It was by no means a pretty game, but the Charlotte Hornets locked in defensively to rally to beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 102-95.
The summary
We had the weird aesthetic of the Hornets playing on the blue city court with their regular white jerseys, but no matter. Kon Knueppel hit a three to start the game, then Moussa Diabate followed that with a dunk. There was a scary moment early on when LaMelo Ball collided with Charles Lee as he tried to chase down an errant pass. The two hit heads, and LaMelo had to leave the game. The Pelicans scored eight straight points around the incident to take a lead. The Hornets couldn’t buy a bucket all quarter long until LaMelo returned and hit a stepback three. Grant Williams hit a couple more jumpers after that, but the Hornets still trailed by seven after one.
The shooting struggles continued as the Pelicans’ lead grew. The shots not falling seemed to get in the Hornets’ collective head. The offense looked stagnant, and even open shots looked uncomfortable. There were a lot of bad misses, even with plenty of time and space. They started turning the ball over on top of all that and fell behind by as many as 22 points. LaMelo hit a couple of threes and Williams made one of his own. That spurred a Hornets run that pulled them back within 12 before Derik Queen made a three heading into the break.
LaMelo bricked two threes to start the second half, but Knueppel and Brandon Miller picked him up. The Hornets went on a run to make it a five point game. After some back and forth, the Hornets came all the way back to within a point after a Collin Sexton three. They had multiple chances to take the lead, but they couldn’t get over the hump because of two Knueppel turnovers and missed threes from Knueppel and Sexton. They trailed by four entering the fourth.
The Hornets wasted little time finally taking the lead after the fourth quarter started, and they did so in style. LaMelo got a switch onto Yves Missi, and he blew past the big from the top of the key to soar in for a dunk. On the other end, Charlotte clamped down on the Pelicans and prevented them from making a field goal for the first six-and-a-half minutes of the fourth. That allowed them to trudge out to a nine point lead as time ticked away. The offense never looked pretty, but at the very least the Hornets bled a lot of clock with each of their possessions, which was more than enough with how miserable a time the Pelicans were having on the offensive end of the floor.
The Good
The defense was absolutely phenomenal in the second half. The Pelicans only made ten shots from the field and scored 33 points in the last two quarters of play, and that includes a couple of shots in garbage time when the Hornets had effectively shut it down. They upped their physicality and made the Pelicans play in a crowd in the paint, and it led to a bunch of misses and mounting frustration for the visitors. The Pelicans aren’t a good 3-point shooting team, and the Hornets took advantage of that with the way they guarded them.
LaMelo Ball couldn’t buy a bucket from three (no one could), but he made a couple at key points and he was a clear catalyst for the little mini runs the Hornets used to get back into the game and ultimately take the lead. The Pelicans did a lot of switching, and he punished them when he ended up with Williamson or one of the bigs in front of him. And all of that after getting a cut on his eyelid glued shut just a few minutes into the game.
Brandon Miller, like LaMelo, struggled from deep, but he made timely baskets inside the arc in the second half. It’s gotten to a point where you expect any shot he gets off inside the arc to go in. And we found out during the game that he has been named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for last week. That’s a nice afternoon.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had been quiet for a while, but he made his presence felt in this game, which was a good matchup for him given how paint-dependent the Pelicans are. He blocked three shots, bothered a bunch more, and cleaned up the glass.
Grant Williams had his best game since his return. He and LaMelo were the only players keeping the Hornets alive in the first half. He didn’t do as much in the second half, but the Hornets didn’t need him to. He also did a good job bothering Zion Williamson with his physicality when they were matched up here and there.
The Bad
This was not the kind of offense we’ve gotten used to. Part of that was simply missing shots, which happens sometimes. But beyond that, the process wasn’t great. There was a lot of iso ball and possessions with little to no passing. The Hornets finished with just 16 assists on 34 made shots. The shots would go in more if the ball moved a little bit better.
It got cleaned up as the game went along, but the turnovers looked like they were going to be a major problem early on. The stagnant offense made it easier for the Pelicans to get in position to harass ball handlers and get in passing lanes. Thankfully they were able to cut them down and make life difficult for the Pelicans in the half court.
LaMelo, Miller, Knueppel, and Bridges combined to shoot 22-of-65 (33.8%) from the field and 9-of-42 (21.4%) from three. Again, bad offense, but we can also chalk that up to just a weird night of all of them being cold at the same time.
What’s NExt
That’s seven in a row! The Hornets hit the road for a quick two game road trip, starting with the Rockets on Thursday night. In the meantime, the team will weigh its options heading into the trade deadline on Thursday afternoon.