Three Charlotte Hornets finished with double doubles as they took down the Trail Blazers in an ugly, gritty basketball game.
Summary
Tre Mann opened the scoring with a steal then acrobatic finish while being fouled. It was the first of seven straight Hornets points to start the game. They cooled off and got very sloppy after the hot start. They allowed the Blazers to go on a run of their own and briefly take a lead about halfway through the opening frame. The Hornets tightened up defensively after that and got some help from Anfernee Simons trying to shoot himself into a rhythm. The Blazers didn’t make a field goal after an alley oop tip-in by DeAndre Ayton at the 4:21 mark. The Hornets weren’t efficient enough to go on a real run, but they led by seven heading into the second quarter.
That quarter was not one to watch for funsies. The Blazers took almost exclusively bad shots that were heavily contested. They forced the ball into the paint but most of their attempts in that range were prayers that had little chance of going in consistently. Almost all of their scoring came off offensive rebounds. The Hornets did a little bit better moving the ball, but they had a lot of passes deflected and shots blocked. They scored just enough to slowly add onto their lead. They led 47-34 at the half.
The teams traded a few baskets and shot clock violations to start the third quarter. Nick Richards dominated a short stretch of the game with a flurry of dunks, a couple of which came off Cody Martin lobs. The Blazers made a little bit of a push in the later stages of the third quarter with some offensive rebounding, but the Hornets responded and pushed their lead back to 11 by the end of the quarter. It was a stylistic throwback of a quarter. Three 20-foot jumpers were made but not a single 3-pointer.
The Blazers scored four straight to open the fourth and Matisse Thybulle pickpocketed a couple of steals from Brandon Miller. They again threatened the Hornets with a scoring run, but Martin found Richards for another dunk and then found Miller out in front of the pack for an easy dunk of his own to force a Blazers timeout. Miles Bridges checked back in after the timeout and scored four straight. It felt like the game was over after the Blazers got a rebound before two of their tripped over each other fighting for the outlet pass. It all happened as part of a 16-0 run that put the game out of reach.
The Good
The Hornets benefited from the Blazers being a terrible basketball team, but their defense was dominant tonight. Rare was a Blazers possession that didn’t feature a deflected pass or redirected dribble. They were 1-of-27 from three before garbage time in no small part due to how disruptive the Hornets were defensively.
Nick Richards feasted on DeAndre Ayton and the otherwise undersized Trail Blazers. Ayton scored a bunch on little jumpers, but it’s a shot you live with defensively. Richards was a reliable target around the rim and was a big part of some of the Hornets second half runs that put the game away.
Cody Martin did a much better job at picking his spots this game than he had in recent games. He set a career high 10 assists, a lot of which came from probing the defense with the ball then finding Nick Richards on the interior.
There isn’t a lot of box score evidence of this, but Tre Mann is a good basketball player. He has a knack for cutting to the right space at the right time. He’s disruptive defensively and plays with full effort all the time. All of those good things didn’t translate to big box score numbers, but I still game away impressed.
Brandon Miller has reached a point where you don’t even notice him yet he somehow finishes the game with a modestly efficient 17 points. Just veteran stuff for the rookie.
Three Hornets finished with double doubles–Nick Richards with 21 points and 10 rebounds, Miles Bridges with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Cody Martin with 11 points and 10 assists.
The Bad
The Hornets got dominated on the glass. The Trail Blazers chased down 22 offensive rebounds, though a small handful of those came in a big bunch in the last minute or so of the game. That’s been a bit of a trend in the last few games despite the overall defensive success. The Hornets are playing a little undersized with Grant Williams getting time at the five, and Nick Richards has never been the best defensive rebounder, but it’s something you’d like to see get cleaned up.
Not a Hornet, but Anfernee Simons went 4-of-21 from the field and 0-of-8 from three.
What’s Next
The Hornets wrap up the road trip with a visit to Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks.
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