Recap/Analysis: Charlotte Hornets can’t keep pace with Celtics – At The Hive

Miles Bridges, Grant Williams, and Brandon Miller all had good games, but it wasn’t enough as the Charlotte Hornets lost to the Boston Celtics, 118-104.

The summary

The Hornets came firing out of the gate with 10 points in the first two minutes of the game. They parlayed that hot start into a lead that they were able to hold for the entire first quarter. Brandon Miller followed Sunday’s strong performance with 11 first quarter points that came from all areas of the floor. Miles Bridges added 10 points of his own, and the Hornets led 32-30 after one.

The teams traded live ball turnovers to start the second quarter. The Hornets gave up a handful of offensive rebounds to the Celtics in the early stages of the period, which continued a trend that started in the first. A cold spell through the middle of the quarter allowed the Celtics to go on a run that flipped the score and put the Celtics on the top side of a back and forth affair. Six straight Celtics points to end the half were the difference in the score line at the break.

Grant Williams scored the Hornets’ first seven points of the second half, but the Celtics answered every bucket. The Hornets scoring output slowed down, but the Celtics did not. Jayson Tatum had a couple of minutes of trademark Jayson Tatum. Kristaps Porzingis and the rest of their pals took advantage of the Hornets’ lackluster interior defense to fill in the gaps where Tatum wasn’t doing his thing. The Hornets had a couple of nice plays to stick around, but they couldn’t defend the Celtics without fouling them. They went into the fourth quarter trailing by 16.

Sam Hauser hit a couple of different 3-pointers that put the Celtics up by 19 each time and just about put the game away early in the fourth. The Hornets inexplicably kept leaving him open and he kept burying daggers despite the best efforts of Davis Bertans and Grant Williams on the other end.

The Good

Grant Williams got the nod at starting center with Nick Richards out and acquitted himself well. His lack of length surely contributed somewhat to the Hornets struggles on the glass, but otherwise he was very good. He used his girth and strength to bully mismatches inside and caught the Celtics bigs napping a couple of times for 3-pointers.

Miles Bridges didn’t have any superlative stretches of play, but he put in a steady night’s work and flirted with a triple double. He finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists.

He was quiet in the second half, but Brandon Miller had another encouraging couple quarters of play against a similar forward archetype he’ll hopefully emulate in time.

Marques Bolden scored his first two NBA buckets since 2020. I’m sure that felt good.

The Bad

The Hornets were not connected defensively whatsoever. They insisted on blitzing Jayson Tatum but did not do a good job rotating to cover behind that. That’s by Celtics’ design given how much shooting they put on the floor and how far apart they space them, but the Hornets didn’t handle that well. Sam Hauser was getting wide open looks just a couple of possessions after hitting multiple threes. They got caught scrambling a number of times and that led to a number of Celtics misses without any Hornets in the area to get the defensive rebound.

The coaching staff needs to get a shock collar or something for Aleksej Pkusevski and buzz him every time he pump fakes a wide open look or passes out of a shot attempt at the last second.

The Celtics like to have bigs guard the opponent’s worst shooter so they can free roam and help. Vasilije Micic being a sub-30% shooter is playing right into the Celtics hands. He’s a better shooter than that. Hopefully he’s able to rediscover confidence in his shot before next season.

What’s Next

The Hornets get a day off before a much anticipated match-up between Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson on Wednesday.