The Charlotte Hornets got 51 combined points from LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges but couldn’t stop the Timberwolves in the 125-110 loss.
The Summary
Miles Bridges led the Hornets a pretty good offensive start. He scored 10 quick points in a first quarter that was competitive for a while. Only problem was the defense. The Hornets allowed what was essentially a layup line on the other end, which allowed the Wolves to 39 first quarter points and an 11 point lead.
The second quarter feature more good shooting from both teams. Seth Curry in particular knocked down three straight threes to do his part. The Hornets stuck within single figures of the Wolves for most of the quarter. There was a period where the Hornets slipped and let the Wolves get their hands on a lot of balls to start fast breaks, but the home team got some stops and scored six straight to close the half and go into the locker room down seven.
The Hornets stayed strong offensively for a lot of the third, but they couldn’t stop breaking down defensively. Jaden McDaniels was the primary beneficiary of that with open threes and layups got by moving off the ball. The Hornets trailed by as many as 20 points as Timberwolf rookies (Timberpups?) hit a pair of threes. They finally got a few stops in the last few minutes to help cut the deficit to 14 heading into winning time.
The Timberwolves built onto to their lead in the early stages of the fourth as the Hornets struggled to find offense. They trailed by as many as 22, but then the Wolves took their own turn struggling. They seemingly started trying to just play out the clock and went several minutes without any made shots. That allowed the Hornets to chip away and whittle the margin down to 10 points on a nice ball hopping fast break that ended in a Mark Williams dunk. Chris Finch got the fellas in line during a timeout, and his Wolves went on a run to close the game out comfortably.
The Good
It was a rough night behind the arc, but Miles Bridges was once again the best player on the team. His competitiveness has not waned as the season has worn on. Credit to him for that.
Seth Curry seems to play well whenever he’s in the rotation. The fact that he feels like one of the most reliable players on the team shows how far away the collection of players playing right now are from competing for anything.
The Bad
I’ve talked about Nick Smith Jr.’s poor shooting. It was better last night. The defense was very yikes though. There was one particular possession in the first quarter—you could see Charles Lee yelling and gesturing for him to dig at a Julius Randle post up. Instead he just kind of lingered near Randle without lifting a hand. The ball was kicked out to Jaden McDaniels, who NSJ was guarding, and NSJ let him dribble straight down the lane for an easy dunk. He’s not the only one responsible for those kinds of plays, but he had some pretty egregious ones.
You can tell opposing teams smell blood in the water whenever Tidjane Salaün puts the ball on the floor. He had three turnovers in 16 minutes and had a couple other balls knocked away that ended up staying with the Hornets. He can’t play meaningful minutes on a team that wants to win games when he dribbles so poorly.
Jusuf Nurkic did a lot of nothing.
The Hornets were really, really bad without their primary pieces on the floor. LaMelo Ball (-1), Miles Bridges (+2), and Mark Williams (+6) helped anchor competitive minutes. The Hornets lost by 15, which shows how badly the supporting cast got outplayed when they were out there without that trio.
You could see some dejection on the bodies of Hornets with some of the defensive breakdowns. Guys don’t seem to be on the same page right now.
What’s Next
The Hornets have a Friday/Saturday back to back. It starts with the league leading Cavaliers on Friday then fellow tanker Nets on Saturday.
