03/10/2009 - 16:53
Streak Snapped
by Devon Jeffreys

For the first time since Tyson returned, the Hornets found themselves on the wrong side of the final score.

The Big Easy had an off night Monday with just two points and five boards in an 89-79 loss to the Hawks in Atlanta. Ty’s production went down because Hawks defenders circled him like prey. No. 6 talked about the way he was defended afterward, as quoted by the Big Easy Buzz Blog.

“Their scrambling caused some mismatches for us and made things difficult. They did a good job on us. They are all pretty much the same size, and they did a great job with scrambling on defense. They did a good job rotating and keeping us out of our sets, and away from the basket. They kept us out of rhythm."

“They switch across the board and they come at you with 6-7, 6-8 guys or better who are all athletic, and it caused problems for us tonight.”

Tyson’s only bucket came midway through the first on a Crescent City Connection with Chris Paul that pushed the Hornets’ early lead to 18-6. But the Hawks got it going in the second quarter, outscoring New Orleans 27-12 to take a seven-point lead into the break.

From there it was just a matter of containing New Orleans, which they did partly by giving TC nothing to work with, as noted by Ryan Schwan at Hornets 247

“Don’t let the box score mislead you – Chandler had his hands full on the glass with Horford all night. Chandler was always fighting with him for position, boxing him out, and generally settled on the defensive end for letting West grab the board while he fended Horford away. That’s really the reason for the lopsided 17 defensive boards for West and 2 defensive boards for Chandler. His offensive output was limited – though a lot of that was due to the Hawks packing in their defense all night. Chandler had very little room to move, and he needs some to be effective.”

The loss snapped New Orleans’ seven game winning streak. Their 39-23 record currently puts them in the sixth position in the Western Conference standings but they’re only 1.5 games out of the third position.

NEXT UP
Tyson and the Hornets continue on their four-game road swing on Wednesday night when they travel to our nation’s capital for a showdown with the Eastern Conference’s worst team, the 15-49 Washington Wizards.

The Hornets haven’t seen the Wizards since the end of 2008 when they posted a 97-85 victory over Washington at The Hive on December 30. Ty put up a picket fence in that contest with 11 points and 11 boards. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST and all the action can be seen live in New Orleans on CST.

RELATED STORIES
New Orleans Hornets’ winning streak ends with loss in Atlanta (Times-Picayune, March 10, 2009)
http://blog.nola.com/hornetsbeat/2009/03/new_orleans_hornets_winning_st....
Hornets.com postgame: Hornets 89, Hawks 79 (Big Easy Buzz Blog, March 9, 2009)
http://neworleanshornetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/hornetscom-postgame-ha...
The Hawks beat the Hornets (Hornets 247, March 9, 2009)
http://www.hornets247.com/blog/2009/03/09/the-hawks-beat-the-hornets