I think Byron’s done a great job in New Orleans, and…wait for it…I’d take CP3 over Kobe any day (but not Timmy of course), but I definately agree with you when you say we should win in 5. The only thing that really concerns me is the Hornets’ youth and athleticism, which won’t win them any games but it certainly helps thems out. I’m fairly new to this whole posting thing and wiser men than I have already provided better analysis, but I’ll say that the key-the MOTHERFUCKING KEY-to this series is stopping Paul, which has probably been said a thousand times, but I’ll say it one more time because it makes me feel intelligent. Stop Paul and you stop the Hornets.

I’m not sure if anyone else agrees with me on this, but I want Frenchie on Paul. Bowen needs to be on Peja because he terrifies the hell out of everyone really, but especially soft Euro’s like Peja. Once we sic Bruce D on Peja, you can rule him out for the rest of the seires. Manu can handle Mo Pete. That means Frenchie has to stick with Paul. I see this as totally feasible. With some help clogging the lanes from our bigs, we should easily turn Paul into a no-factor, and then the NO is fucked. They looked incredible against Dallas (who doesn’t these days?) because Kidd is old as shit and can’t keep up with Paul and because Dirk is a weenie who got punked by David West. Go ahead, try punking Timmeh or The Man-u…see how far that gets you.

but until i see a healthy Sickness i’m going to be effing nervous. i don’t think we can win this series without a great performance by him.

agreed 100% on the bruce-peja match-up. that should eliminate peja entirely. i would do it to the point where bruce is only on the floor when peja is playing.

tony needs to step up to the challenge on paul. i am afraid of these guys, but its not like we cant handle them. im thinking that we know paul is going to do his thing – hopefully we can limit it, but we know he’s going to get his. if we can lock down everyone else, then paul will have less and less confidence in going to them as the series progresses. then, he presses and gets out of his game.

i have every confidence that timmy will lock down west. fab/KT on chandler is kind of a wash. but the other, and perhaps biggest key to me, will be somebody needing to put the clamp on noted spurs killer bonzi wells – and i’m saying it has to be manu (it sure wont be mike finley, maybe some minutes with ime here too). a tough check for whomever, but if we can keep bonzi down enough so that they just dont run an iso at him every play, that should be enough. you can bet that wells wont trip, or toss a ball to the opposing bench when he gets the ball on the block against a smaller guy. DO NOT OVERLOOK THIS DUDE.

i know that nobody around here has much faith in our bench guys, and im not trying to refute that. however, pargo and mo pete dont scare me that much over the course of a long series. i do think that one of them could well do something to win a game for the hornets in this series, which is a little more than one of our guys will do. on our side, it should be a series for bigger contributions from ime and barry – and maybe even (gulp) old man muffs. we will need solid minutes from these guys.

overall, we need to keep these guys in close games – keep the heat turned up on them. see if they can hack it. their M.O. has been to get up big and put their opponent to bed early. they havent yet been tested under the real heat of the playoffs just yet – kinda like phoenix a few years back in that regard.

i say we’ll get it in 6. in new orelans we’ll go i think we’ll win one up there and get smoked in one (do we need a new word for the “p” game?). come home at 1-1 and it will work. i will not be surprised to see them win one in san antonio, however.

up the irons – go spurs go – pound the rock – and ummm…....that’s all the cliche’s i’ve got right now.

PS – ever notice that our main focus is defense when we do these long opinions on game breakdowns. it seems like its exactly opposite when bin laden’s boys at ESPN do it.

you got it.

oh man: and please dont call me Mr.

This will obviously be a more tougher series in my opinion considering their youth.

And I hope the Hornet fans don’t pull that classless act of booing the whole game because of one fucking call.

Put the NOOSE on the NOOCH

the Ric Flair thing is getting annoying and old real fast. lets end it.

errrr…...i mean hobbes