The Charlotte Hornets played an intensely competitive game with the surging Raptors but couldn’t quite hang on at the end.
The summary
The two teams spent the first few minutes of the game feeling each other out. The Hornets were just a bit colder than Toronto, who built a small lead as the benches started to filter in. The game took on a bit more of a frenetic pace at that point. The Hornets evened the game up heading into the second quarter, but a cold spell allowed the Raptors to rebuild their lead back to where it was before the run. The second quarter was a bit of a chore to watch as both teams threw themselves around and grunted and groaned for foul calls. At the half, the Hornets trailed by five.
Kon Knueppel scored the first five points of the first half to make it 12 straight Hornets points and a tie game. The Hornets were eventually able to take a lead, but some less-than-ideal offensive possessions made that lead short lived. They were able to keep the game close throughout the rest of the third quarter and deep into the fourth, and they eventually took the lead when Moussa Diabate blocked Scottie Barnes on one end then sprinted down the floor for a dunk on the other.
The Raptors tied the game when Brandon Ingram’s three missed everything, but as is often the case with airballs, it ended up being a perfect pass. Barnes collected it and backed Miles Bridges down for the easy layup to tie the game with a minute to play. LaMelo Ball missed a tough, heavily contested floater to take the lead back. RJ Barrett took it for the Raptors with an open layup after some good Raptors ball movement. It looked like the Hornets were poised to tie the game back up in the final ten seconds when LaMelo found Ryan Kalkbrenner alone under the basket, but Brandon Ingram came crashing down from out of the clouds to block the dunk from behind. The Hornets got another opportunity, but Miles Bridges’ tough, heavily contested fadeaway drew front iron. It fell to Collin Sexton, who had an easy game tying layup, except for the fact that Scottie Barnes pulled a Brandon Ingram and swatted Sexton from behind as the clock expired.
The good
Kon Knueppel gets his usual place in this section. He often feels like the most consistent and under control player the Hornets have on offense, which is both a credit to him and a bit of a slight to the Hornets veterans. Knueppel topped 20 points with 40% 3-point shooting again, and this time he added five offensive rebounds to the tally. He was 5-of-6 on shots inside the arc, making a couple of contested layups and pull up jumpers. Another strong showing that’s quickly becoming the norm for the rookie.
Moussa Diabate is such a joy. He almost snuck his way to a double double and had four blocks, two of which helped spur the Hornets on a run that almost won them the game.
The Bad
I thought the Hornets could have played with a bit better pace and urgency. There were a lot of offensive possessions where the ball movement felt more like a team going through the motions rather than real intention to make good plays. And to that point, the ball movement wasn’t that great as a whole. There were too many shots in traffic and not a lot of easy plays being made. The Hornets were only credited with 19 assists on 37 made shots, which is a much lower percentage than you want to see from this team, especially with LaMelo Ball in the lineup pulling the strings. The fact that Ryan Kalkbrenner and Moussa Diabate only combined for six shot attempts shows how little the ball was getting out of the primary ball handlers’ hands at the end of possessions.
Credit to the Raptors, but the Hornets badly struggled with their length and activity off the ball. Just executing simple passes after rebounds or swings around the perimeter seemed difficult as the Raptors seemed to deflect a pass or two on almost every possession.
It was not a very impactful game for LaMelo Ball. He didn’t shoot well at all and disappeared in the fourth quarter after missing a few quick shots early in the fourth quarter. He did tally eight assists, but they didn’t feel like anything spectacular leading to easy buckets. The Raptors stuck Scottie Barnes and Jamal Shead on him for a lot of the game to try to bother him with physicality, and it worked.
It seemed like the Raptors had an inordinate number of loose balls bounce right to players that were open under the basket. There were a few of those moments that happened within a short span of time in the first half, and then the most notable came at the end of the game with airball that fell into Scottie Barnes’ lap for the game tying basket.
What’s Next
The Hornets stay on the road to take on a Pacers team that has fallen from the NBA Finals all the way to the bottom of the NBA standings.