The Charlotte Hornets followed an impressive win over the Timberwolves with a stinker against the Pistons and lost, 113-106.

Summary

The entire first half was one long stretch of unimpressive but evenly played basketball. Brandon Miller was noticeably more involved in the offense as a ball handler with Terry Rozier no longer on the team and got up 11 first half shots. Leaky Black got more first half burn ahead of Bryce McGowens and JT Thor and hit a three in his time. Miles Bridges handled the scoring load with Miller and LaMelo struggling with their shots and the Hornets offense as a whole struggling to get untracked. On the defensive end, they made life easy for the Pistons, who got a lot of open layups with nary a help defender in sight. Despite what felt like a really, really bad half for the Hornets, the two teams were tied at 52 at the break.

The Hornets struggled with Bojan Bogdanovic like they did for most of the first half. The offense got bogged down driving into traffic and getting frustrated when the whistles didn’t follow. Meanwhile the Pistons capitalized on the lack of defensive intensity to break open their largest least of the game. That was remedied by Miller scoring in bunches of three. He scored 12 points across four Hornets possessions to bring his team all the way back and put them on top. PJ Washington’s fourth three of the night came at the third quarter buzzer and put the Hornets up three heading into the fourth.

The Hornets didn’t get their first points of the fourth until under eight minutes to play, and that took an extraordinarily tough turnaround from Miles Bridges. Their offense was mostly Brides isos, and they didn’t work. Fortunately the Pistons didn’t fare any better on the other end. The Hornets went on maybe the slowest 10-0 run of all time to take a small lead into crunch time. Nick Richards bullied the Pistons inside for a lot of those points. The Pistons answered with their own 7-0 run to go up by four. They were aided by a pair of LaMelo Ball turnovers and a missed LaMelo layup that probably should have been tipped in by Richards. Ball was called for an offensive foul for using his off arm on a layup with under 30 second left, which effectively sealed the game. The Hornets did not score a point in the last two minutes of the game.

The Good

Brandon Miller got more touches without Terry Rozier, and he looked ready for more. He played under control and didn’t force the issue at any point. He picked his spots, like when he got scalding hot in the third quarter, but didn’t try to do too much. It was his fourth straight game with 20+ points.

Nick Richards had his best scoring night of the season and he was the last thread that the Hornets hung onto at the end of the game. He missed some bunnies, but we’ll call it rust. He had a good game.

PJ floated on the perimeter too much, but he had a good all around floor game otherwise. 12 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists.

The Bad

The Hornets, in typical Hornets fashion, did none of the things that helped them win in Minnesota on Monday. The outside shots weren’t falling, but the process wasn’t good either. They drove into traffic and took hurried shots when they had driving lanes. If there was something wrong to be done, it was done. The intensity wasn’t there either. They barely gave themselves a chance to win this game.

LaMelo Ball was one of the more egregious offenders on the effort front. He was frequently disengaged off the ball and got blown by on the perimeter on what seemed like every defensive possession. He finished with 17 points on 6-of-21 shooting and the Hornets were outscored by 24 points with him on the floor. It was a really disappointing performance just from an effort and focus perspective.

Miles Bridges wasn’t a whole lot better. He had his own share of defensive lapses, though probably not as frequent and egregious as LaMelo’s. A chunk of his 21 shot attempts were badly forced out of isolation plays.

What’s Next

The Hornets come home to host the Rockets on Friday.