’s gonna dominate.

Turning our attention to Tyson Chandler now, I want to first say that I’m really, really proud and pleased at the way the rest of the team handled his ejection. Another game where the officiating didn’t quite go their way (You’re telling me Przybilla doesn’t deserve at least a technical for hitting back? Someone got T’ed up for a butt slap the other night), and, when forced to work around personnel issues, they gutted it out. Can it be we’ve seen a subtle change?

Blazers fans will be saying Tyson’s a dirty player. They will be wrong. Apparently, three out of the four ejections Tyson’s had in his career have come in the Rose Garden. This is the second year in a row it’s been as a result of a scuffle with Przybilla. Dudes just don’t like each other. Here’s what went down:

See, here’s what I want to know: if Tyson’s the dirty one, how come this stuff never goes down in New Orleans? We don’t hear from Przybilla here. I’m not saying TC didn’t hit him– he did. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been kicked out. But he’s not exactly a thug. It’s hard to be a thug when like 75% of your altercations are against one guy. Besides, if you read his blog or have seen him in interviews, you know that’s just not TC’s personality. We should just accept that they play scrappy against each other, that there’s probably more to it than what’s in the video, and shrug it off. (Except, by the way, don’t you love the way the Blazers TV team cut this? Most of the times they slo-mo it, you don’t get the part leading up to when Chandler throws the arm. Naturally.)

When asked whether he hit Przybilla’s broken wrist on purpose, Tyson replied: “I didn’t know he had a bad hand. No. Not at all. If he’s worried about that, he should keep it off people.” Oh, Tyson. You slay me too.

Byron Scott said 2-2 would be good on this road trip, 3-1 would be great. So this puts us halfway there…