Bringing Back the Buzz: Zo & '92-93 Hornets

[studbucket]

(2)Memphis beating (5)Oklahoma City 2-1
Game 1 – Memphis got a dominant win, entering the 2^nd quarter up by 14 and halftime by 28 before coasting to a 109-90 victory. Rudy Gay wasn’t much of a facto, but Z-Bo and Gasol had double-doubles (14 rebounds a piece) and no Thunder players outside of Durant and Westbrook could generate any offense.

Game 2 – The Thunder played much better in game 2, stealing home court advantage from the Grizzlies with a 109-99 win. Serge Ibaka got 23 and 11 to go along with Durant’s 24-10 double-double and Westbrook’s 33-10-10 triple double. Ibaka and Durant also each had 5 blocks and the Thunder had 5 players with double digit rebounds. The Grizzlies interior game was stifled as Gasol was held to 13 and 6, and nobody scored more than 19 points.

Game 3 – In a defensive battle, a team effort from the Grizzlies got the victory as their starting 5 combined for 89 points and held Durant and Westbrook to a combined 42 points as they recovered home court advantage.

(1)Charlotte beating (3)Atlanta 3-0
Game 2 - Larry Johnson had 35 points, Alonzo Mourning had 20 rebounds, and the 2 stars combined for 7 blocks to lead the Hornets to a relatively easy 108-91 victory in game 2.

Game 3 – The story remained the same in Atlanta, as the Hornets took a 20 point lead into the 4^th and won 107-100 in the back of double-doubles from Mourning and Johnson and a combined 49 points, 16 rebounds, and 19 assists from Curry, Sessions, Gill, and Bradley. Unfortunately for the Hornets, Taj Gibson tore his triceps and is out for the season.

[studbucket]

The Hornets are now 7-0 on the season against the Hawks, and the Charlotte faithful are looking forward to the NBA Finals. It’s been a remarkable run, and it would take an epic collapse for it to be ruined now.

It was all Hornets in the first quarter, starting right with the opening tip. Mourning knocked it back to Grandmama, and as the Hawks settled in on defense, he ran by his guy into a wide open lane for an emphatic slam. The fun continued for the Hornets as Dell Curry had 3 total steals, including some on back to back possessions that helped lead to a 26-13 lead midway through the first.

However, without Taj Gibson, the Hornets bench unit suffered and couldn’t score, and let the Hawks get closer as the first quarter finished 33-26.

After some sloppy play and a missed dunk from Zo, the Hawks tied it up at 43, representing a huge comeback. Coach J called a timeout, calmed down his team, and they came back to take a 54-47 lead into halftime. From there, it was all Hornets. Doubling Kendall Gill resulted in a lot of open shots for teammates and the Hornets coasted to an easy win and an NBA finals berth against either the Thunder or Grizzlies.

Zo controlled the paint, and Johnson and Gill were once again the key offensive forces for the hornets as they combined for 48 points and 16 assists.

Western Conference Finals
Out West, the Thunder won game 4 in a defensive effort, holding Rudy Gay to 13 and Gasol to 9, which evened the series back at 2.

The Thunder then went back to Memphis and won game 5, despite Randolph and Gasol playing well, but 33 from Durant and 30 from Ibaka overshadowed that. In game 6, the Thunder closed out the series with a third straight win as Durant, Westbrook, and Cameron Payne combined for 96 points and they eked out a 3 point win at home.

[studbucket]

What’s more impressive? A team that has swept two series and only played 15 games to get to the finals? Or a team that has beaten 3 very tough and talented opponents, all in less than 7 games? The sense among many people is that the path through the playoffs for the Thunder has meant more than the Hornets, and despite the Hornets having won 20 more regular season games, Oklahoma City is getting a lot of movement in Vegas.

Team Comparison

Team	Charlotte Hornets	Oklahoma City Thunder
Seed	1	5
Record	71-11	47-35
Playoff Opponents	Celtics (4-0); Heat (4-3); Hawks (4-0)	Warriors (4-1); Rockets (4-2); Grizzlies (4-2)
Points scored	109.8 (1st)	106.4 (7th)
Points allowed	96.4 (1st)	101.9 (11th)
Strengths	Frontcourt; rebounding	Backcourt; ball safety
Weaknesses	Bench scoring; wing defense; turnovers	Bench scoring;

Key Matchups
Kevin Durant vs Hornets’ wing players – Durant has led both the regular season and playoffs in scoring and everyone knows he’s a bona fide star. The Hornets have also struggled with athletic wing scorers all season. We saw it in round 2 as Gerald Green had a great series. Coach J can’t hope to stop Durant, but limiting his effectiveness has got to be top priority for him and his team. Kendall Gill may be an athletic match for Durant, but his defense is just average, and he’s about 6 inches shorter. The best matchup may be the former Oklahoma City man: Andre Roberson.

Larry Johnson vs Serge Ibaka – The League MVP against one of the most athletic big men in the league. It’s an intriguing matchup, as Johnson has used his speed and strength to outmaneuver nearly every opponent this season, but Ibaka may be a very tough matchup for the super sophomore.

Enes Kanter vs Alonzo Mourning - With the injury to Steven Adams, Kanter stepped in and has played relatively well and has averaged 11.6 points and 11.0 rebounds. However, he’s a defensive liability and Mourning has been a force on both ends of the court this season. Even though he’s been less of a focus this postseason, Mourning has one of the better matchups for the Hornets in this series and the Hornets may want to alter their offensive strategy.

Hornets bench vs Thunder bench – The Hornets bench contributed a league-last 23.8% of their points, and the Thunder weren’t much better at 26.1%. Both teams struggled to get points off of the bench, and it’ll be even harder in the finals with the injuries that have hit both teams. Will either coach make changes to their rotation to take advantage of the other’s weakness? Will one of the defenses play better than the other?

Under-Rated Sub Plot: Kevin Lynch and Andre Roberson
In early December, and injury to Taj Gibson (déjà vu, right?) caused Coach J to make several trades. One of those trades was with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The two teams swapped 2016 first rounders and exchanged SG Kevin Lynch for SF Andre Roberson. Kevin Lynch was unused and unwanted in Charlotte and Andre Roberson’s expiring contract and offensive deficiencies made him easy to unload for the Thunder.

It turns out the trade was mutually beneficial, as injuries have forced Kevin Lynch into the starting lineup where he’s been competent and even had a few scoring outbursts. Roberson has been a key role player for the Hornets and even been deployed as a starter to shut down some tougher wing matchups like LeBron James.

Prediction
Hornets in 7 games. It’s looking to be a very good series. In the regular season, the Hornets won the last matchup handily, 111-88, but that was back in January. The Thunder have been on a roll, and as good as Mourning, Johnson, and Gill have been, they aren’t quite the stars that Durant and Westbrook are. However, in what looks to be a very even matchup, there’s one area that’s not real even: coaching. Coach J has shown a remarkable ability to make just the right tactical change throughout the year to help the Hornets compete with many different teams, and we just haven’t seen that from Billy Donovan.

[studbucket]

Well, this NBA Finals certainly hasn't gone how I predicted. Huge game 1 recap coming up, to be followed by the summary of the simulated games.

I may even create some gifs (thanks Trek for the inspiration) and include some still photos like many of the other great dynasty blogs here at OS do.

[studbucket]

NBA fans everywhere are buzzing with anticipation as we enter the first game of the 2016 NBA Finals. Would the up-and-coming Hornets actually be able to deliver under the intense pressure of the Finals? Would the Thunder finally get a title in what may be Durant’s last year in Oklahoma City? This wasn’t the Finals matchup everyone was predicting, but everyone can agree that it’s hard to imagine a much more interesting matchup, both on the court and off.

When the starting lineups were announced, one first year coach (Donovan) kept things stable, while the other (Coach J) mixed things up. Kendall Gill was moved to SG, Andre Roberson starts at the 3, and Dell Curry starts on the bench. It’s assumed there are three possible advantages this provides Charlotte:

1. Better defense on Durant (from Roberson)
2. Better bench scoring because of Dell Curry
3. A good matchup for Kendall Gill (being guarded by Kevin Lynch)

We’ll see if these prove to be good moves or if Coach J has out-thought himself.

The game started very slowly. After 3 minutes, the score was 4-1 Thunder, and you started to wonder if it was just nerves or if the Hornets were struggling to adapt to their new lineup or the Thunder’s defensive strategy. Shot started falling, but none of them were from the stars as both defenses played great, generating 4 steals in 4 minutes.

Eventually the Hornets got into a rhythm, and they treated the crowd to some high-flying offense while the Thunder continued to struggle until Roberson was subbed out. Once Gill had to guard Durant, he started getting better looks. However, any positives from Durant were overshadowed by the fantastic performance Dell Curry put on coming off the bench. Coach J looked like a genius as Curry had 7 points in his substitute appearance in the first quarter, and helped lead the Hornets to a 35-22 first quarter lead.

The second quarter ended up being more of the same. The Hornets doubled Westbrook and Durant any time they moved, and it resulted in a bulk of the offensive production falling on the Thunder big men. Sometimes this worked well, for easy lay-ins or trips to the free throw line. However, it too often resulted in missed shots and turnovers, both of which led to a Hornets fast break. The Thunder’s second unit was woeful, and was characterized aptly by 2 things:

1. Steven Adams played despite being concussed, and managed to pick up 4 fouls in the first half, despite being a sub
2. DJ Augustin threw a pass to Mitch McGary, who was 10 feet away on the wing. The ball hit his foot and went out of bounds, in what was a terrible unforced error by Augustin.

Westbrook was relatively ineffective for the Thunder, tallying 4 points, 7 assists, and 3 fouls in the first half. Durant and Kanter had 11 apiece for OKC, while Mourning had 18 points and 6 rebounds, leading the Hornets to a 70-47 first half lead.

The Hornets high-flying offense showed up after a few minutes of stagnation

Unhappy with being marginalized, Westbrook threw down a monstrous slam dunk over Dell Curry just 10 seconds into 2^nd half. However, that was not a vision of what was to come as the game stayed about the same, even though Durant was able to score more, none of his teammates really helped much. In a last ditch effort, Donovan changed his rotation to get Durant and Westbrook onto the floor at the same time as the Hornets reserves. It was relatively effective, but a slower-paced offense from Charlotte and lights-out shooting from Dell Curry (9 points in last 3 minutes of 3^rd) kept the Hornets comfortably ahead. They entered the 4^th quarter up 95-78, and the rested starters coasted to an easy victory.

Mourning was a steady presence for the Hornets, controlling the interior with some help from Cole Aldrich. In 31 minutes, Zo scored 30 points, had 8 rebounds, and 2 monster rejections. Dell Curry scored 23 points coming off of the bench, Andre Roberson had a career-best 12 assists. Oh, and LJ had 25 points and 11 boards, no biggie. Durant didn’t play poorly, but Coach J’s gameplan worked well, as Durant had 28 points on 12-25 shooting and the #2 scorer for the Thunder was Enes Kanter with 25. Russell Westbrook had 16 points, 1 rebound, and 16 assists. A great game for a league average point guard, but Westbrook has got to be frustrated with the lack of impact he had and his 6-18 shooting.

Coach J’s changes were spot on this game, as Gill, Curry, and Roberson all stepped up. How will Donovan change things up with game 2? The Hornets were just toying with the Thunder at the end of the game, and you know Westbrook is not happy with the showboating from rookie Mourning and former teammate Roberson. The Hornets won nearly every key matchup this game, and Kevin Lynch and the Thunder bench were complete non-factors compared to Roberson and the Hornets’ reserves. That’s going to have to change for the Thunder to have a chance going forward.

[studbucket]

As I mentioned early in the thread, I play game 1 and all elimination games in the playoffs, so these are the games I simmed.

Game 2 – Hornets 102, Thunder 86
Another game, and another bad start from OKC as Charlotte controlled the tempo and went up 37-24 after the first quarter. Things slowed down for both teams in the 2^nd quarter, but OKC only scored 16 points, and was now down 62-40 at half. It was looking dire for the Thunder again, and it didn’t get any better in the second half, as the Hornets dominated the game, were up 24 going into the 4^th and coasted to a victory. 30 points and 16 rebounds from Larry Johnson led the way for Charlotte, while no Thunder player scored more than 19 (Durant).

Game 3 – Hornets 137, Thunder 95
The series came back to Oklahoma City, but it was more of the same. Charlotte charged out to a 41-25 first quarter lead, with Larry Johnson finishing the quarter with 8 assists to go along with 8 points. The Hornets had a 20 point lead at half, with bench players Curry and Aldrich leading the team with 14 points apiece. Anthony Morrow is back in the rotation for OKC and Kevin Lynch is inactive, but his 14 first half points made little difference for the home team.

Instead of taking their foot off of the gas, the Hornets showed a killer instinct and scored 45 in the 3^rd and had a remarkable 116 points before the 4^th quarter even started! It all added up to a ridiculously dominant 137-95 victory for the young Hornets, who look almost 100% certain to win their first NBA title. Johnson’s 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 17 assists led the team, but everyone chipped in for this victory.

What do you think about all this Andre Roberson?


For game 4, I am going to up my difficulty and use ThatMichiganFan’s sliders. We’ll see how it goes

[studbucket]

As we head into game 4, all of Charlotte is on cloud nine, and most of the NBA can’t believe what they are seeing. A team with a losing record last year, with a brand new hotshot head coach and three stars under 24 has both reeled off 54 straight wins and come within 1 game of sweeping the Thunder to secure their first championship.

However unlikely it is that the Thunder will win this series, the game still needs to be played, and if anyone could come back, it’s this Thunder team. It may be the last time we see Durant and Westbrook playing together, and both are very proud players, who’ve been hampered by 5 years of poor coaching and management.

Billy Donovan, still can’t seem to figure out what he wants to do. After giving Morrow more minutes and relegating Lynch to inactive for game 3, Lynch is now back in the starting lineup and Morrow’s on the bench.

Will the Hornets be raising this after the game?

The game started off in a very entertaining manner. Gone were the sloppy first quarters we’d seen from the Hornets, instead there was great shooting and solid defense from both sides. Kendall Gill started out 4-4 with 9 points, but was getting plenty of other players involved as the Thunder were still doubling him and Johnson.

The Thunder made their first subs, giving Durant a rest but keeping Westbrook on, and Coach J reacted accordingly, giving Johnson and Bradley a rest while keeping Gill and Mourning on. As the first half ended in a 26-26 tie, he hoped that this rotation could help his team afloat in the second quarter.

Unfortunately the for the Hornets, the Thunder started the 2^nd quarter on fire. After a 10-0 run, Coach J had to call a timeout and regroup his guys. After that, the game went back and forth before Charlotte managed to get ahead by 8. They should have gone into half up by 8, but a sloppy last 30 seconds gave the Thunder an easy 3 points and the game was 58-53 at half.

It’s said that in the NBA, the only thing fans need to tune in for is the 4^th quarter, but they would have missed a lot if they had done so here. The 3^rd quarter was a high-scoring back and forth affair, featuring lead changes every minute and 72 combined points. Kevin Durant was on fire and carrying the Thunder, and Charlotte held on for dear life as the quarter ended 92-91, with the Thunder leading.

The 4^th quarter played exactly the same as the third, with nobody able to establish a permanent. It was still a 1 point game with 3 minutes to play, and Coach J subbed out Andre Roberson for Dell Curry. Durant had been so hot, it doesn’t matter who guarded him, and the Hornets were looking for some more scoring.

It may have been Curry, or it may have been coincidence, but that’s when things started looking good for the Hornets. First, Adams fouled out, putting Kanter back in the game, and the Lynch-Kanter combination led to this magical moment:

You were passing to me?

Westbrook was hustling like crazy and getting putbacks and great looks, but his legs eventually betrayed him and he missed 2 bunnies and Curry followed that up with a clutch 3 pointer. This gave the Hornets a 2 point lead going into the last minute.

Gill missed an acrobatic layup and in the ensuing confusion by the Hornets, Westbrook found himself wide open for a three…that clanged off the back of the iron. With 25 seconds left and down by 2, the Thunder had to start fouling.

After Bradley converted 2 and Kanter and Mourning only went 1-2 on their shots, Durant hit a beautiful long two to cut the Hornets lead to 125-123. Kendall Gill went to the line and hit both free throws to give the Hornets a 4 point lead with 8 seconds left. Any chance the Thunder had to win the game was wasted when they managed to play hot potato and not even get a shot off. 127-123, the Hornets are your champions!

On a night when Larry Johnson struggled to get going, Alonzo Mourning was steady and sure for the Hornets with a game leading 37 points and 13 rebounds. They were also helped by a 15 point first half from Avery Bradley, a hot start from Kendall Gill, and some key baskets from subs Aldrich and Curry.

Kevin Durant should once again be applauded for his hard work, as he was nigh-unstoppable in the 3^rd quarter on his way to 32 points, 6 assists, 5 steals, 4 rebounds, and a block. However, he was once again let down by his teammates, including Russell Westbrook. At first glance, Westbrook’s game seemed fine, as he had 20 points and 12 assists, but a closer look shows that he went 7-25 from the field, including 1-7 from deep (as opposed to Durant’s 5-7 from three).

[studbucket]

The Finals MVP was Larry Johnson



Bradley and Gill revel in their victory.



The superstars show off their hardware.