LaMelo Ball and Moussa Diabate left the game early with injuries and the Charlotte Hornets lost an ugly one to the Brooklyn Nets, 97-85.

The Summary

The Hornets actually started the game okay this time. They took an early lead with some good ball movement and a couple of threes. Moussa Diabate feasted with all of the offensive activity and threw down four early dunks. Things got a little sloppy towards the later parts of the quarter, and a visibly uncomfortable LaMelo Ball left the game and headed straight to the locker room. The Hornets trailed by four after a high scoring first quarter.

The Hornets struggled offensively without LaMelo’s dynamism. It made for a clunky quarter where not a whole lot happened. Without much scoring, the Hornets slowly fell behind the Nets, ultimately trailing by 12 at the break.

Diabate opened the second half scoring with a swooping hook shot that was illustrative of his growing confidence. He turned out to be the only reliable source of offense all quarter long. He scored 10 points that included the aforementioned hook shot, a post up, and more! The rest of the team combined to make 2-of-13 shots in the quarter. They scored 35 points in the middle half of the game and went into the fourth quarter down by 20.

Hornets rookies Tidjane Salaün and KJ Simpson each had strong drives to the basket to give their team their first buckets of the fourth quarter. On defense, Charles Lee had the squad in a zone, and it gave the Nets all sorts of fits. If the Hornets had any sort of functional offense and/or weren’t in such a big hole, they might have actually had a chance to pull off a comeback. The Nets hit their final score of 97 with 5:48 to go. That gave the Hornets time to score the last 14 points of the game to make the score line more respectable.

The Good

Moussa Diabate had an incredible game. He didn’t play the fourth quarter after his eye injury got aggravated, but he still managed a career high in scoring. He tried to dunk everything when he caught the ball near the basket, and you could see his confidence grow as the game went on. He had some nice finishes out of post ups and of his own creation. He’s setting himself up for a real fun finish to the season.

Tidjane Salaün wasn’t super efficient, but he had some better moments last night. He ended up with 16 points with a couple made threes and a couple strong finishes at the rim. There were still some really goofy moments, but he was a decently effective player against the Nets.

The Hornets played good defense overall, and especially when they went to a zone in the second half. It probably wouldn’t be as effective against good teams, but it’s a nice tool to have to throw at opposing teams in moderation.

The Bad

Miles Bridges was pretty much invisible. He only scored seven points and didn’t really do anything to make his presence felt in the game. He’s played well up to this point. Let’s see how he bounces back on Wednesday.

The rest of the Hornets not already mentioned could probably go here. None of the non-French Hornets played up to their standards, hence the 85 points on the scoreboard.

What’s Next

The Hornets try to scrounge together enough players to make a team for their visit to the Magic on Wednesday.