MVN - Most Valuable Network

New Orleans can afford to lose Game Three

When the Hornets tip off at 8:30 tonight against the Spurs in Game Three, I’ll be rooting hard for New Orleans, but not too hard.  You see, the Hornets don’t have much to lose tonight.

The Spurs, on the other hand, are fighting for their lives. 

It’s Game Three, in San Antonio, and their down 2-0.  You can bet there’s something on the line for the defending champs.  If they don’t win this game, their season is over.  No one has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a seven game series in the NBA.

But for the Hornets, this game is not of great consequence.  As the series shifts locations from New Orleans to San Antonio, New Orleans has only one goal in mind.  Get a split.  It doesn’t have to be Game Three, and it doesn’t have to be Game Four.  But if it’s not Game Three it better be Game Four and vice a versa. 

Point being this: If the Hornets can leave San Antonio Sunday night with a 3-1 lead in the series, life will be good.  That would mean the Spurs would have to win three out of the next three games, two being in New Orleans—a task even too great for a defending champ. 

But in terms of tonight’s game, the Hornets should be relaxed.  Odds are San Antonio is going to come out with guns blazing.  They know it’s do or die for them and they will use that motivation, along with a highly energized crowd, to try and get a footing in this series. 

So New Orleans shouldn’t have too lofty of expectations for tonight’s game.  While they are a better team than the Spurs, they shouldn’t anticipate that mattering tonight.  San Antonio is good enough to win a homecoming game when they’re backs are against the wall, but their not good enough to beat the Hornets twice in a row. 

So if you’re a Hornets fan looking for a split in San Antonio, be fare warned.  Tonight likely won’t be the night.  Come back on Sunday though, and you can rest assured.   That night the better team will prevail, and I’ll be rooting as hard as ever to see it happen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Swarming the Ball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.