March badness continues

The Nuggets led after the first quarter, 34-16, and that was pretty much it. The Hornets actually outscored Denver by three the rest of the way, winning the second and fourth quarters, which didn't matter in the least: Nuggets 109, Hornets 94, and now it's eight in a row.

The three-ball was the Holy Grail tonight. There were forty-three three-point attempts: the Hornets made five, or as many as Greg Buckner made all by himself. Buckner had 19 points off the bench; add 28 from Carmelo Anthony and 17 each from Kenyon Martin and Andre Miller, and you'll wonder if the Bees brought any defense.

Which, in fact, they did: they outrebounded the Nuggets, 43-39. The big difference, aside from Denver's trey surplus — they had eight — was an inordinate number of Hornet turnovers (sixteen, versus ten for the Nuggets) and the ongoing below-average field-goal percentage (41.5, while Denver hit 48.2 percent).

Still, five Hornets made double digits, led by David West with 24 and Kirk Snyder with 12. CP3 pulled another double-double — 11 points, 10 assists — and off the bench, Marc Jackson picked up 10 and Linton Johnson scored 11 before fouling out. P. J. Brown had 8 points and 10 rebounds.

Another good turnout in New Orleans. But as Byron Scott says, playing 36 minutes of solid basketball is just not enough.

Posted at 9:39 PM to Net Proceeds