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Charlotte Hornets guard-forward P.J. Hairston has been fined $5,000 by the NBA for violating the league’s anti-flopping rules for the second time this season.
The flop was epic, and is being celebrated by anti-flop crusaders on the Internet as the flop of the 2014-15 season so far.
The incident occurred with 11:04 remaining in the fourth quarter of Charlotte’s 98-93 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Time Warner Cable Arena.
You can view the video here.
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Charlotte Hornets guard Kemba Walker and Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson today were named NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Jan. 5, through Sunday, Jan. 11.
Walker led the Hornets to a 4-0 week behind a league-leading 30.3 ppg. Walker, who posted back-to-back 30-point outings to open the week, averaged 5.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.3 steals. He also ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference with 36.2 mpg. During a 103-95 win over the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 8, Walker scored 29 points, handed out eight assists, pulled down seven rebounds and collected three steals.
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Thompson led the Western Conference in scoring at 27.7 ppg, and helped the Warriors to a 3-0 week. Thompson connected on 13-of-26 (.500) from three-point range and 14-of-15 (.933) free throw attempts. On Jan. 7, Thompson poured in 40 points on 14-of-25 shooting from the field, including 6-of-11 from distance, and added four rebounds and three assists during a 117-102 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, Denver’s Arron Afflalo, Detroit’s Greg Monroe, Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, New Orleans’ Anthony Davis, Philadelphia’s Robert Covington, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, and Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins.
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Charlotte Hornets center Al Jefferson has been diagnosed with a strain of an adductor muscle in his left groin. Jefferson, who underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) earlier today, is expected to miss a minimum of four weeks.
In 32 games this season, Jefferson leads the team in scoring and rebounding with averages of 18.0 points (25th in the NBA) and 8.2 rebounds (T-17th in the NBA) in 32.2 minutes per game. The 6-10 center has scored in double figures in 28 of 32 games this season and has a team-leading 10 double-doubles along with a team-best 14 games of 20-plus points scored. He scored a season-high 34 points on Nov. 7 in the Hornets win vs. Atlanta.
Here’s the Charlotte Observer blog reporting positive things about the city’s chances of eventually hosting All-Star weekend:
Now that the Charlotte Hornets and the city of Charlotte have agreed to an arena renovation, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said its inevitable Charlotte will get an All-Star Game
“Personally I’m very excited about coming back here. I don’t think there’s any question it’s going to happen,” Silver said during a visit to Charlotte Wednesday. “Just a matter of what year.”
The first available All-Star Game up for bid is in 2017. In all likelihood the 2017 and 2018 events will be awarded to cities simultaneously. Silver said there’s no set date for when those games will be awarded, but he’d like it to be as soon as possible.
Despite their very disappointing start, it’s far too early for the Charlotte Hornets to give up on making the playoffs. Here’s the Charlotte Observer reporting:
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In seven of the the past 10 NBA seasons, the eighth and final seed in the East finished the regular season with a losing record. On average in that span, 39 victories got a team in the East into the playoffs.
Certainly it’s plausible the Hornets win 35 of their remaining 63 games. But they have to start closing out victories and Friday’s game, against the similarly struggling New York Knicks would be a good start.
“It’s a very long season. We still have a chance to win a lot of games,” point guard Kemba Walker said. “Things haven’t been going our way, but that happens. Last season we came back and won a lot of games. It’s going to click.
“It’s not insurmountable at all. People might not see it, but we’re getting a lot better as a team. Our chemistry is coming together.”
The Charlotte Hornets are off to a disappointing start to the 2014-15 regular season, putting up a 4-13 record through Friday’s games. Their backcourt is shooting especially badly, with point guard Kemba Walker hitting 38.3% FG and new shooting guard Lance Stephenson only hitting 37.0% FG. Meanwhile, small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist remains out. Here’s the Charlotte Observer blog with the MKG latest:
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It sounds unlikely that Charlotte Hornets small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will play the rest of November while recovering from a stress reaction in his right foot.
Hornets coach Steve Clifford told the Observer Saturday he isn’t counting on Kidd-Gilchrist being back before the Dec. 3 home game against the Chicago Bulls. Kidd-Gilchrist has missed the past four games after a magnetic resonance imaging in Phoenix Nov. 13 showed evidence of a stress reaction.
A stress reaction is a precursor to a stress fracture. The MRI showed weakening of the bone structure, but does not yet show evidence of a fracture.
Shooting must improve, but Lance Stephenson a rebounding machine for Hornets
The NBA season is just over two weeks old, and still new enough for teams to hold off on sounding any sort of emergency alarms if key new players haven’t totally learned to fit in just yet. The Charlotte Hornets are off to a 3-5 start, not quite what they hoped for — but again, it’s very early. New Hornet Lance Stephenson has been shooting bricks, but scoring aside he’s racking up assists, and doing monster things on the glass. Here’s the Charlotte Observer reporting:
The way Lance Stephenson has been rebounding the ball this early NBA season, you’d think he’s trying to make up for something.
Oh, wait. He is.
“I’m just trying to get boards,” Stephenson said at morning shootaround in Portland, Ore., Tuesday. “My offensive game is not coming. I’m working on that, learning how to score in this offensive system.”
Stephenson is shooting just 33 percent from the field in the Hornets’ 3-5 start, but you can’t argue with his contribution on the boards. He’s averaging 10.9 rebounds, 10th-best in the NBA.
His 14 rebounds against the Trail Blazers tied a career high. At 6-foot-5 he is the only guard among the top 19 rebounders in the league – all the others are either centers or power forwards.
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The Charlotte Hornets have waived guard Justin Cobbs, forward Dallas Lauderdale and center Brian Qvale, General Manager Rich Cho announced today.
Cobbs saw action in two preseason games, averaging 1.0 point and 1.0 rebound in 4.5 minutes. Lauderdale and Qvale each appeared in one preseason game, seeing 3:13 worth of action.
The Hornets roster currently stands at 15 players.
Here’s the Charlotte Observer reporting on the Hornets. And yeah, that’s “Hornets.” The Bobcats are gone. They are the Hornets now. You knew that already, but preseason is approaching so it’s worth repeating.
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Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford made a bold statement Monday about shooting guard Gary Neal’s value.
“Our offense, once he got here, was totally different,” Clifford said.
Bold but not inaccurate. In the 25 regular-season games that followed Neal being traded to Charlotte, the then-Bobcats averaged 104.3 points per game, compared to 95.3 before his arrival. The Bobcats’ shooting percentage improved from 43.7 percent pre-Neal to 45.3 percent with him.
That’s not to say the offensive improvement was exclusively Neal’s doing. For instance, rookie power forward Cody Zeller shot far better from the field in April than in February.
Here’s the Charlotte Observer with a long look at new Hornet Lance Stephenson. Much more on the original article page link:
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As a Coney Island teenager given the nickname “Born Ready,” he became New York City’s best high school basketball player. After a quick stop in college, he has toiled in relative obscurity in the Midwest up until last season with the Indiana Pacers.
Now, Stephenson, the Charlotte Hornets’ big free-agent signing this offseason, is poised for a breakout with his new team. But his talent has always been belied by his outbursts.
Reserved away from the court, Stephenson displays a passion on the floor that results in triple doubles and ankle-breaking moves – but also technical fouls and head-shaking antics.
More than basketball, he also wants to make movies and music. He just released a music video for his new rap song, a remake of the popular rap song, “Hot N—a.” He has ambitions of doing more songs.