Brandon Miller matched a career high with 29 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a third quarter in which the Charlotte Hornets were outscored 44-24 in the loss to the New York Knicks.

Summary

The Hornets carried some of that positive momentum from Monday night’s almost comeback against the Jazz into a strong first half. Brandon Miller had another strong first quarter against the Knicks going a perfect 3-of-3 from both the field and the free throw line, and he didn’t get hurt! Miles Bridges got going after a shaky start and the Hornets only trailed by one after one.

Miller opened the scoring in what ended up being a low scoring but decently entertaining second quarter. Nick Smith Jr. hit a couple of threes in quick succession as the Hornets clung to a small lead. The teams traded that lead back and forth until the Knicks went on a small run just before the break. Bridges made a floater and Miller tipped Donte DiVincenzo’s buzzer beater attempt to set a three point deficit heading into the half.

Since we’re at a point where we make up small wins. The good-ish first half for the Hornets meant they won their last four quarters of basketball by a score of 118-98. That’s basically almost as good as a win.

The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes of the third quarter before the bottom fell out. Jalen Brunson got to the free throw line for an and-1, and that ignited an offensive explosion for the Knicks. It looked like the second half of the Rockets game and first half of the Jazz game. The Hornets weren’t physical on the interior and lost their shooters on the perimeter. The Knicks made 17-of-21 shot attempts in the quarter and outscored the Hornets by 20 points to all but decide the game.

Miles McBride did the Cam Whitmore thing from Friday night with a couple of quick, tough threes to fully drive the dagger into the Hornets. Brandon Miller put a couple of nice shots in, including a floater in which he got knocked to the floor without a whistle. Steve Clifford went bonkers on the sideline and got himself ejected sticking up for his rookie. The team very visibly responded to the ejection and the subsequent increase in energy in the building. They went on a 13-4 run and almost threatened to make a game of it.

The Good

Brandon Miller needs to play the Knicks every night. He set his career high of 29 points against the Knicks back in November, and he matched that in this game. You can see his comfort level consistently rising game over game. He’s handling the ball more and getting better at handling the physicality of the NBA game. He was 8-of-13 from two, 3-of-6 from three and chipped in seven rebounds and three assists to boot.

Miles Bridges continues to almost quietly put up good numbers. He finished a 21-10 double double with five assists to go with it.

It wasn’t his best game, but it was the first time in three tries that PJ Washington followed a 40 point game with double figures. Granted, the second time, he got hurt. But via either poor play or injury, he only scored 11 total points in the two games immediately following his previous 40 point performances. He had 16 tonight but couldn’t recapture the outside shot from Saturday night. A decent follow-up for a player that has a reputation for not having those.

Cody Martin had to moonlight as point guard and did a pretty good job. He finished with eight assists and mostly helped the offense look cohesive. He doesn’t have the wiggle to be a big minute point, but he makes the right play most of the time, which the Hornets need more of. And he had a 4-point play tonight for what has to be the first time in his career.

The Bad

That third quarter defense though. It’s the same thing we’ve seen in the Rockets and Jazz games. The Hornets find a way to protect neither the rim nor the 3-point line. There’s either no help at the basket, allowing for easy layups, or the team panic collapses and loses all semblance of discipline on the perimeter. There’s some bad luck involved, because you don’t expect teams to make 80% of their shot attempts like the Knicks did in the third quarter regardless of how bad the defense is, but bad defense makes that possible.

Hey the bench makes its triumphant return to this section. Nick Smith scored six points in the second quarter with a pair of threes. The bench as a whole scored seven points in 58 minutes. The only other point they scored was a single garbage time free throw from JT Thor. Ish Smith, Leaky Black, and Frank Ntilikina played 34 minutes and scored zero points. Even with some health issues, that’s unacceptably poor production from the bench.

What’s Next

The Hornets stay home to host the Chicago Bulls before hitting the road for a one game road trip against the Oklahoma City Thunder.