Brandon Miller led a balanced scoring attack as the Charlotte Hornets dominated from start to finish in a win over the Brooklyn Nets, 117-86.

The Summary

This was a perfect get right spot for the Hornets, and get right they did. They jumped out to an 18-4 lead with scoring at every level. Brandon Miller took five shots in the first quarter and made them all, scoring 16 points. The Nets unsurprisingly found little in the way of offense, so the Hornets took a commanding 17 point lead into the second quarter. Brooklyn made some inroads early in the second quarter as the Hornets got a little bogged down on the offensive end of the floor. The margin briefly got narrowed to double digits, but the Hornets were able to keep it around 10-12 points for most of the final few minutes of the first half. They led by 12 at the break.

The talent gap showed up again in the third quarter. It was a lot like the Kings game a couple weeks ago. The Nets just couldn’t make shots consistently, and any small offensive spurt by the Hornets blew the lead up even more. The lead ballooned over 20 about eight minutes in, then a Miles Bridges three after his own offensive rebound forced a Nets timeout. The Hornets led by 26 with one quarter to play. They tacked a few more points onto that lead over the next few minutes, which led to the benches getting cleared to play out the string.

The Good

The Hornets never should have been threatened this game, and they made sure that was the case. They jumped on the Nets early and never let up. There were times when the offense got a little clunky, but there was never any indication of a lack of focus or enthusiasm. The Nets are very easy to guard, and Charles Lee’s group took advantage of that. They didn’t play down to the competition and played exactly the game they were supposed to.

Brandon Miller gets credit for getting everything started. He scored at every level and looked confident pulling the trigger from deep. Something to build off for the rest of the season.

Miles Bridges continues to embrace a different role on offense. He was once again the mismatch punisher. Whenever the Nets would switch a smaller defender on him, he’d bully them to the rim and flip in an easy finish. I’ve also questioned his ability to do the little things that contribute to winning, but he did those last night, especially in the third quarter. He deflected a couple of passes, blocked a shot, and tracked down a couple of offensive rebounds. The more he embraces this glue guy role, the better the Hornets will be.

The Bad

I would have liked to see the Hornets shoot the ball better to get their confidence up for the final week and a half of the regular season. While the offense was efficient on the whole, it was more a product of the lack of resistance the Nets provided on the interior and on the glass. The Hornets were only 12-of-39 from deep. That’s going to need to start coming up before we get to a very difficult close to the season, particularly given how good the defenses are that the Hornets will be playing.

On that note, Kon Knueppel lost his streak of consecutive games with a three. He’s been a little cold. Hopefully he can turn it around before the end of the year.

What’s Next

The Hornets have an interesting home stand coming up that could swing the fate of the season. It starts with a visit from a Suns team that’s been struggling of late followed by a game against a Pacers team that only beats teams in the Southeastern division.