SIMULBLOG FOR SONICS V. HORNETS

Hornets 77 Sonics 73 at the end of 3 Quarters
Hornets are shooting 30 of 60 on the game. This is the 28th best shooting team in the NBA playing without both of their point guards
Sonics may need to go Evans and Collison to finish and win this game
Since the Sonics starting playing the young bigs the other teams bigs have been putting up big numbers – West has 16-8 and Brown 13-7


Sonics 69 Hornets 67 with 2:37 left in the 3rd Quarter
Sonics offensively are taking advantage of the overplay on Allen to get easy looks in the paint and finding open cutters
Chris Paul tired to return but was unable to go and Speddy Claxton is still out of the game.
The Hornets can’t run the offense without either of their point guards,
The Sonics should run away here at some point.


Sonics 47 Hornets 47 at the half
The Hornets lost Speedy Claxton early in the first half when he got hit in the eye.
Chris Paul drove aggressively to the basket and fell hard when Collison took a charge.
The Hornets scored 38 points in the first 15 minutes of the game and without both point guards they scored just 9 in the next 9 minutes.


Hornets 38 Sonics 22 8:54 left in the 2nd Quarter
12-2 run and the rout is on.
The Sonics have been down double figures at this point in every game of the road trip.
Petro is a disaster on defense. He isn’t feeling where people are and he is a poor rebounder
The effort is questionable again tonight


Hornets 26 Sonics 20 at the end of 1 Quarter
Flip Murray comes into the game and the first possession he is in the game he catches the ball on the inbound and then proceeds to never pass on the possessions and drive to the basket and misses. That has to do wonders for team chemistry.
Hornets shot 52%
No Vlady again tonight


Hornets 19 Sonics 13 with 5:18 left in the 1st Quarter
I love Chris Paul. He is amazing. He is in total control.
Everyone is talking about comparisons and the most common name is Kevin Johnson which is pretty good, but he reminds me a bit of Kidd with his open floor vision.
His ability to move the defense with a subtle drift to one side which opens up the back side is a veteran move. He is outstanding.
The Sonics are a poor weakside defensive team and Paul is exploiting it.