The Charlotte Hornets were hardly competitive from the outset as they were blown out by the Atlanta Hawks, 134-102.
The Summary
The Hornets fell behind extremely quickly. Onyeka Okongwu scored 10 points with a couple of threes in the first four minutes. A timeout and a couple of DaQuan Jeffries 3-pointers righted the ship to help the Hornets within seven by quarter’s end. Trae Young was called for three fouls in the quarter.
The Hornets scored the first four points of the second quarter after Marcus Garrett picked Young’s pocket at midcourt. The Hawks responded. The Hornets made nine straight shots at one point, but the Hawks seemed to have a run stopper whenever the Hornets got close. They ran away a bit to close the half and led by 13 at the break.
Zaccahrie Risacher hit three consecutive 3-pointers to start the second half. He tacked on a fourth later on and tossed in a couple twos as well. The Hornets had no answer on the other end, and the Hawks turned the game into a laugher.
The fourth quarter was not worth watching. The only thing of consequence was that Moussa Diabate left the game late with an apparent knee injury. It was hard to tell what happened since he collided with Risacher and there were a lot of bodies flying around. Hopefully it ends up not being too severe.
The good
Mark Williams’ stat line doesn’t do him any justice at all. The Hawks clearly felt he was the only threat offensively and completely collapsed on him when he caught the ball in or near the paint. He did a really good job kicking out to shooters and had some high level passes. Unfortunately no one on this Hornets team can shoot, which allowed the Hawks to get away with defending like that.
DaQuan Jeffries shot the ball well and had another pretty good game.
Damion Baugh and Marcus Garrett can feel good about how they played given their status as fringe NBA players. Garrett will always have that moment pickpocketing Trae Young in the open floor.
Seth Curry coming for that 3-point title.
The Bad
The Hornets were completely disjointed defensively. The Hawks got easy looks from three all night, and there was seemingly no awareness of who needed extra attention. Like when Risacher got hot in the third quarter, the Hornets could still not locate him in transition and kept leaving him open. The 134 points allowed were well deserved.
The 17 turnovers the Hornets committed does not accurately represent how sloppy they were with the ball. They benefited from the Hawks going into cruise control defensively with the game so far out of reach. When it was still a contest, the Hornets threw the ball away a bunch, including multiple turnovers in transition that should have resulted in easy shot attempts. Both this and the defense are expected given the wildly varying lineups from game to game. That doesn’t make it any less terrible to watch.
Josh Green and Nick Smith Jr. are a combined 1-of-15 from three since both erupted against the Spurs last Friday.
What’s Next
The Hornets grit their teeth and prepare to get shelled by the New York Knicks on Thursday.