New Orleans Hornets @ Cleveland Cavaliers, Fri, Jan 16

A short scouting report on the Hornets:

• Peja was sharp, but was ultra slow on defense.
• CP3 hogged the ball for too long, he’s still a super quick PG who has superb court vision. However, his shots were off, as he was allowed very few open looks under the D of the Cavs.
• David West’s scoring was clearly affected by the Cav's tough D.
• What happened to Tysan Chandler? He was not doing his job grabbing rebounds, while he is ok in defense, he’s extremely passive in offense. At one early possession, he was fronted by Mo Williams(!) several times, unable to settle in a position in the paint and eventually committed an offensive foul by pushing Mo Williams. I mean, losing ground in a post up position to a guy 1 ft shorter than you? WTF?
• Rasual Butler was able to hit some outside shots and played some defense. He is strictly a role player.
• James Posey was MIA (missed in action) the entire game, both offensively and defensively.
• Other bench players? Please.
• One thing is I don’t see CP3 playing much pick-n-roll with the Hornets big men, including Chandler, Varejao or West. I thought pick-n-roll is the lethal weapon of the Hornets. Indeed, late in Q3, when CP3 and West started running high screen roll, it resulted in an easy layup by CP3 and a contested layup by West who drew a foul and completed the And-1. Don’t know why Byron Scott did not run enough of that.
• Otherwise, if they are patient and makes full rotation of the ball with at least 3-4 passes, they could get open looks on the perimeter. Again, don’t know why they didn’t do that often.
• Transition defense is questionable. Worse, they were defenseless on the perimeter, allowing the Cavs to hit 3s at will. Pavlovic hitting 4-for-4 and Szczerbiak 4-for-5 from beyond the arc? C'mon!
• As usual, they were helpless defending LeBron James. Who isn’t anyway?
• The Hornets were so frustrated that eventually Paul and Posey were ejected late in the game.
• The Hornets were simply outplayed by the Cavs and that they didn't show any energy in the game. Give credits to the Cavs' superior defense and their sky-high confidence. This is even more impressive considering that the Cavs were without Delonte West and Big Z Ilgauskas. Based on this game, the Hornets do not look like a title contender and they are not as powerful as last year. I'm not sure it's the superiority of the Cavs or just that the Hornets were not yet there. They will not even go to the Conference Finals by playing like this.