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A strong effort by fill-in starter Greivis Vasquez was not enough for the Hornets to avoid the final quarter blues again (Photo: Parker Waters).
Unfortunately, that is a regular occurrence with this year's edition of the hometown NBA team.
Things were looking good, make that very good for the New Orleans Hornets against the Sacramento Kings Monday night at New Orleans Arena.
New Orleans scored the first six points of the game, stretched their first lead to 18 points and led by nine entering the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, if you have followed the Hornets this season, you are all too aware of their fourth quarter failures.
The reputation of collapsing with the game on the line grew even larger against the Kings, who buried the Hornets in the fourth quarter, rallying for a 100-92 victory before a stunned crowd of 13,222.
Sacramento outscored New Orleans 31-14 in the final quarter to extend the misery of the Hornets to six straight losses. New Orleans has now lost 15 of their last 16 and 21 of their last 23 games to fall to 4-21 on the season.
Man-child DeMarcus Collins was all man against the Hornets, hitting jumpers from the outside and dominating inside in a 28 point, 19 rebound performance. He scored 12 of those points in the third quarter. Cousins was coming off of a 20 point, 20 rebound effort in an overtime win over Golden State.
He got lots of help in the fourth quarter from Tyreke Evans and diminutive Isaiah Thomas.
Evans, who had just nine points on 2-of-10 shooting through three quarters, exploded in the fourth quarter for 11 points, going 5-of-6 from the field in the final frame.
Thomas finished with 17 points and six assists off the bench in 26 minutes. He had eight points and three assists in the last quarter.
Things started very well for the Hornets, who led 6-0 before settling for a 29-20 lead after one quarter. They would expand the lead to 52-34, thanks to eight straight second quarter points by Xavier Henry before Sacramento cut the deficit to 52-39 at halftime. Henry did not score again but his eight points were a season high.
The Kings pulled to within 78-69 at the end of three quarters but the Hornets still had a working margin. It did not last.
The Kings, who had not led at any point in the game, caught the Hornets and took the lead 81-80 on a Marcus Thornton free throw with 6:24 to play in the game. After New Orleans tied the game 86-86, Thornton put the Kings ahead to stay 89-86 with a three-pointer with 3:26 to play in the game. The former Hornet struggled much of the night, finishing with 12 points on just 3-of-12 shooting.
After leading 91-88, the Kings had the ball with the shot clock winding down. Isaiah launched a 25-footer that found nothing but net just as the shot clock was expiring, a dagger to the heart of the Hornets with 2:15 to play. The Kings used that big shot to go on a game-clinching 7-0 run to make it 98-88 and coasted home.
Crippled by injuries, the Hornets came up big for three quarters before disappearing when it mattered most. New Orleans made just 6-of-23 field goals (26%) in the decisive frame.
The Hornets played without Jarrett Jack (knee), Jason Smith (concussion), DaJuan Summers (knee) and Carl Landry (knee). Of course, there was no Eric Gordon--again. The phantom, would-be star continues to remain missing in action due to a bruised knee. That is all we know about his injury, which has caused him to miss 23-of-25 games. That is some bruise, apparently.
The guy who was asked not to come to work, only to be asked to return by an organization in a state of flux or disarray, depending on your outlook, returned to the floor and made a solid contribution. Chris Kaman returned and played relatively well, scoring 10 points and pulling down 12 rebounds off the bench.
Reasonable, sound explanations concerning Kaman and Gordon have been lacking but that is the prerogative of the organization, one which was forced into dealing for the two players in question.
In his third straight start, Greivis Vasquez played well again, scoring a team-high 20 points and dishing out nine assists. Marco Belinelli returned to the starting lineup and played well, scoring 18 points with four assists. Emeka Okafor had 19 points and seven rebounds, including 11 points in the first quarter. Trevor Ariza contributed 11 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The Hornets won the battle of the boards 48-41.
It did not matter as the Kings won their third straight game to improve to 9-15.
This is a New Orleans team that starts fast but always seems to run out of gas--all the time. Hornets head coach Monty Williams says there is a reason for the continuing trend.
"We have guys who have probably never been in this position before," said Williams "The things we are expecting of them, they are just not able to pull it out when the pressure goes up. We haven't done it enough this year to merit any kind of confidence down the stretch."
It is out of the fire and into the frying pan as the Hornets host the Chicago Bulls, owner of the league's best record, Wednesday night. If only these games were just three quarters long.....where is the nearest gas station, anyway?
INJURY NOTES: Center Jason Smith suffered a concussion in Saturday night's game against the Pistons and will be sidelined with no activity for one week. Once that time is up, the team says his status will be day-to-day.
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