The Charlotte Hornets played an even game with the Philadelphia 76ers until a 10-0 Philadelphia run in crunch time clinched a loss for the Hornets. Brandon Miller was ejected in the second quarter.

The Summary

The Hornets struggled to score in the game’s early going, believe it or not. They were disruptive on the defensive end, however, and that eventually turned into turnovers that led to much needed easy baskets. Kelly Oubre tossed in a game high 11 first quarter points against his former team, and his current team led 27-24 after one.

The Hornets continued to get a lot of their offense off 76ers turnovers in the second quarter, but they didn’t play good enough all around basketball to take full advantage of it. They briefly tied the game, but the 76ers gradually pulled away towards the end of the second quarter. The game turned when Brandon Miller caught a pass in the left corner. He caught Tyrese Maxey with an elbow to the nose trying to create space and was assed a flagrant foul penalty two, meaning he was ejected from the game. It was truly an inexplicable call. A frustrated and aggressive Hornets team scored six straight to end the half–four of those coming from Tre Mann–to go into halftime down by six.

The Hornets gave themselves a chance to take the lead about midway through the third quarter thanks in large part to Miles Bridges and Nick Richards, but they never got over the hump. The 76ers, and Buddy Hield in particular, went on a run to restore their lead. The Hornets did manage to get their deficit back down to six with a Miles Bridges layup in the final seconds, but they let Tyrese Maxey escort a rolling ball all the way to halfcourt before the clock started, and he made them pay by making a buzzer beating layup of his own to put the Sixers up eight heading into the fourth.

Davis Bertans attacked the basket and earned himself a 3-point play to open the Hornets fourth quarter scoring. Tre Mann went on a 5-0 run with a 3-pointer a floater after some nifty ball handling to pull the Hornets back within one. A Grant Williams post up fadeaway put the Hornets up one on the next possession. The teams traded a few baskets before the former Hornets put the current Hornets away. Kelly Oubre made two layups, the second while being fouled, then Nicolas Batum hit a dagger three from the corner. The Hornets had a couple of sloppy turnovers on the other end that prevented them from keeping pace.

The Good

The Hornets were very active defensively, especially in the first half. They generated a bunch of deflections and their ball pressure otherwise forced a lot of wayward passes that muddied up possessions. They played such solid positional defense that the 76ers threw passes straight to Hornets players a handful of times.

Tre Mann was as aggressive as we’ve seen him in a Hornets uniform and he turned his best game as a Hornet because of it. He finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and four steals. He had an offensive rebound where he snuck in and stole it away from four 76ers. He took over as the Hornets offensive creator for a lot of the fourth quarter and mostly did a good job with it.

Davis Bertans was more than just a 3-point shooter against the 76ers. He took four free throws and was 3-of-3 on shot attempts inside the arc. He put some pressure on the paint when the 76ers took away his space to shoot from three, and he made good things happen with it. He even threw down a little reverse dunk in the final seconds for funsies.

The Bad

The decision to eject Brandon Miller for his elbow on Tyrese Maxey was absurd. Maxey was crowding Miller, almost fouling him in the corner. Miller essentially tried to swim move past Maxey given the lack of space he had and inadvertently caught him with the elbow. Call it a flagrant, sure. You can argue that the contact was severe. But a flagrant two is supposed to be for unnecessary and excessive contact. Given the context of the play, I don’t know how you can definitively say the contact was excessive.

The Hornets played well for most of the night, but they did not when it mattered most. They got real tight when time starting winding down. They committed some bad turnovers and the offense didn’t have the flow that it did at points earlier in the game. After taking their last lead at the 5:42 mark, the Hornets made just 3-of-10 shots (0-of-4 from three) and committed a pair of turnovers, which both occurred during the game deciding 10-0 run. The offense just has no margin for error right now.

What’s Next

The Hornets continue on their road trip, but it’s about as forgiving as a road trip can be. They get two days off before visiting the Magic on Tuesday. They’ll get another three days off before visiting the Hawks.