Recap/Analysis: Hornets lose to worst team in the league again – At The Hive

The Charlotte Hornets were swept by the Detroit Pistons after losing on Monday night, 114-97.

Summary

Both teams found buckets easy to come by at the beginning of the game. About midway through the quarter, the Hornets had a series of bad possessions in quick succession that allowed the Pistons to get easy buckets in transition. Cade Cunningham gave the Hornets fits in those transition situations. Brandon Miller got off to a quick start on the other end, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace with the Pistons offense. After one, the Hornets trailed by 11.

A couple more Hornets turnovers and missed shots in the middle parts of the second quarter caused their deficit to swell to 17 points. They responded well though. They scored 15 straight points to give themselves a chance to tie the game. Vasilije Micic hit a pair of threes to help the run. The Pistons answered with their own little run and took an seven point lead into the half.

The Pistons scored seven straight coming out of the half before Brandon Miller stopped the run with a left handed floater. He was t’ed up for not so politely telling the officials they missed a foul call on the play. The Pistons went on another small run after that and forced the Hornets to take a timeout after a Simone Fontecchio three. The deficit the Hornets had fought so hard to erase was all the way back. They trailed by 19 heading into the fourth.

The Hornets ran the same play three times in a row to start the fourth quarter. It ended with Grant Williams getting mismatches in the post, and he capitalized with baskets or off ball fouls each time. That little bit of offensive success wasn’t enough to make any sort of comeback. The Pistons got a few more dunks and grabbed a couple of offensive rebounds to keep the Hornets at arm’s length. The closest the Hornets came to making a run was when Miles Bridges scored eight straight in the middle part of the quarter, but Cade Cunningham made some timely shots to quash the run. Any hopes of a miracle were ended after Miles Bridges had a defensive rebound stolen away from him after Brandon Miller blocked a Cade Cunningham three.

The Good

Brandon Miller again. This time, we got to see a little bit more point Brandon. He finished with a career high seven assists. That went along with his usual 19 points on decent efficiency and flashes of three level scoring.

Grant Williams had a very strong fourth quarter, literally and figuratively. The Pistons kept switching smaller players onto him, and whenever they did, he bullied them in the post. He scored 13 of his 22 in that fourth quarter.

The Bad

In the preview, I talked about the two different ways the Hornets could lose to the worst team in the league three straight times. The Pistons came into the night with the worst record in the league. They’ve beaten the Hornets three straight times. On top of that, the Wizards held the worst record in the league when they tipped off against the Hornets on Friday. The Hornets lost that game too. So that makes three straight times that the team actively holding the worst record in the league has beaten the Hornets. Just a disaster of a season for the boys in the teal and purple.

Nick Richards had some instances of egregiously bad positioning in help defense in the first quarter in particular. There were a couple of plays where Richards was dropped off to help on Cunningham and got himself into positions where he was directly behind Cunningham’s cover, leaving a wide open lane to the basket. He ended up with a decent box score, but his defense was not as good as it needed to be.

Miles Bridges took way too many shots. He finished the night 9-of-24 from the field, and the shooting percentage was so poor in part because of the quality of shots he was taking. He took a few weird, heavily fading jumpers in the mid range area and forced the ball into traffic in the paint. He was playing in front of his hometown crowd, which I’m sure contributed to his aggressiveness, but he has to pick his spots better.

I’m sure some of it is on him and some of it is on the team, but there are stretches of play where Brandon Miller does not get involved enough. He did end up getting 17 shots up, but I want more.

What’s Next

The Hornets travel to face another terrible team that will probably beat them. The Grizzlies will play host to the Hornets on Wednesday.