Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets. Jacob Kupferman Getty Images
Anticipating the potential of the feat happening during a lengthy road trip, Miles Bridges was asked about climbing the statistical charts of the Charlotte Hornets.
Bridges was closing in on moving past Larry Johnson and Gerald Wallace to trail only Kemba Walker and Dell Curry on the franchise’s all-time scoring list, something that became reality in Sunday night’s 110-87 victory over the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena.
“That means a lot at the same time because those guys put in hard work, and they actually made the playoffs here,” Bridges said. “So, that just shows my loyalty to this team and their loyalty to me. That’s big for me. I just want to continue to keep climbing up the ranks, but at the same time, I want to help us win.”
Bridges, who needed just one point entering the night to slide into third place among Hornets scorers, did just that against Denver. He surpassed Wallace early in the first quarter, reaching the 7,438-point mark with a swooping, spinning layup.
Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets. Jacob Kupferman Getty Images
“It means a lot,” Bridges said after the game. “Coming where I come from, not a lot of people get to accomplish their dreams. I’m still doing that still playing at a high level and I thank God for that and I thank my teammates and my coaches for believing in me.”
Bridges’ milestone came at the end of a lengthy road trip for the Hornets (16-27) that spanned nine days and concluded at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The team quickly put a loss to Golden State on the back burner and mashed their foots on the Nuggets’ necks early, never trailing a team that was without injured star Nikola Jokić.
“From jump street, it was great to see the defensive physicality, the intention to have each other’s back was huge,” coach Charles Lee said. “You could see it early in the game. The connected defense was there. … Finishing possessions as a group was really good.
“And I thought that offensively, we did a great job of playing a little bit more together. And I’m really proud of the group for finishing the road trip on a high note.”
It was a trek chock-full of lessons learned for the Hornets. How specifically?
“I think that one of the things that I have talked to our staff about is just how I think we’ve gotten better and better as this road trip has gone on,” Lee said. “It just shows the level of maturity that I think that our group has right now. The level of being obsessed with daily improvement, at the end of the day. We have taken advantage of every game that we’ve had out here, but also every day, every practice day that we’ve had as well.”
As for a synopsis of their excursion traversing the Mountain and Pacific time zones, Lee noted the up-and-down nature of his team that included a rough outing against Golden State preceding the date with Denver.
“Starting with a really good win in Utah, then tough loss in L.A. versus the Clippers,” he said. “I thought that we learned from some of the things that happened in that game. And then we were a lot better versus the Lakers. And then not great (Saturday) night, but even not playing great from a tactical standpoint, it was a 3-point game. And then obviously Draymond Green hit that corner three.
“So, really proud of the group. … Our group is still competing their tails off.”
In a nutshell, the road trip fully embodies the Hornets inconsistencies, adding to a pattern that’s become even more noticeable over the course of the past two weeks given who’ve they’ve played.
This latest stretch all came on the heels of following up one of the best wins — not just of the season, but statistically in franchise history — in Oklahoma City with that pair of duds at home against Toronto and Indiana.
Handling adversity and success is a work in progress for the Hornets.
“I think that they all have a level of humble confidence and understanding that we are a good team and when we play the way that we need to play on both ends of the floor, we can beat any team in the NBA,” Lee said. “But we also have to have that humility that when we don’t play as hard as we need to, or we don’t play as together as we need to, or we don’t lock in on the things that are important for winning games, then we can be beat.
“I think that this group just has a great sense of what that looks like.”
Up next
After a couple of days off, the Hornets host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night in Charlotte’s only nationally-televised game on ESPN this season. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.