New Orleans Hornets
NEW YORK ? The Linsanity has ended. At least temporarily, stopped in its tracks by perhaps the most unlikely of opponents, the Hornets.
Frank Franklin II / The Associated PressThe Hornets' Xavier Henry, right, defends a shot by New York's Tyson Chandler during that first half. The Hornets went into the game intent on being physical against the Knicks.
New Orleans scored a wire-to-wire victory at Madison Square Garden on Friday night against worldwide sensation Jeremy Lin and the Knicks, 89-85, sending a sellout crowd of 19,763 home spent and disappointed.
The Hornets got their third victory in a row, a season-best after losing 23 of 25 before the start of this week, and stopped New York?s Lin-inspired seven-game winning streak.
Trevor Ariza led the Hornets with 25 points. Gustavo Ayon had 13 and 10 rebounds, his second consecutive double-double. Ayon?s driving layup off a pass from Chris Kaman with 37 seconds to go gave the Hornets a 84-80 lead, just the cushion New Orleans needed.
Lin had 26 points for the Knicks, as did forward Amar?e Stoudemire, but also committed nine turnovers. New York committed 21, which New Orleans converted into 28 points.
?It is special,? said Hornets point guard Greivis Vasquez, who got the start against Lin and helped force Lin?s sloppy play. Vasquez had 15 points and 11 assists, with just three turnovers. ?I think Jeremy is a great player, but it?s more special because of what we?ve gone through as a team and what we?re doing right now. We care about each other so much. We kept fighting and will continue to fight, and coming here and getting this win means a lot. It kind of gives us an identity. You can see what type of team we are. We defend and play hard, no matter what. The city of New Orleans is supporting us, and we?re just going to continue to grow and get better.?
The Hornets dominated the first and third quarters, building leads of 14, wrapped around a Knicks push in the second, then gamely held on for the win.
In the past, the Hornets had difficulty dealing with an opponent?s run. But Friday night, especially in the third quarter, New Orleans answered New York?s push, quieting the Garden crowd between its bouts of Linsanity.
?It was a just a lackluster effort on my part,? Lin said. ?Carless with the ball. Nine turnovers is, obviously, never gong to get it done from your primary ball-handler. It?s on me in terms of taking care of the ball and the game in general.?
The Knicks pressured the Hornets late, outscoring New Orleans 27-21 in the fourth quarter. But the Hornets proved resilient, not giving up the lead and not being tied. New York cut the lead to 82-80 with 1:06 remaining on two Lin free throws.
Then, on the next possession, Ayon drove to the hoop, where he received a pass from Chris Kaman, and Ayon laid the ball in for a four-point edge. The Knicks didn?t get closer than three the rest of the way.
?I just think when you play as hard as we do, and you add the kind of defense we did tonight, they missed some shots, but the grit was there, and I thought we played hard all night long,? Hornets Coach Monty Williams said. ?We had some lulls in the second and a little bit in the fourth, but when you play that kind of defense, holding that team to 13 points in the first quarter and 19 in the third, you set yourself up to have a chance. We had contributions from everybody.?
There was a palpable excitement each time Lin touched the ball, the Knicks finally discovering a point guard, which they originally thought might come from New Orleans.
What a different scene it was in Madison Square Garden 11 1/2 months after the Hornets last played here. The dichotomy was striking.
Last March, Knicks fans crowded behind the New Orleans bench, cell-phone cameras aimed at the Hornets? point guard they all figured would be wearing the No. 3 of blue and orange by this time.
But the much ballyhooed union of Carmelo Anthony, Stoudemire and Chris Paul didn?t materialize, much to the chagrin of the New York media contingent that mentioned that potential marriage as often as they could.
On Friday night, there was no love for anyone wearing New Orleans? uniform. The dressing room occupied by the Hornets, newly expanded in the renovated Garden, was hardly inundated with media, and Williams chatted with three reporters in the hallway outside the locker room compared to a crush nearing 100 a year ago.
?They were long, and they did defend well,? said Knicks Coach Mike D?Antoni of Lin?s difficulties. ?I told him he was trying to make the hardest pass out there. He was trying to make the home-run pass. When they collapse so much, he has to kick, but at the same time we weren?t making the outside shots. He?ll learn. He adjusted. He had one turnover in the second half and played well. We had to come up with stops, and we didn?t.?
Although Lin?s erratic inexperience was on display, he appears to be a dominant right-handed player who is uncomfortable if forced to his left.
?We just played great team defense; I wasn?t guarding him by myself,? said Vasquez. ?Our team, as a team, did a great job. This is the NBA. The kid is good. I love his passion. And what I love about him is he?s so humble. He deserves everything he?s got right now and everything he?s going through.?
Beyond the box score: New Orleans Hornets vs. New York Knicks Copyright 2012 NOLA.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Haha for real? They called 25 fouls against the Hornets and sent NY to the line 29 times. If the game was fixed, it was fixed in NY's favor. The "jump ball" call on the in-bounds play with 3 seconds left pretty much said it all. I've never seen the refs not call a foul in that situation where the offensive player wraps the ball up and gets crowded and slapped by the defender.
If he dribbles (or even pivots) there instead of cradling the ball, he improves his chance of getting a foul call there. It was the correct call by the refs and a dumb basketball play by Belinelli. We had several of those tonight down the stretch (how you nearly fail an inbounds play TWICE, I'll never know). Thank heavens we jumped out on them early and made enough shots to hold on late, or tonight's game goes in the L column.
Damn Right! to all the haters, don't overlook the losing record and think we are gonna lay down, not happening...this team has good role players and plays very hard...Linsanity got smacked back into reality check...Hornets need to keep Kaman aka "caveman" on the team; we need that veteran leadership and he needs to be our starting center for rest of season and beyond...we are just a few pieces away from being a very good team...draft will help and looking forward to it...2 #1's get a franchise point guard, get either jared sullinger from ohio state or anthony davis from kentucky along with eric gordon...the future is bright for hornets...great job with victory over knicks..keep playing hard...geaux hornets!
I'm glad the Hornets won this game. The Hornets may not be winning a lot of games this year but this win, with the media going all goo goo gaa gaa over Lin the past few weeks was a big fat **** *** to all of em. That'll teach em to look down their noses at us. Even if the Hornets don't win anymore games this month, I'm happy they got this one.
Congratulations to the Hornets. I'm glad they won if only to shut up this rediculously lame "Linsanity." A certain cable sports network acts as though New York is the center of the universe. I saw the game and Lin played pretty well. But to see all those talking heads beat this new buzz word to death ws driving me up a wall. It's very reminiscent of Eric "Man-genius." Anyone remember that? National media seems to love taking average New York sports personalities and turn them into living legends. The Knicks has a seven game win streak due in no small part to Lin and that was cause to drive everyone crazy with their mildly amusing nickname? Well the Hornets may be going nowhere fast but the Knicks are still trying to get to .500.
How's Eric Man-genius doing in Cleveland now? Don't forget the superlative quarterback Mark "Sanchize," and the amount of time wasted on the hot air of that bully and braggart, Rex Ryan. Revis might be the real deal but who really cares about the Jets? My two cents, worth every penny.
Yes they have. Congratulations to them. They did what the Saints couldn't. But Manning strikes me as more of a game manager than anything. He and Coughlin looked great in the postseason mostly because of that front four they have.
As one who will always say, "I'M IN"... no matter what others may say or think of me. THIS IS MY TEAM and THIS WIN is exactly why having this team is good for the entire metropolitan New Orleans area.
Why? because this win was not only against the Knicks, not only to shut down the Linsanity, if for only one ESPN highlight reel.... but to beat the "Linsanity" led Knicks... in their arena...IN NEW YORK! The entire media epicenter, that NYC is, not to mention ESPN, NBA-TV and others saw that "NOLA" is here... to stay!
Yeah, it was only one win, but MY TEAM reached up and "b|+ch slapped" the Knicks... all while representing the Crescent City in that "NOLA" jersey.
Good post Space. Are the games well attended in NOLA? If i lived in NOLA i would be at the most of them. New Orleans support your team. Go Hornets.
Some are, most aren't. I've been to two games, a number that would be higher if work permitted so. Admittedly, I went to one game primarily to troll an opposing player, though I still had a good time.
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