Miles Bridges set a new career high in scoring to nearly lead the Charlotte Hornets to a win over the league best Cleveland Cavaliers.
Mikes Bridges opened the scoring—a sign of things to come. He scored 10 of the Hornets’ first 12 points during an explosive start for both teams. The rest of the quarter ebbed and flowed, and Bridges’ 15 points in the frame carried the Hornets to a 27-27 tie.
Sam Merrill splashed a couple of threes to start the second, but the Hornets answered with some energy and tough defense. Jusuf Nurkic got a steal at midcourt and ran it in for a fastbreak dunk. He tried to hang on the rim, but he lost his grip and fell hard to the floor. He popped right up though. The Hornets struggled a bit with a Cavs zone in the later parts of the half and fell behind by as many as 12 and trailed by 11 at the break.
The second half is where the whistles started. The Hornets got called for five fouls in the first three minutes of the quarter, two of which were pretty tough calls defending off the ball. Three of them were on LaMelo Ball. With LaMelo on the bench, Bridges asserted himself like he did in the first quarter. The Hornets defended the Cavaliers very well when they weren’t getting called for fouls. A Tidjane Salaün hit a three to pull the Hornets within two, and they went into the fourth only off by four.
Salaün hit another three to start the fourth and then tied the game with an extraordinarily deep three off the dribble a few possessions later. They took the lead with a rolling dunk from Nurkic next time down. The lead grew as large as nine with Damion Baugh chipping in some energy plays and a floater in the lane. It all had Spectrum Center rocking and the Cavs looking frazzled. The visitors benefited from being in the bonus, and a couple of Hornets fouls on dribblers slowed the momentum and put the Cavs on the line for free points. More fouls eventually gave the Cavs their lead back to set up a dramatic finish.
Damion Baugh slashed through the lane to tie the game at 110 with a minute left, but that was quickly answered by a strong layup by De’Andre Hunter on the other end. Bridges tried to answer with his own foray to the rim, but he lost the ball amidst a lot of contact and no whistles. That set up a free throw show. The Hornets had to foul to get the ball back, Hunter fouled Bridges on a lob play, then the Hornets fouled again.
Down four, the Hornets drew up a look for Nick Smith Jr. in the corner. He missed but followed his own shot. He grabbed the rebound and kicked it out to Bridges, who pump faked himself open before knocking down a three to get within one. The teams exchanged fouls again after that. Bridges topped his career high with a pair of free throws during all this.
Mitchell had a chance to put the Cavs up three with four seconds left, but he missed both foul shots. It took a second for the Hornets to gather the rebound, and Bridges was forced to heave a potential game winner from half court. It came up several feet short, making for an anticlimactic end to an otherwise exhilarating game.
Miles Bridges obviously gets a shoutout here. He scored a career high 46 points and was far and away the driving force in the Hornets staying competitive against the league’s best team. The Cavs couldn’t stay in front of him, and he shot the three ball with confidence.
Tidjane Salaün had his fair share of good moments. Obviously the threes were big, especially given the timing of them. He also had a couple of good grown man rebounds in traffic and a some nice passes to dissect the Cavaliers’ zone, even if they mostly didn’t amount to anything. All around it was a good game for the rookie except for one moment in the next section.
The Hornets outscored the Cavs by 18 points with Jusuf Nurkic on the floor. His strength bothered Jarrett Allen in particular. He kept them away from the rim and controlled the paint.
Moussa Diabate had a possession in the fourth quarter where he was matched up defensively with Donovan Mitchell. He stuck to him like glue and then swatted his floater out to the 3-point line. The Cavs ended up scoring off the deflection, but it was an incredible defensive possession for the Frenchman.
The Hornets really brought it last night. They defended hard and held the Cavaliers well below their usual shooting splits. Their physicality drew _a lot_ of whistles, but you love to see the competitiveness. It was a defensive performance worthy of a win outside of the free throws.
These numbers got slightly inflated by the end game circumstances, but the Hornets were called for 33 fouls. The Cavaliers tied a Hornets franchise opponent record for free throws made with 43. They attempted 51 free throws to the Hornets 21. The Hornets bear some of the blame, but there were a fair few number of soft whistles. Like those foul numbers are absurd. The Hornets were getting visibly frustrated with whistles early and Charles Lee made comments about them after the game, and I can’t say I blame any of them.
[This defensive possession](https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=205&GameID=0022400904&Season=2024-25&flag=1&title=Jerome%201%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(2%20PTS)) by Tidjane Salaün.
Rough night at the office for LaMelo Ball. He fouled out in just 23 minutes in which he didn’t play particularly well anyway. I at least appreciated that the fouls were attempts at playing with physicality and not cheapies.
The NBA needs to legislate fouling when up three. I know it’s good strategy, but it hurts the entertainment value of a game that’s supposed to be entertaining. We’re getting robbed of potential game tying threes as the clock winds down.
The Hornets are right back at it tonight against the Nets.
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