2024-04-03
Hornets Get Dominated On The Glass, Pair Of Late Shots Both Don’t Drop
Sam Perley, NBA.com/Hornets
Charlotte Has Worst 3-Point Shooting Night This Season, Portland Snaps 10-Game Skid
An out-of-the-ordinary day for the Charlotte Hornets that began with Head Coach Steve Clifford announcing that he was stepping down once the season was over ended with a tough 89-86 home loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
Neither one of these teams – both of whom rank in the top-3 for games missed due to injury this season – were playing with anything close to a full deck. The absences most definitely contributed to a minimal offensive showcase, like Charlotte’s 93-80 victory in the Pacific Northwest back on Feb. 25. The last time the Hornets scored and allowed under 90 points in the same game was an 87-76 win in Detroit on Feb. 10, 2020, according to Basketball Reference.
Portland broke a 21-21 score with a 9-0 first quarter-closing run, but Charlotte responded by allowing a quarterly-season-low-tying 15 points in the second to enter halftime down only one. This small deficit held steady through the ensuing frame and with under two minutes remaining on the game clock, both sides were level at 81.
A 4-0 Portland run was quickly countered by a Brandon Miller 3-pointer, trimming the visitors’ advantage back to one. But the rebounding front, which had continuously plagued Charlotte the entire night, reared its ugly head again at the worst possible moment with a second-chance layup from Deandre Ayton. After Miller sank a pull-up jumper and Scoot Henderson missed two free throws, Miller’s go-ahead floater and Dāvis Bertāns’ game-tying wide-open corner 3-pointer both failed to find the bottom of the net on Charlotte’s final two possessions.
On top of shooting only 41% and a season-worst 5-of-31 from 3-point range (16.1%, which was also a new season low), the Hornets got crushed on the boards, 55-36. Portland corralled 14 offensive rebounds to Charlotte’s two, leading to 16 second-chance points on 8-of-16 shooting.
“The biggest part of the game was the rebounding,” said Clifford afterwards. “Both teams are playing so many men down. That’s not offensive execution – that’s how much offense is on the floor. The biggest part of the game was the rebounding. They tattooed us on the glass. Again, we’re down one, we get a stop, and we couldn’t get the rebound. That was the game.”
Miles Bridges (right wrist contusion) and Vasilije Micić (right shoulder strain) joined the likes of LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams, Seth Curry, Cody Martin, and Nick Richards on the Hornets’ sidelines. Miller scored a team-high 21 points – nine in the fourth – on 9-of-20 shooting, while Aleksej Pokuševski (11) and JT Thor (9) each matched their season highs. Grant Williams got another start at center, finishing with seven rebounds and a career-high 11 assists.
Ayton (24) and Henderson (22 and 10 assists) both had 20-point games for the Blazers, who terminated a season-long 10-game losing streak and avoided getting swept in the season series by Charlotte for the first time since 2007-08. Portland also got 16 rebounds from Ayton and a career-high-smashing 22 from Jabari Walker, the most by an opposing player against the Hornets since Dec. 19, 2022 (Domantas Sabonis, 23).
Coming up next for the Hornets will be another home game against the Orlando Magic on Friday, April 5 beginning at 7 PM ET. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.
2024-04-01
Hornets Stick With Celtics Early On, Game Slips Away In 2nd Half
Sam Perley, NBA.com/Hornets
Bridges Nearly Triple-Doubles, Charlotte’s Transition Defense Doesn’t Get Set Quick Enough
Few teams are playing at the same level as the surging Boston Celtics right now, especially ones dealing with dire injury situations like the Charlotte Hornets. When the two sides met for the second time this season in the Queen City on Monday night, the banged-up hosts just didn’t have the horses to hang with their green adversaries for 48 minutes in a 118-104 home loss.
In their most recent showdown at Spectrum Center back on Nov. 20, the Hornets stunned the Celtics with a game-tying 9-0 run to close regulation, then later stole a three-point overtime victory. Charlotte couldn’t muster any late-game heroics in this one, wiping away its chances of back-to-back wins over Boston for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
The Hornets knocked down nine of their first 13 shots, which helped propel them to a 32-30 lead through the first quarter. That shooting vanished in the second though, as a 0-of-8 mark from 3-point range contributed to a 59-53 halftime hole for the hosts. Capitalizing on a handful of transition opportunities, Boston shot 61.9% and won the ensuing frame by 10, expanding the lead to 95-79. Despite playing hard all the way until the final buzzer sounded, Charlotte never got back within striking distance over the final 12 minutes.
“The fastbreak points are totally misleading,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford. “They only had seven, but they had us on our heels for so many possessions because we just didn’t get ahead of the ball and get our defense set. They’re maybe 10th in fastbreak points, but they get the ball up the floor and into things quickly, and those were our worst possessions tonight. Three minutes left in the third quarter, I think it was eight and then we just blew sets and blew coverages. We had like three minutes there of just totally disorganized NBA basketball.”
Added Grant Williams, “We probably could’ve gotten back a little bit better as a group. They do a great job of kicking the ball ahead to the playmakers. They had their legs, and we’ve got to do a better job of coming into the game with attention to that. In the halfcourt, I thought we guarded them pretty well. They made some tough shots because of how talented they are, but we’ve got to do a better job of making sure we don’t give them the easy ones.”
Miles Bridges tallied game-high totals in points (26 on 10-of-23 shooting) and rebounds (11) to go along with a season-high eight assists. Williams (23), who got the start at center for the injured Nick Richards, and Brandon Miller (19) also had solid scoring outputs. Vasilije Micić (13 points, game-high nine assists) also narrowly missed his second straight double-double.
Boston launched 53 total 3-point attempts – a Charlotte opponent season high – making 19 of them for a 35.8% efficiency. Jayson Tatum (25), Sam Hauser (25) and Kristaps Porziņģis (20) all had 20-point showings in the win, and Derrick White (19) nearly did so, as well. Most of Hauser’s damage came via his seven 3-pointers in only 24 minutes off the bench.
The Hornets will next play host to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday, April 3, beginning at 7 PM ET at Spectrum Center. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.
2024-04-05
Miller Can’t Miss In 1st Half, Hornets Curtail Magic’s Late Comeback Efforts
Sam Perley, NBA.com/Hornets
Following Strong Start, Charlotte Shoots Season-Best, Deal Magic Tough Wire-to-Wire Defeat
In each of their first three meetings of the 2023-24 campaign, the Charlotte Hornets were pushed around and unable to match the Orlando Magic’s high-level physicality. On Friday night at Spectrum Center, they finally got some much-needed payback in a 124-115 victory.
With both Miles Bridges and Vasilije Micić back in the lineup after sitting out Wednesday’s loss to Portland, the Hornets shot a season-best 59.7% and 50.0% from 3-point range (15-of-30) against the Magic’s top-ranked post-All-Star-Break defense for their highest point total since Jan. 22. For Orlando, this loss could be a costly one, after it entered the night tied with New York for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.
This offensive showcase was highlighted by a spectacular showing from rookie Brandon Miller, who couldn’t have been hotter to start the night. He quickly ran up 26 points – 19 in the first quarter – on a flawless 10-of-10 clip to help Charlotte to a 67-52 halftime lead. This output made Miller and Steph Curry the only two NBA players since the 1996-97 NBA campaign to tally at least 25 points on 100/100/100% shooting and five 3-pointers in a single half.
Turnovers started trickling in for the Hornets in third, though they recovered in time to maintain their 15-point advantage going into the fourth. Orlando opened the final frame on a 15-4 run – Franz Wagner scored 11 points over this span – to slice the deficit down to four with 7:44 remaining. Grant Williams and Dāvis Bertāns rapidly combined for a countering 10-0 spurt and although the Magic later got back to within six, another 8-0 Charlotte flurry put the game away for good.
“I think our whole mindset, our physicality, we played with really good force,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford, when asked about his takeaways. “The ball was going into the paint. We had 29 assists, which is good, unselfish, inside-out play. The biggest part of it was we started so well. Brandon obviously was terrific. The second half was hard for him because they just sent the second defender at him whenever he had the ball.”
Miller finished with a game-high-tying 32 points on 11-of-13 shooting – 5-of-6 from 3-point range – moving past both Luka Dončić and Anthony Edwards for the fifth-most single-season 3-pointers by a rookie in NBA history (173). The 21-year-old also joined Walter Herrmann and Kareem Rush as the only players in franchise history to record 30-or-more points on 80% shooting and five 3-pointers in a single outing. “It’s not all about the shots,” said Miller. “I think we did a great job against their top scorers on the defensive side, and that got us easy buckets in transition. Our intensity from start to finish, I think that’s why we won the game tonight.”
Bridges (23), Williams (18), Micić (14), Bertāns (season-high 12) and Aleksej Pokuševski (10) also had double-digit scoring performances for a Charlotte team that drained its second-most free-throw attempts without a miss in team history (23-of-23). This victory ended the squad’s five-game losing streak to Orlando, plus ruined Orlando’s chances of sweeping Charlotte in a full four-game regular season series for the first time since 2010-11.
Like Miller, Paolo Banchero poured in 32 points, but needed 26 shots to get there (10-of-26, 1-of-8 from 3-point range). Wagner added 22 points – 13 in the fourth – and Markelle Fultz had 15 off the bench, his most in nearly a month (16 on March 6). Prior to this game, Orlando had only hadn’t conceded more than 111 points in any outing since Feb. 13.
The Hornets will play the seventh game of their ongoing homestand against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, April 7 beginning at 6 PM ET. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.