It’s a little bit worrying that the Hornets pulled out to a 23-3 lead early against the Suns and then ended up seeing the lead cut down to four in the fourth quarter. It sort of calls into question their playoff-worthiness; then again, most of the things they’ve been doing since January have called into question their playoff-worthiness. A poised team featuring many players accurately termed “veterans” should not collapse so badly against a team where the only “veterans” are fat Jared Dudley and a thing named Ronnie Price, even if the collapse was eventually reversed and the margin of victory was comfortable.
The good news for Nic Batum is that he has crawled over the 40% shooting mark for the season. His shot selection still stinks and he might or might not sustain this relatively “hot” shooting, but he gets enough assists that you can forgive him some of his scoring sins. The other good news for Batum is that he managed to go through the entire game without once punching somebody maliciously in the testes. Good job, good effort.