Hornets Hype

And so do we, of course. I mean, we always have. It took me exactly one preseason game to become Marcus Thornton’s biggest internet fan. This kid is just flat out making this season fun to watch for me. But Lil Buckets got a lil press this week. Hoopsworld did a piece on him for their Life As A Rookie feature. Some quotes:

“I feel like I have to work harder than everybody else – go above and beyond what everybody else is doing – to maintain this role and not lose it.” – Marcus Thornton

“Thornton is a deadly shooter. He can really heat it up. I’ve seen him in one game get 32 and make like 5 threes.” – Tyreke Evans

He was also featured in this morning’s Times Picayune:

“He’s more than just a shooter, and we try to remind him of that. He can slash. He can get to the basket. He’s unbelievably athletic. We want him to show the world that. Don’t just show us that. Show everybody else that.” – Chris Paul

Thornton on busting out of his weeklong shooting slump last Friday night:  “That’s one of the things I’ve had to work on, if my shot is not going, to work on the other aspects of the game like rebounding, cutting to the goal, getting easy buckets so that my offense starts to generate. Once I started doing that (against the Kings) everything started flowing.”

Higher & higher, Buckets. We believe in you!

This is just a heads up for those who don’t know: Hornets.com is giving away a set of season tickets for the rest of the year. You have 24 hours to enter, which means until noon tomorrow (Thursday, 12/10). Hey, it’s worth a shot!

We’ve already got ‘em but I thought I’d get the word out, in case anyone who reads the site wants to enter. You know how I feel about things that are free…

I love this interview. They’re wearing matching outfits!

They actually cut off the funniest part, which was after they said goodbye. They cut back over to the feed for a couple of seconds, and Little CP was trying to shove all the wires into his mouth. I don’t think Chris Paul knew they were still on the air. The NBA TV crew got a great kick out of it. In all seriousness, though, I think we will all agree that it’s a great relief to see Our Small Hero back on the floor. (Not the really small one, the other one. Haha.)

Huge news : Chris Paul practiced today!

It was his first practice since spraining his ankle in the Blazers game. The fact that the team gave no official timeline worried a lot of Hornets fans. Weeks? Months? No one was saying. And yet– surprise!– here he is practicing, and now NOLA.com is saying he hasn’t been ruled out for tomorrow night’s game. Tomorrow! Wow. That’s…. unexpected.

CP participated in a full contact workout. The Hornets have been 4-4 in his absence.

This is just a random photograph of Chris Paul practicing. It is meant to be symbolic.

In case you turned off the game, the Hornets bench went on a 28-16 run in the fourth quarter and managed to close the gap to 9 points in the last minute, before finally losing to the Lakers 110-99. There’s about a minute left. The Hornets foul. I thought nothing of it– it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing. It’s under ten, you have timeouts, things can happen. We’ve already seen one game this year (the Dallas overtime win) where it did happen. Clock runs down. Hornets foul again. There’s 4 seconds left and they have the ball. It wasn’t really until then that I notice the crowd is booing. CST does a close-up on the Hornets bench, and it’s Posey (you might have known he’d be behind something like this) and Armstrong hollering at the rookies to go, go, go. Collison throws up a shot that doesn’t make it, game ends.

What’s the fuss? Apparently the Lakers fans have some sort of taco promotion if they score over 100 and hold their opponent to less than 100. It wouldn’t  have annoyed me so much if I hadn’t seen fans of two other teams, the Raptors and the Blazers, complaining on Twitter earlier in the night about the exact same thing: fans who cheer at the wrong times because they want free food. We’ve got one of those food promotions too, for Popeyes, only luckily ours is fairly new and people don’t usually make a huge deal over it. I think it’s tacky.

You wanna mess with the rooks? You gotta go through me.

But then I check Twitter and see several people in my feed making fun of the Hornets bench for trying, and man, that got me fired up. “If they had played that hard the whole game they wouldn’t have been down 20!” “Lakers fans shouldn’t be embarrassed because they cheer louder for tacos than the game– the Hornets should be embarrassed for losing!” “The Hornets are poor sports for not rolling over!” (I made sure to bookmark that one for days when I need a good laugh.) Etc. One of these people was an ESPN writer, which is kind of inexplicable to me.

You people did notice that this wasn’t exactly the lineup that lost the game? The Hornets had three guards out there under 6-4, and were playing 6-9 Darius Songaila at center. I mean, that’s not exactly an NBA lineup. That’s serious small ball, and they were pushing the pace.

Two of those guys were rookies. Three of them were under the age of 23. Four of them have been in the league three years or less. Darren Collison is a rookie. Marcus Thornton is a rookie, who was 0-4 in the first three quarters, and is fighting for a spot in the starting lineup, while trying hard to get out of a three game shooting slump. Bobby Brown, who didn’t meet a three ball 4 seconds into the shot clock he didn’t like all evening, has to prove he shouldn’t be glued to the bench forever when Chris Paul gets back. Julian Wright is playing to get back in the rotation. Darius Songaila was trying because he is a bench vet who always tries. They’re playing for minutes. They’re playing for their careers.

It’s embarrassing the Hornets bench tried to erase a lead?

I’m sorry, have we met? I’m Ticktock6, I’m a Hornets fan. I was sitting in the stands all forty-eight minutes of a 58 point home playoff blowout, for which I did not receive free food. A blowout in which a bunch of veteran bench players managed to turn a thirty point deficit into almost a sixty point hole by completely giving up. That’s embarrassing. The point of this isn’t to get into a game of  “who’s a better fan,” but some people last night on Twitter were trying to tell me the meaning of embarrassing.

You know what? I don’t play basketball. I wasn’t on the floor in LA last night. The bottom line is, I don’t have to live with giving up at the end of a blowout. The five guys on the floor do.

With the loss at Sacramento the other night, the Hornets fell to 1-8 on the road this year. This is a new look for our fave team, which actually sported a better record on the road than at home in early 2007-08. Ah, but those were different days… the Hornets were sneaking up on teams, and New Orleans Arena wasn’t quite so full of loudness and win. (I can’t really complain, being a season ticketholder– I’ve only seen two losses live in a waaaayyy down season, and that’s including preseason: NO is 6-2 at home.) Seriously, though, the team needs to get its road mojo back. Thoughts?

Lil Buckets' home and away look... what's up with that?

1) More drunks. Look, I am sure there are drunk people in every arena. I am not naive. But there are a lot of drunk people in New Orleans. The Hornets need to import like 100 bums, you know, from off the street is okay, and give them free beer. Maybe beads too. Do you think the drunks would yell more with beads? Hell, give the drunks some beads.

2) Lil Buckets needs to wear his sleeve! Has anyone else noticed this but me? I actually didn’t notice till last week. Marcus Thornton wears a shooting sleeve on his left arm in all the home games but never on the road. Why? I am dying to know. But we’re begging him. Wear the damn sleeve. Please.

3) Place a large humidifying machine in the locker room and all hotel rooms and practice areas. Make it very damp and gross. This is to simulate New Orleans’ humidity.

4) Bust out the pregame prayer. Surely we’re the only arena that has that. Let’s take George Shinn’s holy rollerisms on the road! Jesus for everyone! In every city! (Disclaimer: My distaste for the pregame prayer is not a knock on Christians. It is not meant to be intended that way. We do not like the prayer because it reflects a lack of diversity. You may feel free to disagree with us. We’ll still love you.) We are at the point where prayer might be a legitimate option.

5) Is David West sitting on his bouncy ball on the road this year? I haven’t noticed. If he’s not, he needs to be.

6) Pass out iPods to the team and play “SHOUT!” on the Hornets bench. This song wins games. It is statistically impossible for the Hornets to lose a game once “SHOUT” has been played in the fourth quarter. Why is it statistically impossible? Because it’s never happened. “SHOUT” is like 65-0, seriously. It’s an ice cold closer.

7) I know James Posey distributes hugs on the road. But does he give fist bumps to the entire bench, coaches, team personnel, the waterboy, the ballboys, and the like six other random people who happen to be sitting around there? C’mon, Hornets. Get this man some random people to fist bump. Each extra person is an extra dose of PURE LUCK. Filled with champagne and championship sparkles and stuff.

8.) Peja on a Stick. I’m sure you have room for one on the plane. Put one of the rooks in charge of it.

Because I thought we needed some new features, you know I love Twitter, and the title is illiterative. Hornets Hype presents Twittastic Tuesday, a.k.a. the post where I’m a stalker so you don’t have to be, where we’ll bring you the week’s highlights (lowlights? nonlights? mundanities?) from the Hornets player twitters. FYI, the four Hornets on Twitter are Chris Paul, Morris Peterson, Bobby Brown, and Julian Wright. Of all of them, Bobby Brown’s has the potential to be the funniest, because he talks a lot of trash, and occasionally posts super random pics like Marcus Thornton eating fast food or his grocery shopping.

This week?

• Mo Pete twitpic-ed himself in his shades
• … And gave his followers fashion advice
• B Brown says Posey & DBrown and CP make even a financial meeting hilarious but does not elaborate
• CP thinks it sucks that the Hornets always go to Miami on a back to back
• Plus he ate chitlins that his grandma made, and then had to defend himself from people on Twitter hating on his chitlins
• JuJu got stuck in West Bank traffic (on Twitter, naturally)

And finally, here’s Bobby Brown’s Music Monday from yesterday. Because there was just something about Coldplay followed up by Lil Wayne that had me cracking up. You go, Bobby!

Music Monday with Bobby Brown

All right, Hornets tweeters. Now, go forth and say more interesting stuff next week so I have some juicy items to post! Seriously, guys. Do not let me down.

Now, for WAY MORE FUN, if you’re on Twitter, you need to be following fake Devin Brown (Most recent status update: “2 hungover to meet up with the team 2day but I sent coach a party platter of chicken wings so I won’t get fined”) and fake Hilton Armstrong. I don’t know who’s behind it (It’s not me. Really) but it’s quite inappropriately hilarious. Believe me. ***Kind of Not Safe For Work or Children, however

Headquarters: right here.

Over on At the Hive, someone mentioned Blazers fans last year showing their rookie love with Team Bayless. Of course, I was struck by what a fantastic idea this is. Plus I really really want a Team Thornton shirt to wear to games. I’ve pretty much been obsessed with Lil Buckets’ game since the first moment I saw him. And thus:

Join TEAM THORNTON! You know you want to.

Why Team Thornton? Why not Team Collison? Well… you know Lil Buckets is my pet rookie, and as a second round draft pick who’s tearing it up out there, as well as a local Louisiana guy, I think he deserves our support! I decided Team Thornton should be purple and gold, because those colors conveniently go with both LSU and the Hornets. Of course, I made it in male and female, in case anyone else wants to join the fun. And no, I’m not violating copyright by putting a Hornets logo on, so don’t even ask me to.

You know you wanna be on Team Thornton with me.

Sorry, guys. It won’t happen again.

Things You Knew Were Possible All Along

Best in the West? … Down.

Best in the East (and, in fact, the NBA)? … Down.

Who wants next?

I'm beginning to fear my love for Lil Buckets' game has reached unhealthy levels. Like, really unhealthy...

Did it really happen?

It happened without Chris Paul. It happened without David West having a good game. It happened by dominating the boards. It happened against the team with the best record of this young NBA season. And it happened on national TV.

Oh my gosh, is my Marcus Thornton love veering into inappropriate and all-consuming territory? Ever since he first stepped onto the floor, I just knew this kid could play. In the first four games of the Post-Byron Scott era, the first of his young career in which he’s received non-garbage minutes, Lil Buckets is averaging an efficient 16 pts in 20 minutes. He just has the self-confidence of a kid who believes he’s going to be a player in this league. You can’t coach that. You can’t buy it. It’s something I wish Julian Wright had. In the first half, Buckets was taken down by an Amare Stoudemire flagrant 1. A little while later, he cuts to the basket along the baseline and lays it in, right in front of Amare.

mW: Wait, was that him just popping back up, or did I see swagger?
Ticktock6: That was totally swagger! I love it!

I was all forlorn when he tweaked his ankle late in the game. He was easily going to set himself a new career high (it’s only 20, after all– he’ll surpass that in the next few weeks I bet). He tried to walk it off, but Jeff Bower was having none of it, and called timeout. But, a few minutes later, there’s Lil Buckets jogging out of the locker room. He spent some time bouncing up and down, stretching it out, and clearly wanted to get back in the game. The coaches elected to sit him. But it just confirms what I suspected: Buckets is indestructible. He certainly crashes the boards in the shadows of much larger players like he is. In summary, my love for my pet rookie knows no bounds.

But. Lest Darren Collison feel left out, I will say that I am dazzled by his speed every time he runs the floor. On one fast break, mW turned to me and said, “He looks like he’s just jogging, and yet he beat everyone down the court.” And the Suns are a running team! He’s going to wreak havoc against unsuspecting bench squads when Chris Paul comes back. Believe that. And that driving layup that sealed the game was positively CP-esque.

Emeka’s block on Amare. Eeeek.

Peja for threeeeee… actually, I’m not going to dwell on that, like the national media did. We knew he still could. Him outrebounding everyone on the Hornets and the Suns? Well. All right. That deserves a shout out.

Loved the standing O from the crowd when the Suns called timeout three minutes in. Hornets were up 11-2, and it just goes to show that fans appreciate hustle. And, seriously, the Hornets best closer is not Chris Paul. It is, hands down, “Shout!” on the jumbotron. By my informal count, I am not sure the Hornets have ever gone on to lose after that song is played. “A little bit louder now… Hey-ey-ey-hey!” … Game over.

Earlier this season I began to have a sneaking suspicion that maybe Devin Brown has got some things going for him that go beyond what we see on the floor. Darren Collison in the paper thanking him for helping him out on the floor… he’ll throw out some genuinely intelligent quotes (one time he was the Shirtless Locker Room Interview on Hornets Tonight, a fact which caused me to be extremely put out… except what he said was so not-dumb I couldn’t even find it in myself to hate on it)… last night he was waving his arms pumping up the crowd. The very foundations of my world have been rocked. Devin Brown is shooting from three in a way that some might describe as anti-detrimental. Devin Brown, I have to say, played well last night. But… what would I do without Devin Brown mockery? What is my place in such a lonely, stark, and frightening new world? I feel lost and helpless, like a small sea creature caught up in the whirl of great tides that I cannot fight or understand.

Oh, Devin. Devin.

You believe you can fly, Devin. Fly like a ninja. And who am I to stop you?