Miles Bridges scored 26 points and Grant Williams added 24 off the bench to help the Charlotte Hornets get their first win in Utah since 2006, 115-107.
Brandon Miller topped his Rising Stars game output by hitting a three to open the post-all star break scoring on the Hornets’ first possession. It took about three-and-a-half minutes for the Hornets to score again as the Jazz scored nine straight to take an early lead. But the visitors gradually found their rhythm. Tre Mann hit a couple of step back threes, Seth Curry checked in and hit a couple of jumpers, and ended up shooting their way to a 34 point first quarter. They led by eight going into quarter number two.
The Hornets found scoring harder to come by in the second quarter. They had a couple spurts of threes but didn’t make a shot from inside the arc until Grant Williams made a layup with 2:36 left in the half. He finished with 10 points in a quarter that wasn’t super aesthetically pleasing. They lost a few points off their lead but still led by four at the half.
The second half got off to a clunky start. Both teams made a couple of baskets before a weird span of like 10 seconds where the referees fell asleep or something. Miles Bridges yammed on Taylor Hendricks’ head with all sorts of contact without a whistle. The Jazz quickly inbounded to Keyonte George, who took a hop, a skip, and three steps before dribbling the ball with Tre Mann contesting the inbound. It was such an obvious travel that most of the players seemed to stop playing anticipating a whistle. George threw the ball away trying to avoid a call, but the Hornets couldn’t do anything with it because Mann was assessed a technical foul while the Hornets were stealing the wayward pass. Nick Richards got a tech of his own a couple possessions later after also dunking on Hendricks and giving him a flex as he went back down the court.
Anyway, basketball.
The Jazz outworked the Hornets in the later stages of the third quarter. They got a handful of offensive rebounds and otherwise kept a lot of possessions alive with their activity on the offensive glass. They took a lead as large as seven before a pair of back to back threes from Grant Williams separated by Williams forcing a turnover on the other end. The Jazz got a Brice Sensabaugh three at the buzzer to take a five point lead into the fourth.
The fourth started with a Seth Curry airball, which is always a good omen. The Hornets didn’t need the offense though. They held the Jazz without a point for about five and a half minutes and worked for their own baskets on the other end. They scored 14 straight points before Keyonte George made a funky floater to stop the run. That was followed by another pair of Grant Williams to put the Hornets up nine with under four minutes to play. Miles Bridges added a couple of buckets to keep the Jazz at bay, and his pullup jumper with 33 seconds to go served as the dagger. That play was set up after Brandon Miller ripped a key defensive rebound away from John Collins on the other end.
The Good
Grant Williams gets the game ball for the evening despite not quite having the box score production as Bridges. He hit his shots when the Hornets were offensive ruts in the second and third quarters.
Miles Bridges continues to be tremendously productive with the new supporting cast. He ended up with 26 points and 14 rebounds despite a somewhat slow start. He’s averaging 22.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on 55.6/50.0/72.7% shooting splits. He’s put up near all star level production in the month of February.
Tre Mann flashed moments that make him so intriguing. He hit tough threes off the dribble in the first quarter and had some disruptive moments on defense and on the glass. He stuffed the stat sheet again and is quickly establishing himself as a piece of the Hornets core going forward.
The Hornets made 20-of-42 threes. 10 of those came from the new look bench. That’s like seven games worth of production from the old bench.
The Bad
The Jazz are really good at this so it isn’t a total failing of the Hornets, but the Jazz got a lot of offensive rebound. The Hornets didn’t pay great attention to detail on their box outs and were outhustled to a lot of long rebounds, especially in the third quarter. They made up for it with their own offensive rebounding production and got the rebounds they needed late in the game, but it’s something to clean up.
Point Cody wasn’t my favorite part of the game. He is back to doing more of the usual Cody Martin things now that he isn’t handling as much offensive burden, but the offense has some really awkward moments. It’s like he reminds himself that he needs to stay aggressive at random points throughout the game. Tonight, he’d be invisible on offense for long stretches then over-dribble into a weird ill advised shot kind of out of nowhere. He only tallied five points and two assists with three turnovers.
What’s Next
The Hornets are back in the short pants tonight (Friday night) against the Golden State Warriors. It’ll be a full Curry family reunion.
