A makeshift Charlotte Hornets roster stayed competitive with the Celtics for a while before bottoming out in the second half.
The Summary
The Hornets actually looked competent to start the game. While the Celtics struggled to get a shot to go in, the Hornets jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Eventually Boston started finding buckets, but the Hornets did the same in what ended up being a very competitive quarter across the board. So much so that the score was tied heading into the second.
The Celtics ended up closing the half with some hot 3-point shooting, but it took them a while to get there. The Hornets were able to hold onto a lead for a bit, but that fell by the wayside once Boston’s shooting came alive.
Kristaps Porzingis sat the second half presumably for rest. Nick Smith Jr. did the same for what’s being called a groin injury but may just be that he was playing too well.
The Hornets started the second half down by just a point, but that was short lived. They had no answer for the Celtics offense and only had one player on their own side that was able to keep pace. It was a battle of 30s with both Sam Hauser and Seth Curry catching fire and raining threes for their team. The shooting discrepancy between their respective teammates made for a big Boston leading into the fourth.
The Hornets turned the ball over two seconds into the fourth quarter because that’s April NBA basketball baby. Both teams had inauspicious starts to the fourth, but Payton Pritchard and the Celtics bench poured in after a few minutes and ran away with it. Another Hauser three put the Celtics up 30 at the two minute mark and prompted a full emptying of the Boston bench.
The Good
With the loss, the Hornets have clinched the three spot heading into next month’s NBA Draft lottery.
Seth Curry went 5-of-7 from three, giving him enough made threes to qualify for stat leaders and an entire percentage point on the second best 3-point shooter in the league, Zach LaVine. He’s been a rare bright spot for the Hornets offense in the back half of the season and looks like he’ll earn himself a well deserved 3-point accuracy crown for this season. His performance last night was worthy of such an honor. Those weren’t simply wide open catch-and-shoot looks. He had to earn them, with the most notable being a shot clock beater from deep in the corner after pump faking a defender.
He only played the first half before sitting out with what the team is calling a groin issue (though he never came out of the game with an apparent injury), but Nick Smith Jr. looked like he was building off Wednesday’s double double. He finished the first half with nine points and four assists and was playing with a composure that’s been hit and miss this season.
The Bad
I don’t know. It’s hard to pick out problems when the team is playing bad lineups consisting mostly of players that aren’t part of any plan past this season. I guess if I had to pick one thing, it’s that Mark Williams struggled a bit with the physicality of Al Horford and the length of Kristaps Porzingis. He had a pretty good box score otherwise and made some nice defensive plays in the first half. He’s got to figure out a way to bring more intensity on a regular basis, especially for games like this against good teams.
What’s Next
One more game to go, and it’s another one against this very same Celtics team. The Pelicans, Wizards, and Jazz all got steamrolled last night, so the Hornets are locked in to the three spot in the lottery. The Celtics are locked into their playoff seed, so it’s entirely possible we see the bottom six or seven guys on each roster take up all the minutes on Sunday afternoon.
