Miles Bridges set a career high for the second straight game by scoring 45 points, but a bad fourth quarter from the Charlotte Hornets led to a loss to the Toronto Raptors, 123-117.

Summary

The Hornets got out to a hot start and hit their first four shots to help them out to a quick 15-3 lead. Miles Bridges and Cody Martin got most of the production for the Hornets–Bridges scored 15 points–but Brandon Miller made the play of the quarter.

TWO. WAY. PLAYER. 👀 @brandmillerr | @hornets pic.twitter.com/7ZTZlNrs5Y

— Bally Sports: Hornets (@HornetsOnBally) February 8, 2024

Martin and Bridges ended up combining for 24 points in the first quarter alone, and the Hornets led 36-27 heading into quarter number two.

The second quarter didn’t go quite as well. The teams traded baskets for a little bit but the Hornets lost their way offensively for a little bit. A timeout and back to back threes from Nick Smith Jr. helped remedy that a bit. Cody Martin kept up his hot shooting and made a pair of late threes, but one didn’t count because of a bad screen from Nathan Mensah. The Hornets took a six point lead into the half led by Bridges’ 15 points and Martin’s 12.

Cody Martin continued his career night early in the third quarter to keep the Raptors at bay. Miles Bridges rejoined the party with several buckets in a row to cross the 30 point threshold midway through the third quarter. Brandon Miller joined the party too, but the Hornets couldn’t slow down Dennis Schroder on the other end, who kept the game alive. The teams tied the quarter at 37 points. Bridges entered the fourth with 36 points, five off a career high, and Martin entered with 19, two off a career high. The Hornets led by six.

The Hornets started the fourth quarter with a terrifying lineup combination of Ish Smith, Bryce McGowens, Leaky Black, PJ Washington, and Nick Richards. They got a single transition layup from McGowens in nearly three minutes of court time but defended well enough to stay above water. Brandon Miller checked in and immediately tossed in a mid range jumper to help. The offense got even worse as the starters game back in. There was almost no ball or player movement and the Hornets barely moved the ball towards the rim for several possessions. Bridges came back to life for a bit and Miller hit a three to briefly give the Hornets a lead after they lost it, but the Hornets offense otherwise had no answers as they watched the Raptors fly past them and finish the game with an almost comfortable win.

The Good

That might be the last game we of Miles Bridges in a Hornets uniform, and if that’s the case, he made sure to go out on his best foot. He broke the career high he set on Monday with 45 points. The shots stopped falling at the end, but he had an insanely efficient game for most of the evening. He got back in the rebound column with seven of those, five of which came on the offensive side of the ball.

Cody Martin looked like he was well on his way to a career high in scoring but tapered off at the end of the game as well. He was aggressive hunting his shot early in the game and shot the three ball with a lot of confidence. He probably should’ve taken a few more shots in the fourth quarter, but he got a little timid. He ended up with 19 points and eight assists, which is one of the better box score outputs of his career.

Brandon Miller scored over 20 points for the sixth straight game. He didn’t have as many opportunities in this game with Bridges and Martin being so aggressive, but he still found his moments. Still a superstar in the making.

Nick Smith Jr. made three out of his four 3-point attempts and scored nine points in 13 minutes of action. He played fewer minutes than Ish Smith, who scored 0 points on 0-of-5 shooting.

Bryce McGowens had a decent game. His confidence seems to wax and wane, and tonight we got the confident version. He shot his threes without hesitation and found a couple of moments to attack the basket.

The Bad

The Hornets gave up 69 points in the second half. They didn’t have as many egregious errors that led to uncontested baskets as they normally do, but they still looked like a generally disorganized mess, especially in the second half.

The offense fell apart in the fourth quarter. Some of that was just cold shooting from guys that were on fire for most of the game. But the process to get those shots was bad. There was almost no ball movement–the Hornets only registered three assists in the quarter, and they all came in a three possession stretch in the middle of the quarter when they made their last push. They spent huge chunks of the shot clock just trying to get the ball to a particular player and then had no time for a plan B if the iso possession bore no fruit. More often than not, it didn’t. Part of that is the Hornets not having good iso scorers. Another part of that was that the Hornets kept getting in each other’s way. The spacing was bad and no one really seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing while whoever was dribbling around.

It’s kind of a broken record at this point, but the fact that a decently experienced group of not terrible NBA players still can’t seem to play with any sort of cohesion or identity is a massive indictment on the coaching staff and to some extent the front office.

What’s Next

The Hornets head out on the road for the second straight Friday to visit the Bucks. But before that, we have the trade deadline on Thursday afternoon, so the roster will almost surely be different by then.