Adventures of the swat team
Not too surprisingly, one of the leading scorers for the New Orleans Hornets tonight was someone named Chris. I admit to having more than a little trouble adjusting to the post-CP3 Bees — more than half of their roster was replaced in the off-season — but they’re no slouches. For one thing, that’s Chris Kaman with 17 points. (Carl Landry had 17 more.) For another, they pulled down more rebounds than the Thunder, 42-36. But the Hornets seem way inconsistent: after thrashing the Nuggets in Denver night before last, they fell to those rotters from Oklahoma City, 95-85.
It was, of course, a long way from inevitable. New Orleans jumped out to a ten-point lead in the first quarter, and after falling behind by 12 halfway through the third, managed to pull to within three at the start of the fourth. But the Thunder’s throw-everything-against-the-wall approach — what can you say about a night when Kendrick Perkins gets an assist and no technicals? — paid off once more. OKC was fairly lousy with the long ball, hitting seven of 20, but the Hornets connected on only one of 16. Scott Brooks clearly has “perimeter defense” bookmarked somewhere. And no, we didn’t see Eric Gordon tonight, but I’m thinking it wouldn’t have mattered that much.
And you know, Kevin Durant looked a fair bit fatigued from time to time. Didn’t stop him from dropping in 29 points and grabbing ten rebounds. Add 22 from Russell Westbrook, and hey, it’s Batman and Robin all over again. Nominations for Commissioner Gordon are being accepted.
The Knicks come in Saturday night, followed by three road games against Eastern teams: Boston, Washington and New Jersey, the last on another Saturday, meaning four games in the next ten days. Considering the last ten days featured seven Thunder games, you can practically call this a vacation. Not.
