1/16/13
The 76ers finally won their last game against the Houston
Rockets. Could this game against the Hornets start a winning streak or could
they be the same as they’ve been all year and be inconsistent? The Hornets are
a scrappy defensive minded team and have as bad of an offense as the 76ers do. The
last time these two teams met, the 76ers won, but it was a terrible low scoring
win that was shown on ESPN. Also during that game, the Hornets did not have
their best players in the game due to injuries. Eric Gordon, Anthony Davis, and
Austin Rivers all did not play in the last meeting. This time, those three
players played in the game last night. Would they have made a difference?
New Orleans had a strong first half. In the first quarter,
it felt like they couldn’t miss a shot. They shot 76% in the quarter and scored
35 points. The 35 points was a season high for the Hornets in points scored in
any first quarter this year. The second quarter was a reality check because we
were seeing both teams having an inability to score a lot of points. The big
advantage for the Hornets was rebounding. They had a 23-15 edge in rebounding. At
halftime the Hornets led 53-47. Jrue Holiday led the 76ers with 12 points and
nine assists in the half. Gordon and Greivis Vasquez both led the Hornets with
11 points. All three of the players I mentioned had terrific shooting halves.
The 76ers had a terrible second half. They have been having
this bad stretch of keeping the game close in the first half, but the opposing
team blows them out in the third quarter. When the 76ers were being blown out
by as many as 18 points, they didn’t give up. They kept fighting back in this
game. Nick Young added that spark off the bench scoring 14 points in 12 minutes
and made this game go from an 18 point lead to an eight point Hornets lead.
However, that rally in the fourth quarter fell short and the Hornets took
control of this game. The Hornets won this game by a final score of 111-99.
Holiday had a double-double in this game. He finished with 29 points and 11
assists. Evan Turner scored 14 points and secured seven rebounds. Thaddeus
Young ended with 12 points. Vasquez led the Hornets with 23 points and nine
assists in this game. Gordon finished with 19 points. Ryan Anderson scored 14
points and snatched nine rebounds coming off the bench. Xavier Henry ended with
11 points. Anthony Davis, the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, finished
with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Overall, the 76ers were outplayed in every facet of the
game. They didn’t feel like playing defense at all and the offense would show
up in spurts. Nick Young, who was benched in their previous game vs Houston due
to wanting a defensive identity off the bench, was one of two players who
really showed up for the 76ers. The 76ers had Royal Ivey and Damien Wilkins
play over Nick Young because of their defense. I’m wondering if Nick Young was
motivated by being benched for a game because it looked like he was. I may
sound repetitive, but the 76ers did not go to the free throw line a lot. That’s
not as big of a deal as it may sound because they were outrebounded in this
game 48-32. No team can win when they get outrebounded by that margin. The
other terrible thing about the 76ers, their centers had a total of two
rebounds. That’s unacceptable when their job is to rebound the basketball.
Can it get any worse
than this for the 76ers? Sound off and stay tuned on Friday when the 76ers host
the Toronto Raptors.
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