The Charlotte Hornets had an absolute nightmare of a home opener in front of a restless home crowd.
The Summary
It was not the start the Hornets would have drawn up for their home opener. The Hawks got off to a hot start led by CJ McCollum. Meanwhile, the Hornets built a brick house on the other end of the floor. Moussa Diabate’s effort on the glass on the end was the only thing that kept the offense remotely afloat as the Hornets fell into a double digit hole. They woke up for a stretch in the second quarter, but it unraveled quickly. The Hawks broke open a 23 point lead late in the half to force a Hornets timeout and a chorus of boos from the home crowd.
The halftime break headlined by Petey Pablo didn’t do anything to change how the game was going. The Hornets threw a handful of passes straight to Hawks defenders as the hole grew deeper. There were a few minutes of competence near the end of the third quarter that featured some strong play by Ryan Kalkbrenner, but it was short lived. The deficit was 35 heading into a meaningless fourth quarter.
The Good
The fourth quarter was at least mildly entertaining because we got to see a few of the young guys do things. Hannes Steinbach had a couple nice forays to the basket and continues to gobble up rebounds at an obscene rate when he’s on the floor in any setting. Tidjane Salaun had a few nice buckets as well.
Umm…Naz Reid’s play was okay outside of the turnovers, but not turning the ball over is an important part of playing well.
That’s about all I got. There was nothing redeeming about this game.
The Bad
Where do we start? I guess in fairness to the individuals, we’ll start with the team play. The entire roster looked wholly overmatched by the Hawks. The ball seldom made it into the paint, and most offense consisted of heavily contested looks over defenders. They turned the ball over 27 times and 17 of them were live ball turnovers that were credited as steals to the Hawks. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched an NBA game where a team threw so many easily interceptable passes. Hawks defenders were practically walking into passing lanes for steals that led to runouts. There were also another fair few passes thrown out of bounds, just like we saw in the season opener.
Brandon Miller. You got your payday. You’re the face of the franchise now. The play has to be better. It’s only two games, so there’s obviously more than enough time to find a rhythm, but it’s not been pretty so far. 11 of his 14 shots were threes, and he made one of them. He was 1-of-3 from inside the arc, making him 2-of-14 from the field for the game. He’s now shooting 25.7% from the field and 16.0% from three through two games. He also has one total assist and five total rebounds. He’s gotta lock in.
Sion James has been brutal in the starting lineup, especially knowing that it’s supposed to be Kon Knueppel in that spot. He matched his season opener shooting line with 1-of-6 shooting from three with an additional miss from inside the arc. He’s getting wide open looks and he just doesn’t look confident.
You could sense a little bit of resentment in the crowd from the outset, likely borne out of frustration with the LaMelo Ball trade and the perception that the team isn’t trying to win. It took very little time for that simmering frustration turn into outright vitriol. The crowd booed the team multiple times going into breaks starting in the first half, and the arena was basically two-thirds empty by the time the fourth quarter started. You couldn’t have drawn up a worse home opener after a controversial offseason among the fan base. The team has some work to do to get the fan base believing again.
What’s Next
Fortunately there’s no time to simmer with this loss. The Hornets will be right back out there tonight against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the 0-2 Miami Heat.
