Hoops

Hornets vs Spurs ***Spolier***

It's about time the finals actually looked different and we weren't stuck with the same repeat offenders in the finals. I hope the Hornets make the finals against the Celtics.

Well, if your a Tigers fan, you would be forgiven for being a little dizzy this weekend. Facing the season underacheivers Saturday and defending champs Sunday, you would be reasonably happy with a split of the weekend games, perhaps not in the way it turned out, but a split none the less.

I was at both games over the weekend and whilst they were similar in many ways, they were certainly very contrasting.

Saturday night against the Flames, the game was contested at a frantic pace with the tigers scoring 66 in the first half to have a comfortable lead. It was the 9 point third quarter where the tigers lost the game, you simply cant do that against anyone and expect to win. Most dissapointing for the Tigers was the fact they led the entire game except the final 2 minutes. In the final quarter, Bell and Webber took over for the flames and even Januske was scoring easily. The Tigers on the other hand were relying to heavily on Pochintesta (who made some ridiculous jumpers) and when he fouled out... had no reply.

For the Flames, Webber had 20 as did Bell. Krause had 17 but after having the first 10 of the game and 14 in the first quarter, went missing. For the Tigers, lots of people took lots of shots, except for Pochintesta who had 23 points on 10 FGA. The other scorers were the usual suspects of B.Hodge, Bowley, Gerlach etc... Matt Clarke had a poor game which in the end hurt the Tigers.

Sunday - Defending Champs.
By now, many people know the result, Tigers 116 - Fville 104. This was one of the best atmospheres i have seen at Mvale stadium since the glory days of the late 90's. The brand of bball the tigers are playing is inspiring the local community and is great to see.
Matt Clarke stepped up from a poor game the night before and controlled the tempo of this game. The ever running Eagles did have their transition game flowing during the first half and it allowed them to stay in touch. When the Tigers knuckled down and stopped the transition baskets, the Eagles were finding it tough to settle and took lots of early shots, allowing the Tigers to regain the ball easily, hence the high scoring game in which the Tigers took 100 FGA @ 43%. Pero and Rees were quite solid for the Eagles, however on the day, the Big men of the Tigers may have taken the honours... Pero had 27 and 10 and Rees 20 and 14 whilst Hodges had 28 and 8, Bowley 17 and 8 and Hoban 10 and 15. Perhaps too close to call. Campbell and Sullivan too had reasonable outings both scoring in the high teens and 20's. Gerlach was the difference in many ways, his defence was tenacious and he was always an offensive threat.

Final word: A telling and much needed win for the Tigers. Back on track after a big setback the night before.

Got my Lunch pail packed... Time to clock on.

Blue Collar.

Spurs coaching staff have it all ahead of em now.
Paul is a constant, West kills em G1, Peja G2, the even bigger problem is the hornets are defending the spurs better than i've seen in a long time.

The good news for spurs fans is that when they find a weakness, they are the very best at exploiting it crushing their opposition.
The bad news is right now, hornets have no visible weakness.
Could they actually go all the way?
I bet hornets fans would rather see LA in the conf finals as Deron seems to have a bit of a mental edge over CP3.

Spurs often begin establishing Duncan in the block then working others free. Looks like the hornets are able to play him straight up and he is really hurting.

They need to get Chandler in foul trouble or draw him away from the basket so that parker and manu can get to the rim.