Recap/Analysis: Third quarter dooms Hornets in loss to Warriors – At The Hive

The Charlotte Hornets were dominated in the paint in the second half as they lost to the Golden State Warriors, 115-97.

The summary

Spectrum Center was alight for the Hornets against the prodigal son Stephen Curry. It made for a great atmosphere early in the game, and both teams made some impressive shots in the first few minutes. A Hornets cold spell let the Warriors score nine straight points. A masked Davis Bertans finally made the Hornets’ first bucket in 3-and-a-half minutes with about a minute left in the first quarter. The Hornets trailed 26-17 at the end of it.

The Warriors added to their lead and went up by as many as 13 early in the second quarter. Bertans added three more threes to his tally to keep the Warriors within reach. Meanwhile, Brandon Miller’s icy start to the game continued. He missed his first seven shots and only got on the board with two made shots in the final minute of the first half. Prior to that a couple of Miles Bridges layups helped the Hornets within a couple of possessions. They trailed by just five at the break.

Miller hit another midrange jumper to start the second half, but the Warriors quickly answered. The Hornets spent most of the third quarter firing away threes and making very few of them. They went 3-of-14 from deep in the period. The Warriors did the opposite and kept attacking the Hornets in the paint off the dribble and on the offensive glass. The Hornets did not put up much resistance. They ended up giving up 39 points in the quarter and went into the fourth down by 18.

That deficit extended past 20 early in the fourth quarter, and it wasn’t long before the Warriors were clearly going to win the game. That didn’t end the intrigue though. Brandon Miller briefly left the game with a limp, but he came back to make one more layup before departing again after getting landed on. It seems to be something minor. In between his dramatic departures, the inevitable Grant Williams and Draymond Green powder keg blew up. The two started to mix it up, and at one point a flailing Green almost kicked Williams in the nether regions. A timeout allowed cooler heads to prevail, and the game went on to a rather uneventful conclusion.

The Good

The Hornets played good basketball much the same way they did in their win on Wednesday. The shot making wasn’t there, but the process was good enough to produce decent output if the Hornets good simply make their shots. The ball movement was good. The pace was good. The shot making was not.

Miles Bridges seems to enjoy playing well across from fellow Michigan State alum Draymond Green. He was aggressive but stayed under control and didn’t force a noticeable amount of ill advised shots.

Masked Davis Bertans might be a player. He scored 14 points, all in the first half, and had the lasers locked in tonight.

The Bad

The Hornets just can’t make shots sometimes. 46 of their 84 (55%) shot attempts came from behind the 3-point line, and they only made 12 of those. The looks weren’t bad, but it seemed like that’s what the Warriors to want the Hornets to do and that plan worked flawlessly.

The Hornets didn’t bring their lunch pail to the paint. In the second half in particular, the Hornets let the Warriors get layup line finishes and gave up offensive rebounds on the rare instances that the Warriors missed. It was a very unfocused and uncompetitive effort in the second half.

The Oklahoma City crew wasn’t at their best tonight. Vasilije Micic was okay but didn’t make his presence felt on the game. Similar can be said about Tre Mann. Pokusevski looked very unsure of himself and had a worse game than the already poor box score numbers would tell you. I’ve never seen a player so frequently bail out of a jump shot to try to pass the ball to a teammate.

What’s NExt

The Hornets next host the Los Angeles Clippers for an early-ish start on Sunday.