The Charlotte Hornets lost one of the best games of the NBA season so far against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The summary
LaMelo Ball made his return to the lineup and took a bit of time to find his scoring rhythm. In the meantime, he set the table for his teammates while Miles Bridges led the Hornets in early scoring. He eventually hit back to back threes late in the first quarter, and that got the engine really revved up. He was joined in the second quarter scoring department by Kon Knueppel making his return to his home city. On the other side of the floor, the Hornets tried throwing a bunch of defensive looks at Giannis. They doubled him often and mixed in some zone looks to take away his driving lanes. It kept Giannis at bay, but the Bucks shot the ball well enough to make up for it. At the half, the Hornets led 69-61.
Miles Bridges hit a couple of quick threes to help the Hornets to a comfortable lead, but the Bucks caught fire from deep in the third quarter to more than make up for it. They flipped the score and led by five at the end of the third thanks to Gary Harris’s three that scraped the backboard on its way in despite Harris shooting the ball from deep in the corner. The Hornets got even more aggressive doubling Giannis in the fourth, and he made them pay to the tune of six assists. The teams traded blows all fourth quarter. Threes by Bridges and Knueppel matched Bucks layups and tied the game with a little over a minute to go. A goofy Kyle Kuzma jump hook over Knueppel put the Bucks up three with 27 seconds to go. Bridges tried to answer with a tomahawk dunk over Giannis. It missed, but that ended up being a good thing.
Bridges forced Giannis into a tough fadeaway that missed badly to send the game to overtime.
That was the end of the good times for the Hornets. Myles Turner hit a quick pair of threes in the overtime period. That was followed by Giannis getting an open dunk after he took like four steps with the ball in his hands while giving the ball up for a give and go. The Hornets turned it over on the next possession, and it all unraveled from there.
The Good
Kon Knueppel is a stud. He scored a career high 32 points and showed the kind of damage he can do inside the arc. He had 16 first half points without making a three, then added 16 more in the second half with mostly threes. And he had two dunks! He’s now averaging 31 points per game in the NBA Cup. Just an all around offensive superstar in the making.
This Tre Mann dunk in the first half. Even Mann couldn’t help but smile on his way back down the court.
If I remember right, Bucks fans have lamented their inability to rebound against the Hornets and Moussa Diabate in particular. The Moose continues to dominate the Bucks. He finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds with six of those boards coming on the offensive glass. In just five games as a Hornet against the Bucks, Moussa has been credited with 34 offensive rebounds. That’s 6.8 per game on the offensive end alone. And that doesn’t give him credit for all the fouls he draws chasing rebounds and the chaos he causes on the glass that leads to teammates tracking down rebounds.
Miles Bridges had a really good, under control game. He tied Knueppel with a game high 32 points and was almost quiet in accruing those points outside a couple of instances with rapid fire threes. It was a strong, efficient performance from the Hornets veteran.
Sion James finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 steals. He’s starting to get recognition leaguewide as one of the best rookies in the league so far, and tonight showed why. The Hornets used him a lot do double Giannis with Bridges as the primary defender. That led to a lot of the Bucks turnovers. And he plugs all the gaps on both ends of the floor.
Doc Rivers is an easy coach to root against, so it was very funny to see him challenge what was called a jump ball on the floor only to see the out of bounds ruling overturned and the ball given to the Hornets.
The Bad
I probably say this every time the Hornets play the Bucks, so people that read here frequently (thanks by the way) are probably tired of it, but Giannis is kind of a chore to watch as an opposing fan. I know he’s extremely difficult to officiate just because of his size and strength, but also makes him hard to watch. There’s no NBA player that gets away with more travels, and he seems to be allowed to dish out more contact than he’s allowed to receive. There was one play that was fortunately overturned upon a Hornets challenge, but he was originally granted an and-1 after plowing through Mason Plumlee then taking a three step Eurostep for a dunk that was like an 18 foot continuation.
Giving up 18 points in overtime and 147 for the game isn’t ideal. The plan was to get the ball out of Giannis’s hands and make the rest of the Bucks win the game. They did. Non-Giannis players shot 20-of-31 (60.6% from three) which was a risk the Hornets were going to take. I don’t fault the game plan at all, especially since we’ve seen it work wonderfully in the past. It just wasn’t their night tonight.
What’s Next
The Hornets are already back in Charlotte as they get ready to take on the defending champion Thunder on Saturday night.