Nick Smith Jr. scored a game high 21 points to lead the Charlotte Hornets to a summer league win over the Denver Nuggets, 80-66.

The Summary

The Hornets found themselves in a rare early, albeit small hole in the first quarter. They climbed out of it by dominating the Nuggets on the offensive glass and used a 10-0 run to close the first quarter to take a 22-15 lead. The second quarter was a bit of a slog, but the Hornets still managed to hold onto a three point lead at the half. Nick Smith Jr. dominated the first half offensively.

NSJ took a backseat in the third quarter while Zavier Simpson, Tidjane Salaun, and Jake Stephens scored almost all of the Hornets points in the period while they built up a double digit lead. The Nuggets went on a run to start the fourth quarter, but the Hornets responded to restore their lead. Smith hit a pair of late threes that served as the dagger.

The Good

Nick Smith Jr. continued his strong play in Las Vegas after his frigid shooting in the California Classic. He scored at all three levels, especially in the first half. He stayed patient while his teammates took over the scoring load for a long stretch in the second half. He’s definitely looking like someone that’s close to contributing for the varsity team.

Just like in his first game, it took Salaun a little bit of time to find his footing, but he had some good moments in the second half. He had a few times where his loose handle hut him when he got too aggressive in transition, but on the whole it was a good performance, especially for a kid who you’d think never played basketball before this game if you only knew about him from the broadcast. He finished with a 10 point, 10 rebound double double in only 19 minutes of play. He still has a lot to tighten up, but his effort and feel for how to use it had a major positive impact on the game.

Zavier Simpson is such a good floor general. He didn’t have the best shooting night, but he finished with another eight assists with no turnovers.

The Hornets should be a lot of fun to watch this season if they play a similar style to the summer league team. They play fast in transition and get a lot of 3-pointers up. The defense has been very connected and has been impressively devoid of breakdowns in summer league play.

Just about every player on the Hornets active roster made their way out to watch the summer league team. LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller, Mark Williams, Grant Williams, Tre Mann, Seth Curry, Cody Martin, and Nick Richards were all in the front row to watch the young guys play. Kemba was with them too.

The Bad

Leaky Black hasn’t been the offensive performer you’d want to see coming into his second season. The defense and decision making are good, but he hasn’t been hitting his shots at a good clip and hasn’t found many opportunities for himself. I’d like to see him try to be more aggressive in the last few games of summer league.

A general summer league complaint–they like to get college basketball analysts on the call, and they have a very clear bias towards college standouts and don’t seem to value European basketball. Like I said above, if you knew nothing about Salaun coming into the game and based your opinion off the broadcast, you’d think he was just learning how to play the sport of basketball. Meanwhile we get to hear about how teams don’t value 23 year old rookies that averaged 12 points per game and shot 40% from the field in their senior season.

What’s Next

The Hornets take on the summer Celtics at 5:30 Eastern time Wednesday afternoon.