Recap/Analysis: Hornets lose home finale to Mavericks – At The Hive

The Charlotte Hornets honored Steve Clifford before the game, but that wasn’t enough to rally the troops as his team lost to the Mavericks, 130-104.

The Summary

The Mavericks ran a play for PJ Washington to start the game, and his layup attempt got swatted off the backboard by Miles Bridges. Washington tried to atone but front rimmed two corner threes then traveled on three of the next four possessions. Luka Doncic paced the Mavericks early as they built an early lead. He scored 21 first quarter points and his team led by as many as 22. The Hornets provided little resistance in the paint defensively and struggled to generate good lucks against the recently very stingy Mavericks defense. They trailed by 18 after one.

The Hornets’ first bucket of the second quarter was a Davis Bertans dunk on Daniel Gafford’s head. He hit a couple threes a few minutes later, but Kyrie Irving and Daniel Gafford kept up the Mavericks scoring pace with Doncic on the bench. The Mavs bombarded the Hornets with threes, and when they didn’t go in, they tracked down a lot of the offensive rebounds. Their lead was 22 at the half.

Th Luka/Gafford combo continued to torment the Hornets into the second half, but the Miles Bridges/Brandon Miller combo on the other end punched back. The Hornets outscored the Mavericks 36-28 in the quarter and M&M combined for 23 of those points. They cut into their deficit but it was much too large for them to turn into a threat, especially when just about any potential run was short circuited by a Doncic bucket. They did finish the third quarter with a bang though, as Tre Mann found Nick Richards for an alley-oop dunk at the buzzer to pull within 14 heading into the fourth.

The Hornets had one chance to pull within single digits of the Mavericks early in the fourth, but Grant Williams’ late shot clock 3-point attempt drew front iron. Every subsequent time that the Hornets set themselves up in a similar position, the Mavericks answered with a basket of their own to extend their lead back to 13 or 14 points. That back and forth carried through the middle of the quarter before a 13-0 Mavericks run put the game away once and for all.

The Good

The Hornets honored Steve Clifford before his last game as the head coach of the Hornets. It was a good call by the organization and seemed to be well received. They also played a tribute video for PJ Washington during a first quarter timeout, and he apparently received a good ovation. A classy night for the organization and the fan base.

Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges got their numbers. They both topped 20 points and filled out the rest of the box score like they do. Miller received his third straight rookie of the month trophy before the game and put forth another ROTM type performance.

Tre Mann can’t go a single game without generating a steal on the perimeter that leads to a runout. He had one steal which came after he pressured Kyrie Irving into losing the ball. He took it and laid it in on the break.

The Bad

The Hornets had no answer for Daniel Gafford, but that was more a symptom of their lackluster perimeter defense and lack of connectedness behind it. The vast majority of Gafford’s buckets were dunks where his teammates laid the ball off to him in the dunker spot after his cover left him to help on a drive. It was very reminiscent of earlier season defense from the Hornets where they could never handle active, athletic bigs.

On that same token, the Hornets couldn’t handle any Maverick on the glass, especially in the first half. The Mavericks had 10 offensive rebounds to the Hornets 14 defensive rebounds in the first half. A lot were long rebounds off missed threes, and the Hornets struggled to beat the Mavericks to the tips and loose balls.

PJ Washington had a night to forget in his return to Charlotte. He never recovered from having his initial layup attempt blocked. He quickly tried to erase it with some quick jumpers, but after those didn’t fall, he dropped into the background. He only attempted three shots in the last three quarters and finished the game with one point.

What’s Next

That does it for the home slate of the 2023-24 season. The Hornets have three road games to close out the season starting with the Hawks on Wednesday.