The Charlotte Hornets dropped a magical 130 points on the Magic to celebrate Dell Curry night with a win, 130-111.
The Hornets had to withstand some uncharacteristically hot shooting by Orlando to start the game. They fell behind, but LaMelo Ball scored 14 of the Hornets first 18 points to keep pace. The bench brigade led by Coby White took over from there. They went on a little run to give the Hornets a two point lead after one. Kon Knueppel woke up after a quiet first quarter and helped blow the game open. He hit a three then followed it with a 4-point play a few possessions later. Coby White got extended time with LaMelo in foul trouble and kept up his torrid scoring pace. The Hornets completely stifled the Magic on the other end, and the visitors really only strung together scoring possessions when Paulo Banchero started earning free throws late in the quarter. At the half, the Hornets led by 19.
The third quarter was the Brandon Miller quarter. He tossed in four triples while the rest of the Hornets starters chipped in a handful of points each. The defense was just as rigid as it was in the first half, and Orlando had absolutely no answer for it. The Hornets dominated the third as much as they did the second and set up a stress free fourth quarter on Dell Curry night.
The Magic made a handful of threes to be annoying and make you pay a little bit of attention, but they were never going to have enough time for a comeback without a catastrophic collapse by the Hornets.
How fitting that the Hornets finished with 1**30** points on the night they lifted Dell Curry’s number 30 jersey to the rafters. Kudos to Xavier Tillman to missing a pair of free throws in the final seconds to keep us there. The whole spectacle was perfectly executed. Dell Curry was honored throughout the night during timeouts. Eric Collins did a phenomenal job emceeing the halftime show, to no one’s surprise. Rick Schnall and Seth Curry had a terrific, heartfelt speeches, and Dell Curry was a joy to listen to as he accepted the honor. He handled the whole thing with grace and charisma and had the whole Spectrum Center crowd wrapped around his finger when he spoke. And he kept it relatively tight with the timing. And now the number 30 hangs in the rafters forever, where it belongs.
Outside of a couple of runs at the start of the first and fourth quarters, the Magic had absolutely no answer for the Hornets defense. Charles Lee’s group showed Paolo Banchero a wall every time he touched the ball and forced him into a lot of jumpers. They funneled the ball to the weaker scorers to perfection. If Jevon Carter and Jalen Suggs are competing with Banchero and Desmond Bane in terms of usage, then you’ve done your job as a defense.
Piggybacking off that point, we talked [in the preview](https://atthehive.com/2026/03/19/charlotte-hornets-vs-orlando-magic-preview-game-67/) about the importance of keeping the Magic off the free throw line. They did a pretty good job of that. They limited the Magic to a free throw rate of about 20%, ten percent below their season average. The Magic do not have the scoring punch to keep pace with this Hornets team if they’re forced to score in open play, and we saw that play out.
Coby White stayed hot. He was a one man wrecking crew on offense during his time on the floor. His ability to score at every level and keep the pressure on opposing defenses is such a huge boost to this bench unit. Kon Knueppel and LaMelo Ball both got in foul trouble in the second half, and it was such a relief to have White able to come in and pick up the slack. He finished with 27 points in 23 minutes on just 13 shots.
All three of the Hornets big three played very strong games. They each took a turn with one dominant quarter. LaMelo in the first, Knueppel in the second, and Miller in the third. That’s depth, baby. I don’t really have anything to add to that. They all did the things they do best.
I appreciated Jamahl Mosley getting the most obvious intentional ejection I’ve ever seen. He got was t’ed up in the second quarter for berating the officials. He spent like 30 seconds berating another official, then walked out past half court to yell at another official while Brandon Miller was lining up to take the technical free throw. He was given a ton of rope but did not stop screaming until he was ejected. Upon being ejected, he promptly turned around and left the floor with nary another word.
22 turnovers is a lot of turnovers. I was surprised to see it was that high because it didn’t feel like a problem watching the game live, but yeah that’s not gonna fly most nights.
The Hornets continue the homestand with two very winnable games. First its the Grizzlies on Saturday and then the Kings on Tuesday after a couple days off.
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