The Charlotte Hornets scored 29 second half points in a game that featured a lot of fouling, yelling, and other tomfoolery as they lost to the Pistons 98-94.

The Summary

The teams traded baskets to start the game and played a rather even first quarter. The Hornets used a late spurt to top 30 points in the quarter and take a five point lead into the second.

They kept their energy up into the second quarter and kept the Pistons at arm’s length. As the half drew near, the Pistons imploded. The Hornets went on a run to build a double digit lead, and it was aided by an unusual sequence by Detroit. They were called for a foul with under three seconds left, and Isaiah Stewart received a tech for arguing it. JB Bickerstaff challenged the call and won, meaning the Hornets only got the technical free throw, which Bridges missed. Instead of escaping with that victory, the Pistons tried to inbound the ball out to half court. Bridges intercepted it and dribbled into a three at the buzzer.

For as good as the second quarter was, the third quarter was probably worse. The Pistons ratcheted up their effort, and the Hornets didn’t match it. Pistons misses were rare, and when they happened, the Pistons beat the Hornets to most of the rebounds. The offense on the other end was clunky and seemingly didn’t generate a good look for the entire quarter. There were some fireworks with technical fouls and animated coaching. When all was said and done, the Pistons outscored the Hornets by 15 and took the lead heading into the fourth.

The fourth quarter score after three minutes was 2-2. The rock fight nature of the game lasted throughout, and the Pistons were much better equipped to deal with it. The Hornets turned the ball over a number of times trying to dribble through traffic, and the runouts that resulted from them were a big part of the Pistons fourth quarter scoring. Despite the poor play, the Hornets did enough to hang around, but four straight missed free throws by KJ Simpson and Cody Martin derailed a little comeback attempt. The Hornets had two attempts to tie the game while down three thanks to some horrendous looking free throws by Ausar Thompson in between. On the first, Simpson drove into Duren and did nothing resembling a basketball play, which went down as a block for Duren. On the second, the Hornets struggled to free up Bridges, who eventually got the ball but had to throw up another prayer. This time didn’t work out as well as in Chicago.

The Good

The Hornets had some really good defensive possessions. Not that the Pistons have a lot of great offensive threats to contain, but you could see a good process. The Hornets stayed attached to one another if they opted to double a ball handler and they largely did a good job contesting shooters.

Miles Bridges and Mark Williams are the only players playing consistently functional basketball right now. They had some bad turnovers in the fourth quarter, but they were pretty heavily overburdened offensively.

The Bad

The Hornets have to figure out a way to better deal with ball pressure, or get more players that can safely dribble the ball. The Pistons applied a ton of ball pressure in the second half, and the Hornets response was to back further and further out to half court to initiate the offense. It was never more evident than when Mark Williams was pressed all the way out to half court and turned the ball over trying to hand off to Miles Bridges in the half court/sideline corner. They need to start back cutting this ball pressure or something.

The offense in general is devoid of talent without Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball. Mark Williams and Miles Bridges can get some buckets on the interior, but there’s just no space for them to operate. None of the guards or wings active right now can even get the ball inside the 3-point line with their dribble.

The Hornets missed 11 free throws in a game they lost by four.

What’s Next

The Hornets play an early-ish game at 6:00pm in Cleveland on Sunday.