Recap/Analysis: Hornets look sleepy in ugly loss to Warriors – At The Hive

The Charlotte Hornets looked like a team that didn’t have any gas in the tank as they lost a low socring game to the Warriors, 97-84.

Summary

The game had some college basketball vibes to start. Both teams played very physically and the refs mostly swallowed their whistles. The physicality begot a lot of turnovers from both teams. It was very clear that both teams were gassed after playing on Thursday night. They were grabby defensively and weren’t sharp enough offensively to counteract that. There was a two minute spell where neither team scored a single point. The Hornets took it even further and didn’t score for the final 3:50 of the quarter. The teams combined for 12 turnovers and 14 made shots in the first.

The Hornets started the second quarter trailing 22-15. You may think that surely it can’t get worse than that, but you’d be wrong. The Hornets bettered their futility in the second quarter by scoring 14 points. Tre Mann made a three on the Hornets first possession, but no one on the visitors scored a point for nearly four minutes after that. The Warriors weren’t any better and also took over four minutes between their first and second made shots of the quarter. They ended up going on a run once Stephen Curry broke the seal with an 18 foot bank shot and pull-up three. The Hornets didn’t score after Bridges hit a right handed floater with 2:59 left in the half. They trailed by 14 at the break.

The Warriors game out the locker room and looked more like their normal selves to start the second half. The Hornets continued to look like their first half selves. There was lots of aimless dribbling that resulted in turnovers and bad shots late in the shot clock. They watched the Warriors slowly create distance over the course of the third quarter. The local kids Grant Williams and Seth Curry briefly gave the Hornets life, but a small run by the Warriors to end the quarter put them up 73-52 heading into the fourth.

The big goal for the first quarter was to score 26 points as to not be the owner of the lowest scoring game in the league this season. Brandon Miller hit back to back threes to start the quarter to send the Hornets well on their way to that mark. He and Miles Bridges helped the Hornets fly through that mark relatively early in the fourth. The Hornets even briefly made it a 10 point game, but it was too late for it to matter.

The game ended with some fireworks. The Hornets called off the dogs with about 30 seconds left. Instead of taking the shot clock violation like teams normally do, Brandin Podziemski passed it ahead to Lester Quinones, who attempted to flip in a last second layup. Miles Bridges took exception and gave Quinones a light shove and some words. Quinones got into his face, which prompted Grant Williams to rush the situation and create a full scuffle. Bridges and Quinones each got a tech for their exchange of words, Grant Williams got a technical and ejection for escalating the situation, and Quinones got a second technical and ejection for his exchange with Williams. After about five minutes of sorting all of that out, the Hornets inbounded the ball and let the final 12 seconds run out.

The Good

The defense was good. Despite the wretched offense that fed the Warriors transition opportunities, the Hornets did a good job of limiting the Warriors offense. They forced the Warriors into 21 turnovers and were generally very disruptive to the Warriors offense.

Miles Bridges was probably the best player for the Hornets again. He ended up with a respectable 19 points and 11 rebounds and his shooting percentages look stellar in relation to the overall offensive futility across the rest of the game.

The Bad

I think it’s pretty obvious. The Hornets simply had no life on the second night of a back to back with travel and time zone changes and such. A lot of their turnovers were just symptom of lack of focus. Guys were throwing passes where no one was or forcing passes into traffic they didn’t need to throw. The jump shooting was scattershot.

Vasilije Micic has had a really rough return from the All Star break. He was just 1-of-9 from the field against the Jazz on Thursday and was just 4-of-13 from the field in this one. He played like a player lacking confidence. He struggled to pick his spots to try to score and to pass. He had quite a few open threes that he missed badly and a few attempts around the basket that had absolutely no chance of going in.

What’s Next

The Hornets will rest up on Saturday in preparation for a visit to the Portland Trail Blazers and a much anticipated matchup between Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller (Scoot might not play).