Hornets Hype

Oh wow. How much fun was that game? How much more Julian Wright can we get? Correct answer: there is never too much Julian Wright!

Hornets 116, Hawks 101.

How did I love that game? Let me count the ways.

But first. Birdman sighting on the bench. Accompanied by Bonzi (he remembered to wear clothes!) and D West (even when supposedly dressed up, he’s wearing what looks suspiciously like his usual black shirt and sweats. Were they… dare I say it… dress sweats?)

• Ryan Bowen gets the start… and two nifty steals. And HUGE RANDOM WHITE GUY DUNKS.
• We didn’t think we shot 15 3-pointers and tied a franchise record. I mean, we knew the Hornets made a bunch, but I think it’s not that they took any more than usual… they just lit them up. I did notice we didn’t have a whole lot of those “ILL ADVISED THREE- WHY WHY WHY?” moments.
• The other night the Knicks had the gall to bust out a fake Chandler. Tonight we’ve got the poor man’s West.
• Fourth Quarter. Stupid DanceCam. But wait! They’re dragging out a ladder. There’s apparently something wrong with the net, and it takes a huuuuuuge timeout to fix it. This means… extended DanceCam!
• Hilarity is about to ensue.
• Hilton Armstrong, seemingly chill with his recent benching, keeps popping off the bench and dancing around. I keep wondering aloud when they’re going to start going there with the camera. Because come on. It’s fun just begging to happen. GO THERE, arena people.
• Dude in a suit and tie up in one of the boxes dancing. I think he’s totally a plant, because haven’t we seen that guy before?
• Finally they go to the bench, where Hilton, Julian, and CP are sitting in a row. JuJu is persuaded to get up and “Jump On It.” He dances. The crowd goes crazy. The players fall over laughing.
• The woeful Hawks were even good sports about the silliness, though at this point they’re behind 99-82. At one point, they put the Kiss Cam on Josh Childress and Tyson Chandler. Tyson is sort of standing there smiling up at it and shaking his head, and Childress sees the camera, sticks his tongue out, and lunges toward him. AWESOME.
• The Hornets’ players who are waiting at the scorers’ table to go on the floor, tired of playing with the camera, start shooting the ball around in a circle with each other. Pargo’s dribbling around his legs and over the back and doing all sorts of crazy shit. Mike James spins the ball on his finger for a good long time, and Tyson passes to a little kid courtside, and the kid passes back.
• Julian Wright dunk + Sportscenter = Meant to Be.
• Tyson Chandler: 16 rebounds, 11 of which are offensive. Do you think Atlanta is sitting there tonight thinking they’re missing, let’s see… souls?
• WTF, LeBron. Why you gotta crap all over CP3’s MVP fun like that?
• CrowdWatch: 12, 430. Attendance was crap. But who cares? They missed out.
• I just wrote an NBA recap that included approximately 2% actual basketball! Everyone’s got a talent.

Hornets win 110-98.

Deron Williams wasn’t a factor until later in the game, but then, what Jazz player was? The Hornets scored 38 points in the first quarter. They went on a 23-0 run. (“Wow, I don’t know how I feel about them busting out the GnR so early,” said Mike of the arena staff. “What if they need it later?” Prophetic words.)

Utah’s unnerving comeback in the 3rd and 4th had us on edge. The lead, which was as high as 27 points, shrank to ten and then to six. I was standing on my seat when Peja scored that three pointer. Until that moment, the Hornets were failing to convince me that this one was a 100% win. I found out the only problem when you’re already standing on your seat for the play of the game is, where do you go from there? I was practically climbing up the glass. It was glorious. Did anyone watch it on TV? Did it sound as loud? I loved Mo Pete on the side of the court waving his towel at the crowd to get louder.

That? That was home court advantage. You knew the Hornets were never going to look back.

Phil Jackson apparently said that it’s the mark of a good team when you hit 40 wins without having more than 20 losses. The Hornets are 39-18.

Let’s talk about Chris Paul. 24 points, 16 assists, and 5 steals. The last player, according to ESPN, to have a line like that was… oh wait, Chris Paul. Before that it was Kevin Johnson in 1993. The crazy thing is CP had a quieter last half of the game. He ran up most of those numbers in the first quarter alone. We’re tossing around the idea of switching out our “BACK ROW BELIEVES” sign for some kind of Chris Paul Steal Counter, because it’s his potentially record-breaking stat. With numbers that you flip to count his steals in each game. The thing is, we’d have to count them ourselves, because they never put that number up on the board. Last night was encouraging: I also had CP3 at five steals. We can count! Oh, and we went to Gordon Biersch after the game to see the postgame radio show, and Joe Block went crazy over Mike’s MVP shirt.

CrowdWatch: 17,445 and another sellout. That’s three out of the last four games. The legend grows.

T.P. Watchdog: Fine, I guess you can talk about the Saints’ signings. But if you ever even touch baseball, you are barred from my porch. We just attempted to sit through ESPN’s replay of the highlights from last night, and it was excruciating. No one cares about preseason baseball. There are like 200 freakin’ games already. NO ONE CARES ABOUT PRESEASON BASEBALL. I believe this is a fact. I know no one who cares about it. I have never heard of anyone who cares about it. I’m not convinced it even exists… OK, now see, you got me off topic. I’m liking the presence of at least two Hornets articles per day recently. But I do think last night’s game deserved a top blurb on the front page. T.P. Watchdog… keeping the media responsible & buzz-friendly since 2007.

Sellout of 17,931. The hype is blaaaaazzzzzing. The arena was rocking. The sun went down Wednesday night.

Seriously, though. If that Tyson dunk is not the #1 on every highlight show, I will… well, never mind what I will do. He was like, “Hey, Dwight. WHAT-EV. I don’t need a cape to fly.”

Hornets 120, Suns 103. Hornets sweep the season series with the Suns. I debut a new homemade T-shirt. (But. I go back to the TC6 jersey on Friday just AS A TRIBUTE to the much-improved play this evening. Fierce. Does he read the blogs and forums?) We witness the return of the dominant third quarter. There is free beer.

And, everybody together now: What’s the only beer better than a dollar beer?

FREE BEER!

T.P. Watchdog: Hornets have a box stickied at the top of nola.com currently, where the main story usually is. I have never seen that.

• Attendance was 11,289.
• The Hornets lost to the Wizards.
• The Hornets are on a three game losing streak.

There is no hype. There is negative hype.

Last night, despite the 98-89 loss to the Spurs, we met up with some people off the HR boards at the airport. We had beers, jerseys, flags, and signs, which is really all you need when you are drinking in a cold parking lot off the back of the airport at 12:30 AM waiting for the team to come home. It was cool to put some faces to the names.

I got my Chris Paul jersey, which I won by correctly guessing his line in the All Star Game. Much excitement! Ryan Bowen rolled down his window to say hi, and most of the players waved and honked as they drove out of the gate. I now know that most of the players drive something sleek, expensive, and black. The better to stalk them, my friends. (I kid.) There was a tense moment when we thought security was coming in a long white car to kick us out of the lot, but it turned out it was just Gil’s wife. The TV guys thanked us for being out there, or commented that we were all crazy.

I’ve been called crazy for lesser causes. Geaux Hornets!

If I was a Hornet, I’d be pretty stoked about six people at the airport for a loss. That being said, I hope Chris Paul singlehandedly eats the Wizards’ souls tomorrow.

Quote of the Night:

“Did we see David West yet?”

“I think I saw him go by.”

“Which car?”

“A BMW?”

“That really narrows it down.”

“A black one?”

“Riiight.”

Ugh. The only positive thing about tonight’s game was Julian Wright. And, I suppose, the sellout. But mostly Julian Wright. He just comes off the bench with such energy and versatility. I wish we could give him more minutes instead of, say, Rasual Butler, who often seems invisible out there. He got 6th Man of the Game after playing for, seriously, what seemed to be only about 6-7 minutes.

Now that I think about it, that may say more about how the rest of the team played…

If you weren’t there for the pre-game warmup, Julian started off the night with a ferocious dunk off a pass to himself. Not to be outdone, Chris Paul followed up with a dunk of his own… which was pretty sick for someone his height. Then the whole team just started to screw around and dunk. Julian Wright’s were by far the most awesome, though. It had us cracking up. (It says something when the game’s most entertaining moment is in warmups…)

Our new guys were on the bench. I like Mike James’ fashion vibe, at least. Velvety blazer + jeans = slick. They seemed to get along with each other well, even though they didn’t talk as much to the other guys. Or maybe they were just laughing at the Hornets’ offense…

Besides Julian Wright, the only other moment in the game which provided me with a satisfactory level of entertainment was when David West stripped on the bench in the 1st quarter. Our row was kinda like, “Wait… did he just run off the court, take off his shorts, and run back on?” Three trainers attempted to block for him using towels. We couldn’t really figure out why, though the whole incident appeared to crack up Wright. Maybe they should use D West at the halftime show instead of the quick change artists.

This was one of the better early crowds I’ve seen this season. I attribute this to the Pre-Game Buzzfest outside the arena, which was helped out by the solidly temperate weather. If you haven’t been to a Buzzfest, you should. Dollar beers! The next one is scheduled for Friday, February 22nd, and the party starts rolling at 5:30.

Alternatively, you could buy season tickets for next year. Because that nets you free beers. And we all know the only beer better than a dollar beer is a free beer.

We hung our “THE BACK ROW BELIEVES” banner in its usual spot, but felt weird about it when we realized our fellow season ticket holder neighbors had been replaced tonight by a row of strangers. Well, guys, we believe, and since you’re sitting here, you’re gonna have to by default.

Chris Paul and David West did the intro for the game. Hilarious. CP thanked the fans for their support and said what an honor it is to be in the All Star Game (slightly disingenuous since they weren’t voted in, but I bet half the people in the crowd didn’t know the difference). Then he goes, “I’m sure D West wants to say something to y’all,” and holds out the mike, cracking up because he knows full well D West is freaked out by the idea of saying something to the crowd and is going nowhere near that mike. He shakes his head and throws a salute instead. Classic.

Hello, makeover! The arena is now sporting snazzy signs over every vendor. Signs with cute New Orleans-y names. Clearly this is being added to spice up the arena for the upcoming All Star Game. I hope we get to keep the upgrades when the NBA leaves. The concourse also now sports a couple of much nicer-looking bars.

The Hornets looked a bit lax after pulling out to an early 14-point lead. Playing without Tyson Chandler and Morris Peterson, they still never looked like they weren’t in control of the game. Final score Hornets 112, Grizzlies 99.

HypeMeter: As we speak, the headline on CNN/SI is “All That Buzz,” with a giant photo of Angry David West (might actually be slightly scarier than Angry Chris Paul, due to the size factor).

T.P. Watchdog: Times Picayune Sunday print edition has the better part of 5 pages devoted to the Hornets/All Star Game. Right on. Good job, friends. (See, I can bestow praise where praise is due.)

And one final note.

This was the first sellout of 2008. I like to think of it as the first sellout of the new era. I see a distinct, marked difference starting with the last three crowds. This dates back to the Spurs win, which I believe was the start of something special. If you were there at the Denver game the Monday after… you know you thought, “Wow.” I hope in the future we will be able to point to that game and say, “That’s when it started. And we never looked back.” I hope the hype is rolling, rolling like the Hornets are rolling and can’t be stopped. I hope the word spreads, that there is something happening with this team and this season that you don’t want to miss.

I hope.

And what keeps me hoping is this: Last night we saw New Orleans Arena sell out. And it wasn’t Kobe, it wasn’t LeBron. The Memphis Grizzlies? Please. The Grizzlies got nothing.

17, 231 people came last night to see the Hornets.

There was just this point where I felt it, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to jinx it. Sometime in the 4th quarter I just thought, “There is no way they lose this game.” Phoenix tied it up, and tied it up, and tied it up. The Hornets had lost three in a row. But not this one.

Chris Paul had 42 points, 9 assists, 8 steals and 1 turnover.

If there is any highlight show on TV not talking about that game tonight, they will be on my personal Shit List FOR LIFE. (As I was typing, it was the #1 play of the night on ESPN. If it was not, I was prepared to storm the building. And I mean fly personally to New York or wherever and storm the building. I am not even joking.)

Chris Paul. Peja. Double OT. 132-130 over Phoenix.

This is the top, baby. I can say no more.

It’s a good thing there is gin and tonic, and Battlestar Galactica Season One on DVD… because watching humanity get annihilated by killer robots = my mental state after that game. And the one before it. And the one before it.

I would add the Hornets defense to my Shit List, but that is not what this blog is about.

While watching replay of the State of the Union address and eating dessert…

Me: F*@k Bush. Is he talking about the Hornets? No.

Mike: (spits powdered sugar all over the glass coffee table)

We might be not quite sober. After one of the most fun Hornets crowds ever. And the 9th win in a row. I made a sign! Our section represented. (When I say I made a sign, I am talking like 2×12 feet. It was visible from the other side of the arena.) I’ll make sure to take pictures Wednesday.