Like most NBA fans living outside the greater San Antonio area, I was rooting for the Hornets last night. I always like to see new blood deep in the playoffs and I was excited about the prospect of a Lakers/Hornets series pitting the top two MVP candidates against each other.
Alas, it was not to be. A horrid third quarter did New Orleans in, and although they made a furious comeback in the fourth, the hole they dug was just too deep. I have to give a ton of credit to the Spurs, who made several adjustments between Game 2 and Game 3 that made life a lot tougher for the Hornets. They played terrific defense and Gregg Popovich should be lauded for having the trust in Robert Horry and Michael Finley, who hit some big shots down the stretch to keep the Hornets at bay.
But New Orleans had the advantage heading into the game. It was at home where they had already blown out the Spurs three times in the series. What went wrong?
It starts with Chris Paul. Though he had a near triple-double (18 points, 14 assists and eight boards), he wasn’t aggressive enough when the team went through its scoring draught. As a facilitator, it can be tough to know when to take over, and it wasn’t like Paul was getting great looks whenever he wanted. Next on the list is David West. After a third quarter where he made just two of seven shots, he only took two shots in the fourth. By the end of the game it was clear that his back was bothering him, so it’s hard to put too much blame on the young forward’s shoulders.
Now Peja Stojakovic is another matter. He missed all four of his shots in the second half, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if he’s getting open, but only one of those shots was a decent look. The other three were catch-and-fire jumpers early in the shot clock with a hand in his face. His performance brought back memories of the Game 7 debacle against the Lakers in the 2002 playoffs, where a late-fourth quarter airball from the corner sealed the loss for the Kings. It made me wonder – does Peja always choke in Game 7’s?
Here are his stats from the four Game 7’s in which he’s played. The first three were with the Kings:
2002: (Kings vs. Lakers) 3-12 from the field, 8 points
2003: (Kings vs. Mavs) 7-15, 17 points
2004: (Kings vs. T’Wolves) 3-12, 8 points
2008: (Hornets vs. Spurs) 3-11, 7 points
So he doesn’t choke in all Game 7’s, just most of them. Considering he has a career average of 18.2 points and shoots almost 46% from the field, his Game 7 average of 10.0 points and 32% shooting looks even worse.
As they get older, it can be tough for former stars to accept a new role in this league. Peja can no longer take the ball to the hole unless he has his man completely out of position, so he’s pretty much a catch-and-shoot guy at this point in his career. But that doesn’t mean that if his team runs a play designed to get him a shot that he has to shoot it regardless of how open he is.
There’s no telling what would have happened if Peja had turned down those shots and passed the ball back out to Paul. It wasn’t like the rest of the Hornets’ offense was running all that smoothly. There was no one on the offensive glass in the second half and some of the role players took some wild shots when the team really needed a bucket. The Hornets were pretty brutal for much of the second half, so there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Still, they had a terrific season and should be back again this time next year. Sometimes a team has to taste defeat in order to bring out its best in crunch time. There’s no substitute for experience.
Just ask the Spurs.
