Heat Overwhelm Hornets In Lopsided Contest
New Orleans hosted the NBA's top team Friday night, and it wasn't pretty for the home team. The Miami Heat (57-15) overwhelmed the New Orleans Hornets (25-48) on their way to a 108-89 rout.
LeBron James played like a man amongst boys, dominating every facet of the game. Despite having defenders in his face, James shot 7-10 from 3 point range, and made it look easy. His 36 points in 32 minutes wiped out any chances the Hornets had of keeping the game competitive.
``When I guy like LeBron gets going like that, any kind of defense isn’t going to help you when he’s shooting from 25-feet away,’’ Hornets coach Monty Williams said. ``I thought the first couple (James' 3 pointers) were too easy. I thought Chief (Al-Farouq Aminu) did a better job, but just hit some tough shots. There’s no other way to put it.’’
Aminu, Darius Miller, and any other Hornet who tried to get in the way of James was left in the dust.
James had 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting (6-7 from beyond the arc) in the first half alone, securing the final outcome of the game before the second half was even played.
Ryan Anderson led the Hornets in scoring with 20 points, but was in no mood to discuss his offense after the loss.
``Obviously when you make a lot of threes like that, it’s tough. That’s just how the game went. They were aggressive against us," explained Anderson. "They moved the ball really well and made lot of shots against us. It happens, we didn’t really have the juice. We didn’t have the energy to really match them.’’
The Hornets will practice tomorrow before welcoming the Cleveland Cavaliers to town Sunday night. Tip-off from the Hive is set for 5:00.