GT: GAME 2 REDEMPTION CHA @ MIA Wed Apr 20 7:00 PM EST

[arthy704]

Game 3 we take it we are awesome at home no matter what team. Let's just get this one playoff win and call it day, then tank for 4 years straight for picks and hope we don't get relocated to Seattle.


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[316Hornets]

Whiteside is a much better FT shooter. He has been shooting over 75% FT since ASB on over 5 FTA/g.

That's a small sample size. I don't think a lot of players get that much better in such a short amount of time unless there has been some major change in his form?

If I'm Clifford, I'm sending Psycho T in there to deliver some hard fouls to Whiteside anytime he gets near the rim with the ball. If he get's ejected, no biggie. Whiteside is young and is exploitable, especially with leader Bosh M.I.A.

He changed his entire FT form. He literally just shoots his jumper at the line now lmao

In that case, just send Psycho T in there to get physical with Whiteside. Charlotte can't just keep letting him have his way in the post. I'm not saying to do anything flagrant, just don't play soft.

[bws94]

Batum leaving AA

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEcp6xcsCtj/

[arthy704]

Batum leaving AA

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEcp6xcsCtj/

That sucks watching him walk on like that knowing that the team need him for game 3.. **** man we never catch a break.

[TheKingofSting]

Batum leaving AA

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEcp6xcsCtj/

He would still be on crutches even on a sprain. I guess he will get tests done on it tomorrow. I hope tonight wasn't the last time we see him in a Charlotte uniform!


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[Flip Murray]

Marvin is going to play better at home. I hope

[316Hornets]

Batum being an upcoming free agent isn't going to rush back for sure. I don't think we'll see him for the next two home games at a minimum.

[MPM]

AAARGH! So f’ing frustrating. Just finished watching and apologies if I'm beating a dead horse on any of this - only looked at the last 4 pages or so of the thread.

First - No movement, no assists, no three pointers = no Hornets basketball. Big Al iso, Kemba hero ball, one on one to the hoop all game long. Shades of last year.

Second - Heat are making absolutely ridiculous shots. So frustrating – we played OK defense (OK). When the other team is being smiled upon like this, There is literally no way to win. Yes, we can step up our D a bit, but - more than anything - the Heat need to come back down to earth to make this any type of a series.

Third, despite Al’s low post wizardry – there is NO way we win a game featuring Alfense. We have zero chance. Yes, it’s fun watching Al toy with Whiteside, but we all know it doesn’t equate to winning basketball. It leads to us abandoning everything that got us to the playoffs (not that we aren't doing it with him on the bench as well). Unfortunately, when Al shows up offensively like this it only leads to more encores of “Al-Chilles Heel – the Steve Clifford Story” – It is no coincidence that we went on our mini-runs with Al on the bench. More Hawes, please. We need ball movement, not empty baskets, and as I’ve said before – Hawes/Zeller make us a better basketball TEAM. Al’s 2nd quarter is the best we will ever see of Al at this point – and we were sliding behind on the scoreboard when he was on the floor. He literally almost has to score every time he shoots to approach being a net positive.

Zeller early – love it. Played decent team ball to start the game with an aggressive Zeller.

Such dumb luck with Batum. Jeesh.

Kaminsky seems to regularly sag far too much into the paint on D.

Marv has been horrible - yes - but he's also not getting the same looks he was getting in the regular season due to abysmal movement on offense (and, of course, so sturdy D from the Heat)

Officiating wasn’t horrible, but the whistles were imbalanced. Meaning we were seeing some whistles at the beginning – but when it mattered – down the stretch - the Heat seemed to get some calls and non-calls. That Richardson offensive non-foul on Kemba? Refs should get suspended for such obvious nonsense like that.

Re: the heat – Richardson is a talent and is sooo long. Bright future. Dragic is smart with the ball in his hands. Wade has been and always will be unlikable. One of my least favorite players of all time. Finally, there are a lot of very passionate Heat fans in South Florida but very few passionate basketball fans. Quite a few empty lower bowl seats for a playoff game, and audible complaining about a few obvious fouls. AAA is not MSG. I lived there for nearly 15 years - had a hard time chatting basketball with anyone.

Finally - We better get back to Hornets basketball if we want ONE win. This Al/hero/ISO stuff isn’t going to do it.

EDIT: I just checked the box for the first time. 9 total assists? Are you frigging kidding me? Is that some kind of record?

[amcoolio]

The b-ball gods just hate us. Or just hate North Carolina in general. This franchise is the unluckiest in all of pro sports save the Browns. It doesn't matter what we do personnel or coaching wise, we are gonna lose. We could have drafted Winslow and he would have clanked every shot last night while the Heat's Kaminsky tore it up on him. We could've signed Whiteside and he would have torn his ACL a few games into the season. The Heat hitting every garbage shot they threw up last night was just sickening. Whiteside was swishing shots without even looking at the basket, Dragic and Deng making contested 3's, Winslow, who shoots worse than 2013 MKG, hitting all of his jumpshots....just sad really.

[Yit]

Tracking Players Performance (their GCP/their season average)

Playing above their average:
Walker (30/28), Jefferson (44/20), Lee (16/14)

Playing around their average (+/- 1):NA

Playing below their average:
Lin (11/17), Batum (13/24), Williams (7/20), Zeller (12/16), Kaminsky (6/12), Hawes (5/11)

Most of our players still haven't really upped their intensity (hey guys it's the playoffs! Stop playing like it's a regular season game!)

That said, Heat had shot at an incredible rate - I hope the rules of statistical norm will now work for us - i.e. they would suck at their shooting for next few games....

[bws94]

I'm going to say something radical. Do we always have to win by defense? Yes, we need to play way better D but what if someone else scored 20 last night to add with Kemba and Al? Marv, Batum, Lin, those guys need to score more. Actually, Marvin needs to score.

So we don't have Batum. Saturday, Marvin, Lin need to score along with Kemba and Al. 4 guys may need to put up some serious scoring numbers.

Win with O or D, but some games it may have to be with O. If Miami shoots lights out, we have to put the ball in the basket.

We also need to have assists. Our assists numbers are putrid in these playoffs.

Rain Saturday, please. Rain 3s.

[JDR720]

anyone doing game 3?

[fatlever]

anyone doing game 3?

I nominate you and your good luck Pokemon cards.

or maybe we need to go back to the half-assed GTs that we make with like one line "Big game. Batum, MKG out"

[JDR720]

anyone doing game 3?

I nominate you and your good luck Pokemon cards.

or maybe we need to go back to the half-assed GTs that we make with like one line "Big game. Batum, MKG out"

might need to ask Dagon the fish god if he can make the basketball and the bathroom gods to stop being mean to us

[Braggins]

The Heat hitting every garbage shot they threw up last night was just sickening. Whiteside was swishing shots without even looking at the basket, Dragic and Deng making contested 3's, Winslow, who shoots worse than 2013 MKG, hitting all of his jumpshots....just sad really.

The way the Heat are playing reminds me of when you are playing NBA2k and the game randomly decides that the cpu team is going to win no matter what. The Heat are the cpu team. They hold the ball and don't do anything for like 20 seconds on offense and then at the last second a random person shoots a terrible fully contested fadeaway and hits it like every time.

[MPM]

The Heat hitting every garbage shot they threw up last night was just sickening. Whiteside was swishing shots without even looking at the basket, Dragic and Deng making contested 3's, Winslow, who shoots worse than 2013 MKG, hitting all of his jumpshots....just sad really.

The way the Heat are playing reminds me of when you are playing NBA2k and the game randomly decides that the cpu team is going to win no matter what. The Heat are the cpu team. They hold the ball and don't do anything for like 20 seconds on offense and then at the last second a random person shoots a terrible fully contested fadeaway and hits it like every time.

Precisely! And it's twice as maddening in real life.

[fatlever]

http://www.nba.com/heat/newsrecap/story-sustainability

[Cheeze]

The Heat are in the Hornets's head. In the article Fats linked, the author pointed out that Charlotte began fighting over screens when Goran Dragic worked the pick and roll after Dragic hit some threes, which was contrary to their game plan. The plan was to let Dragic shoot the long ball (a statistical weakness) and not drive into the paint (his strength). Hornets players abandoned the game plan and Miami gained a psychological victory.

The Heat got into their head.

Oh, and system coaches lose in the playoffs. Star players do the winning, not systems. Clifford is leaning too much on his system - just like the Van Gundy's. Better hope Charlotte gets a star player or two someday (not Batum, who's a great complimentary player) to overcome the coaching handicap.