Already this postseason Hornets coach Dave Cowens has implied that Matt Geiger, one of his centers, is a malingerer. And Geiger, whose pulled right hamstring limited him to five minutes in the series’ first two games, has returned the compliment, calling Cowens immature.
Anthony Mason, Charlotte’s perpetually scowling forward, has criticized his team’s offensive approach. So? So what’s new?
The entire season has been a tumultuous one for the Hornets. They qualified for the playoffs and are in a 1-1 standoff with the Bulls despite enduring enough incidents to sate the appetite of a soap opera buff. How’d they manage that?
“We have a lot of emotional guys,” guard Dell Curry said, “and everybody on our team hates losing. When we lose, everybody has certain things they say they wish they hadn’t said the day after when their emotions calm down. But in every instance we’ve been able to talk about it and put it behind us, and that’s what you’ve got to have.”
Cowens, who somehow held this fractious bunch together, insists it’s not a widespread problem.
“That only comes from a couple places. It’s not the whole team in general,” he said. “My job is to try and win ballgames, and the rest of it is a bunch of nonsense, as far as I’m concerned. I try to keep everybody together as best I can, try to play my best players as much as I can.
“We just keep our mind on the job at hand. Talk about specifics, talk about basics, and make adjustments as we go. You just coach the game.”
Next victim: The Hornets’ role in this series mirrors that served by numerous teams in the 1990s: to play speed bump as the Bulls travel to another title, to play designated victim as the Bulls storm to a sixth title in eight years.
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That is the public perception of their role, and they know it. “We expect that, man. We expect it,” Curry said.
Cowens said: “We were dismissed in Atlanta as well, but we’re trying to grow as a unit, trying to put another feather in our cap, and we keep trying to improve as we go along. This is a major challenge for us, and now we’ll sit back and see how we attack it.
“The rest is all talk. All we do is go out there and play and see what happens. Then it becomes real.”
Inhospitable: From the day it opened, the United Center has been labeled as a playpen that’s not conducive to good outside shooting. Michael Jordan said it then, as did many other Bulls, and now they have resurrected that theme in this series after shooting 41 percent and 37 percent in the first two games.
So what do the visitors think? “I think it’s psychological more than anything,” Cowens said. “Really. I don’t think there’s anything physical about the place that makes it difficult to shoot. It’s in your mind. Something to talk about.”
Curry, 6 for 8 in Game 2 and 5 for 5 in the fourth quarter, disagreed. “It’s cold as heck in here all the time. Maybe that’s why it’s so tough to get acclimated here,” he said. “It’s always cold, and especially coming off the bench, you’re always a little stiff.”
Traveling men: The Hornets returned home right after Sunday’s series opener, then flew back to Chicago to practice early Tuesday afternoon. Was Cowens worried those extra plane rides might wear out his team in advance of Game 2?
“It’s only a couple of hours,” he deadpanned, and then he smiled. “Probably 30, 40 hands of cards, you know. It’s not bad.”