On The Road At The NOOCH
Posted by:
Micah Hart on
February 28, 2007 at
5:39PM EST
First of all, I must give proper credit to Deadspin, which is where I first saw the acronym NOOCH used for the Hornets (New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets). When the team moves back full time to New Orleans next season, I will miss getting to refer to them as the NOOCH.
Tonight's game should be very interesting for the Hawks.
On the one hand, the Hornets are playing for the second time in two nights, having lost last night at Cleveland. Usually, the more rested team has the advantage in this situation, so I like the Hawks chances from that aspect.
On the other hand, the Hornets have been nearly unbeatable of late at home. The NOOCH have won 11 of their last 12 at home, which means the Hawks will have to play their best if they want to come away with a win.
On the other hand, Atlanta has been pretty successful on the road against the Western Conference this season, as they are 7-7 coming into tonight's game, the last of the season against the other conference. If you ask me, that's pretty damn impressive, considering the strength of the West.
On the other hand, New Orleans was able to pummel the Hawks at Philips Arena back in January, despite playing without Chris Paul, Peja Stojakovic, David West, Jamal Mashburn, Alonzo Mourning...you get my drift. It was ugly - probably the most frustrating loss of the season. So if they beat us without all those players, imagine what they could do with many of them back for tonight.
On the other hand, we owe them for the beatdown at Philips. The Hawks have proven they can get it done on the road this season, and with a win tonight they can finish with an above .500 road-record against the West for the first time since 1996-97 (they were 9-5).
I say we can get it done. The brutal Spurs-Rockets-Suns-Mavericks gauntlet is over, and I thought the team acquitted themselves pretty well despite going 1-3. If we play as well as we did in those games (I don't even feel like we played that bad at Dallas, they just hit seemingly every shot they took in the first half), we can definitely get a W.
Make sure to tune into SportSouth tonight at 8:00 ET to see the Hawks go for some serious payback.
