GAME RECAP: Hornets Snap Losing Streak, Brandon Miller’s 27 Points and a Courtside Ejection

GAME RECAP: Hornets Snap Losing Streak, Brandon Miller’s 27 Points and a Courtside Ejection

The Hornets say eight is enough. They get a win over the Chicago Bulls and they end their sevengame losing streak. I will tell you how they did it next on Locked on Hornets. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. in a minute cuz we live. Welcome in. Welcome in to a fun edition of Locked on Hornets. We haven’t had well, we always have fun, but we haven’t gotten to talk. We haven’t had you had an opportunity to talk about fun basketball here on Locked On Hornets, your daily podcast on the Charlotte Hornets for quite a while. But we get to uh here on this episode because the Charlotte Hornets beat the Chicago Bulls 123 to 116 to get back into the win column. By the way, this show part of the locked podcast network, your team every day, now the number one sports podcast network. I’m Doug Branson. You can follow my work on every hornetsboxcord.com. You can watch Yahoo Sports Daily every day. I’m usually joined by Walker Mail of WFNZ. can listen to him every day on on WFNC on the Weston Walker Show 12 to3. You probably watched him tonight on the FanDuel Sports Network broadcast filling in for Terren Oglesby as he’s done a couple of times this season. He did he did a fantastic job uh there as he always does. Him and I are going to link back up next week uh to talk about everything around this team. But for now, you got me over the next uh two episodes. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. So, the Charlotte Hornets get a win. What was this game? What wasn’t this game? I want to get into that. I want to talk a little bit about Brandon Miller uh powering this team, leading the team in scoring. Is he fully back? I’ve got some sicko celebrations to share with you. uh from the Siko Brigade. Joinex.comsharlott Hornets if you want to share in the Siko celebrations in the Siko Lamentations. It doesn’t matter win or lose. I want to hear from you. But the Charlotte Hornets, they win this game 123 to 116. I mentioned Brandon Miller, 27 points, 10 of 19 from the field, 52% shooting. Uh he adds uh five threes in this game. Five of 11. So it’s 45 I’m gonna say 46%. 45.5 I’m rounding up. If the Hornets win, I round up. If they lose, I round down. He also has three blocks in this game. Three good plays. But I would say Brandon, I love that the offense is back. I really do. The Hornets need all the offense they can get because the team defense is not very good. And I would say Brayden Miller’s defense in particular in this game, uh, not very good, you know, just on an individual level, not keeping a lot of guys in front, getting burned by Kobe White a lot in this game. Uh, but his offense enough to overcome some of those defensive deficiencies. And I’ll just share a couple of the Siko celebrations right now. Uh, obvious this uh 601 says obvious game ball. I believe that’s Schumann. Yeah, Schumann of the 22nd Mullins regiment. Obvious game ball to B. Miller and another to LaMelo, Colin and Miles for playing measured basketball. I think that’s a great description of what we saw tonight. Measured basketball. This is an interesting interesting stat. Before I get into what this game was and what it wasn’t, uh I I do I did run into this stat as I was kind of preparing here briefly before I jumped on the mic. And the Hornets only 14 turnovers in this game. I say only because I mean we have seen a lot of 20 plus turnover games and the Hornets getting blasted in points off of turnovers by so many you but but just by virtue of you you turning the basketball over a lot giving the other team opportunities to score on those. Okay. But this is also something that I’ve noticed. Even when the Charlotte Hornets can keep their turnovers to a respectable level, which is what 14 is, 14 turnovers, respectable level of turnovers. Okay. The the Chicago Bulls still managed 24 points, nearly a, you know, kind okay quarters worth of points off of turnovers. And it’s because when the Hornets turn it over the well well first of all Chicago is a team that pushes the pace, wants to get into transition and beat you off steals. So that’s just like number one. Like you should you really can’t turn it over against teams like Chicago because they’re going to turn it over into points. But the Hornets turnovers feel backbreaking because a lot of times uh they’re above the free throw line as I talk about a lot. They’re not, you know, it’s not driving, you know, you’re getting all the way to the rim and someone strips you. You know, it is it is a lot of these are backbreaking turnovers and a lot of them happen. And the Hornets had a 10-point lead in the third quarter that they gave away. The third quarter again, they gave it away because they couldn’t hold their dribble because Trey man was turning the basketball over, falling down because Miles Bridges was turning the basketball over, falling down. LaMelo Ball, not an issue for him in this game. actually only two turnovers for LaMelo um in this one. But yeah, the backbreaking turnovers uh are still a problem for the Charlotte Hornets, but but here’s my butt. At least it’s only 14. And and that means that you’re not taking your offense consistently out of rhythm. Like you can still you can pile on possessions when you’re not constantly turning the basketball over. I mean, seven or eight turnovers more doesn’t sound like a lot, but if they were to get into the 22 23, I don’t think they would have been able to build a lead at all. It’s, you know, they talk about stacking possessions, stacking good possessions. That’s what makes, you know, that’s what makes winning teams win. And that’s what the Hornets did in this one. That’s what they were able to do. Why did they win this game? What was this game and what wasn’t this game? I think the reason they were able to win this game is because they decided to give a bleep. If you’re watching on YouTube, it’s on the little scroll we have. They decided to give a bleep in the last game that they lost. They against New York, they did not look like they were giving a bleep. And I mean, it was just up and down the roster. Um and and there were some people uh including my friend uh Natada Edwards on his Substack. They weren’t quite ready to say the word quit. Uh but they but the qu they were at the qua, you know, they just needed that little they needed one more syllable. They needed one more performance by the Charlotte Hornets um to to really land on that last uh consonant there. And instead what you got here was a team that did was able to look back at that Knicks game and say that was unacceptable. If because to me if they had come out in this game against Chicago and gotten blasted in the same way that they got they got handled by the Knicks then I would have said Hornets DNA doesn’t exist. Uh you know DNA I don’t I don’t know what it I don’t know what it stands for. I don’t know what it means. Um because it doesn’t mean good basketball. It doesn’t mean giving a bleep on every single play in every single game. But instead, what you got here against Chicago is you got a lot of hustle. You got a lot of aggressiveness from Brandon Miller. You got a lot of hustle from Colin Ston, particularly I thought in the fourth quarter providing key second chance opportunities. You got it from Musa. Miles Bridges 14 points playing disciplined basketball in that final frame, a deciding final frame when they needed to play good basketball or or because Chicago was threatening to come back because Chicago is not a the Chicago is not a great team and and they are a team that you can drive on and they’re a team that doesn’t play good defense either. They’ve got some of the similar issues uh to to Charlotte, but they’ve been a little bit healthier and they’ve gotten good performances from their best players. That’s what Charlotte is still waiting on. They are getting a little bit healthier now, but they need great performances from their best players. Still waiting on that from LaMelo. Got that a little bit from Brandon Miller. What this game wasn’t was like, I’m not going to come away from this game going, “All right, Charlotte’s, they’re getting ready to reel off four or five in a They got the Toronto Raptors uh on on Saturday night, second night of a backto-back. Yeah, I’m not ready to say, “All right, they’re they’re going to avenge their loss against Toronto and start to reel off a winning streak here.” They’ve got a lot of stuff to clean up, particularly on the defensive end. We can talk about some of that stuff in the next segment. So, what this game was was them deciding to give a bleep. What they’ve got to get to now is a way to execute on offense when they break the lineup and on defense at all times. They’ve got to find a way to execute better. I guess this game technically did enter crunchtime territory or clutch time territory, whatever they want to call it. And so I will have to see if this counts because I know the Hornets were sitting at 0% in five opportunities to win clutch games. uh the only team that had not, you know, that had been given an opportunity in a clutch game and not won an opportunity. So, I we we’ll see if this technically counts as that. Uh I’d have to look at like where they were. There’s some like there’s all these qualifiers that make a a game a clutch game. So, I I don’t know if this one counts because ultimately the final score 123 116. I think the run that they they went on at the very end of the game uh probably took them out of that, but an important win nonetheless for the Charlotte Hornets. Let’s break down some more of the performances, what this game means. Uh LaMelo Ball, you know, some interesting stats from him in this game. Was it a good game? 28 minutes of play. Still not eclipsing the 30 minute mark. They’re still being careful with his minutes. Not a great shooting night, but I thought some good moments for him as well. We’ll we’ll talk about that. Plus, I don’t know if you saw it, but there was a moment at the end of the game where a fan got involved in the game and got tossed. We’ll talk about that, too. We’ll wrap it all up. Uh, plus I’ve got a question from the Siko Satchel that I want to answer at the end of the show. Stick around. Locked on Hornets. Today’s episode of Locked On Hornets is brought to you by our friends at Door Dash. The NBA season, it’s heating up. NBA Cup, we’re about to get into that. Well, we’re not. The Hornets aren’t, but the NBA is. And Door Dash has found the perfect way to keep fans in their back all season long. Whether you’re watching for the highlights, your fantasy team, or just your favorite player. Door Dash makes every game night even better. Door Dash is the official on demand delivery platform of the NBA. And they are celebrating with something called the Bagdrop. Every time an NBA player scores 50 points in a game, Door Dash drops 50% off your order with Dash Pass the next day. and you are automatically entered for a chance to win the ultimate fan bag. We’re talking player inspired drip, exclusive gear, and the stuff you’ll actually want. I love that the Door Dash is not just food. 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Uh this was a game that was played almost exclusively at the rim for both teams. Uh the the Chicago Bulls 97th percentile in rim shooting frequency percentage in this game. Half their shots came at the rim. For the Hornets, still above average, but at 34%. The Hornets did take a lot of threes in this game, too. Uh 44% of their shots came from beyond the ark. Uh you know, and fortunately, it wasn’t a great shooting night for the Hornets from beyond the ark, but it wasn’t an awful one, which I think helped propel them towards the end of the game. They were 33% as a team uh from three, but they were much better at the rim than they were much more effective at the rim than the Chicago Bulls. 71% at the rim, 64%. So, some of that rim protection again helping the Hornets um on on a night where they needed it because again, Chicago was good at being in transition. The Hornets knew that that that’s been their MMO all season long. Hornets were not able to stop it though. the the Chicago Bulls very effective in transition. The Hornets still have some stuff to figure out there with the fast break because not only and this is a trend that extends into this Bulls win. They’re not only getting killed defensively in transition, they haven’t been able to generate enough points themselves in transition because partly they’re not they’re generating blocks, but they’re not generating a lot of steals. they’re not disrupting a lot of passes and getting out on the break in that way. And then whatever they had at the beginning of the season, and maybe some of this was LaMelo right at the beginning of the season before the impingement injury, but whatever they had that was propelling them into the fast break early in the season has all but gone. Like they just can’t they’re not pushing the pace in the same way. So I hope that if LaMelo Ball does come off this you know minutes restriction at some point they can get back into a groove of like we are going to constantly push the pace. You know I think asking Trey man to really shepherd point guard duties even when he’s on the floor with Colin Ston you know hasn’t resulted in like extremely effective offensive play. So that maybe just that makes them skittish about getting out onto the break. I I don’t know exactly what’s going on there, but the Hornets have not been able to generate uh that offense. Uh in terms of like the the frequency, I guess all transition according to clean the glass, they were kind of right on line, but the effectiveness not there in this one. Points per possession minus 1.9. Um and then points per play was in the 10th percentile in transition. And so off steals, off live rebounds didn’t matter. The Hornets were not getting effective play in transition. So that’s going to hurt your offense overall. But shot making from Brandon Miller and shotmaking by Miles Bridges in the fourth quarter. 14 points as I said, four rebounds, one assist from Miles in that uh fourth quarter. really effective on a night when you weren’t getting great shooting per performances from LaMelo Ball who was uh in the game 16 points but it came on six of 19 shooting. He’s just he’s out of he’s out of it right now and and I don’t know what’s going to bring him back. Um but you know he did at least I I believe it was the I had it in my notes here. It was the start of the uh second quarter. LaMelo gets hot to start that second quarter. Back-to-back threes. You get little glimpses of like, oh yeah, like that’s the the the special player that LaMelo Ball is. It’s just he hasn’t been able to string those together. And one has to wonder if like he again, and then the broadcast mentioned this too, both with him and Brandon, are they thinking about the minutes restriction? Are they pressing a little bit? um or you know guys are you know a lot of these guys are rhythm based they’re groove based and so you know LaMelo continuing to be on this minutes restriction I think it’s just going to be almost impossible to judge um you know fully what is he what isn’t he but they need him to shoot better I mean that you just can’t get around that you need your best players to play great um Khan Canipple has been one of their best players this season and uh his shooting slump continued into this game he was five of 14 from the field and from three two of nine. So he does make a three. So he gets he he starts the record he starts his you know record back up right after going 0 of7 from the field against New York. Um but two of nine and he was getting and the thing to to understand about both him and LaMelo I would say like against New York Khan was getting good shots missing them. LaMelo was not getting good shots and missing them in this game against Chicago. I thought both of them were generating, you know, good opportunities relative to what we’ve seen from them in the past and they just weren’t knocking them down in this one. Khan’s problem was foul trouble in this game. He ends the game with five fouls and you know it it seemed to limit him a little bit in terms of what what he wanted to do and took him off the floor at a time that maybe he could have generated a little bit more for the team. So that that was the difficult part for him. Yeah. Maybe in the next episode I’ll talk because I got a few questions in the psycho satchel about whether or not he’s hitting the rookie wall. So, um, stay tuned for the next episode. I want to I want to go in depth on that. U, but I want to stick with this game uh for this episode. Colin Ston, man, I just can’t say enough good stuff about him in this one. Um, he was, I thought, the engine of not only their offense, but just like their physicality in general. The the Hornets played a much more physical brand of basketball in this game. They were they were willing to hit in this game. They were willing and in fact Buzzales felt it. Kobe felt it. You you saw a lot of frustration from Chicago. A lot of wanting foul calls and that’s usually that’s usually flipped. That’s usually the Hornets wanting all of that because they’re the ones getting pushed around. A challenge must have been laid. I mentioned if they had lost this game, I don’t know what Hornets’s DNA would have meant. Um, and and like because I I don’t, you know, if they had lost this game, I would have started to say, “Does Hornets’s DNA not even exist? Is it not even a thing?” I think it was interesting that you did see uh Charles Lee wearing the Hornets DNA hoodie pregame. Like statement right there. He’s saying, “Look, we’re going to be about it tonight.” And to the Hornets credit, they were absolutely about it. And I don’t know I don’t know what this season is going to be. And again, I don’t think this is going to be the start of some fivegame winning streak. If I’m wrong, great. I don’t think it’s going to be. I think they still have a lot to work out. But I think if this season has good takeaways and if LaMelo Ball remains on this roster, if Miles Bridges remains on this roster, if this roster remains somewhat intact through the trade deadline, I think you can put a marker down on this game and say, “Hey, this is where it could have all gone apocalyptically bad.” And I don’t know that even some early trades would have been out of the question. And again with this Hornets team right now, they have not been a bastion of consistency. So not ruling any of that out. I would say like the questions about what this team can be, they all still exist. It’s just I think some of those questions would have been almost definitively answered had they lost by 25 to the Chicago Bulls. and a and the potential was there because Chicago needed this win too. It wasn’t as if Charlotte was the only one coming in and needing a win. Like Chicago has been struggling. Um and and so this was a real opportunity for the Hornets to lay down if they wanted to lay down. They obviously didn’t. And you heard Brandon Miller in one of the sideline interviews say they like they recognized that they let each other down in that loss against New York. And it wasn’t about losing, it was just about in the way that they lost and the pathe it was pathetic. Like they looked pathetic. I don’t know that this season was really about like winning a ton of games, but it was about not being pathetic. It was about can we make the Charlotte Hornets not a joke and they looked like a joke against New York. And this game they didn’t look like a joke. And this game, well, except for the fan at the end of the game, the sideline, the courtside fan at the end of the game who was intentionally riing up Josh Giddy. And the margin at that point, I don’t know exactly what it was. I want to say was five. It was either like somewhere in between five and seven. Like it wasn’t three, but it wasn’t 10. And you’ve got a sideline fan, wearing sunglasses, looking ridiculous, giving the getting Giddy riled up, then giving him the double bird. Josh Giddy going over saying, “That’s the guy. Throw him out.” the NBA officials coming in throwing them out. And if you’re a Hornets fan, and if you’ve been a Hornets fan for the past decade, you’re thinking one thing at that moment. You’re thinking, “My god, has purple shirt is are we going to get purple shirted again? Are we going to get the purple shirt guy riing up Dwayne Wade in the 2016 playoffs and res and resulting in a loss?” and and it could have happened. Fortunately, the Hornets defense stepped up in that moment, but like and and and I want to like I want to say good job by the FanDuel broadcast of staying on that guy and letting everyone witness that guy being stupid and getting tossed because I think sometimes in these moments broadcast make the decision, hey, we don’t want to encourage this behavior, so we’re not going to show it. But I actually like showing that person getting tossed and and and the people around him reacting being like, “Yeah, toss this idiot because he because that fan made himself a part of the game in a way that was unacceptable because because it could have resulted in a Chicago run. It’s unacceptable just like on a human level. Like why do you go to a game? Maybe and maybe that’s the answer is simple and it’s you know uh he had too much to drink or whatever. But like the answer is don’t make yourself a part of the game. Go there, cheer hard, boo hard. That’s fine. But don’t make you’re not part of the game. You paid to be at the game. You are not paid to play. Don’t make yourself a part of the game. Please, if you get courtside seats, I beg of you, don’t make yourself a part of the game. Boo hard, cheer hard. There’s a line. You know what the line is? Don’t make yourself a part of the game. All right. Coming up, we’ll share more. I’ll share more Siko celebrations from the Siko Brigade because the Hornets do get a win. They avoid the curse of the purple shirt. And uh I want to share a sicko satchel question as well. That’s all coming up here on Locked on Hornets. This episode of Locked on Hornets is brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. The NBA, it is back. And there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or you just want to ride the hot hand. The hot hand tonight was Brandon Miller. Maybe you wanted to ride that hot hand and say, “I think he can get more than 25 points.” Bing, he did. FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is the one making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the the official sports betting partner of the NBA. More locked on Hornets ahead. back here on Locked on Hornets and I promised a sicko satchel question and I have one here from J Brown Buzz City who says what relative at Thanksgiving is this year’s Hornets team. Uh my suggestion is the 37year-old cousin that always organizes a cousin walk before dinner. No matter how life is going, when you use him as a benchmark, things always look positive in comparison. Uh that’s first of all, great question. Jay Brown City, even better analogy. The cousin who organizes the cousin walk uh before dinner. Yeah, I’ll you know, listen, uh Thanksgiving provides lots of opportunities for analogous uh family members. I’ll come up with one here in a second, but I just want to say this. Uh this is the first postth Thanksgiving episode. I wasn’t able to join there right before Thanksgiving. So I do want to say I hope you had a uh for those uh that are watching here in the United States or if you’re celebrating overseas, if you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a great one. You got to spend some time with some family or some friends or some people that you love. And uh the other thing I want to say is uh thank you for supporting this show, for supporting WFNZ, for supporting everyone at BoxCore and all the stuff that you support, for being a part of the SECO brigade, um for being part of our family. I mean, we do have a little bit of a Sicko family here and uh we really appreciate you being a part of it and keeping this show going for nearly 10 years. We have nearly been doing this thing for a decade. It’s really I mean I’ve been covering the team for more than a decade but in this version of it locked on hornets we’ve almost been doing it for a decade and we really appreciate it. So now what is the family member? You know I think it’s it’s the it’s the single uh it’s the single uncle uh who is a little bit inconsistent with whether he shows up or not. You know, I think that’s, you know, does sometimes come inside with sunglasses on much like the fan that was thrown out is a little bit unpredictable. You don’t know which ver sometimes sometimes he’s really fun. Like sometimes he’s super fun. Like some if you were a kid at Thanksgiving, he was the uncle that would like would would like throw you around, you know, on the couch cushions, you know, like you know, WWF style then, you know, when I was a kid growing up. Now it’s WWE. But like, you know, he would go top turnbuckle, you know, like he would that was the it was the fun uncle. It was Uncle Jimmy, you know, it was the the fun uncle. And then so, but sometimes Uncle Jimmy would come to Thanksgiving and cause a scene. And sometimes sometimes he would come to Thanksgiving and just fall asleep. He’d be like, “What’s going on with Uncle Jimmy? Don’t worry about it, kids.” That, you know, I feel like, you know, it’s that’s it’s it’s the inconsistent uncle. It’s not the, you know, it’s the inconsistent uncle. sometimes fun and you know sometimes falls asleep on the couch and you know just stays there. So that’s a great question by Jay Brown Buzz City. Let me know what you think in the comments. What relative at Thanksgiving have the Hornets represented at least uh you got fun uncle Jimmy tonight. You got fun uncle Jimmy uh who was attacking the rim with ferocity and showing a level of fight that we haven’t seen from this Hornets team. Obviously, the losing was getting to them. Obviously, bringing LaMelo and Brandon Miller back in the limited fashion was just getting into their groove a little getting getting them out of the groove, like getting getting into their groove a little bit. Um, in a way that that it seems like they’re finally figuring out. So, that’s a positive uh step in the right direction for for this Hornets team. Let’s go back to the SECO brigade to get some more Siko celebrations. Uh, this one comes from, drum roll, Rocky from Salsbury checking in saying, “We needed this bad. Brandon Miller, MVP.” Yeah, I mean, the loss to the Knicks 129 to 101. Before that, the Hawks, the Clippers, the Pacers, the Raptors, the Thunder, the Bucks. I just rattled off a lot of good teams. I mean, this was, you know, the Hawks didn’t have Trey Young. The Pacers were, that was obviously a an awful loss, but apart from those, and I would even say the Hawks, that was like, you know, that was a tough loss, but a team that’s better than the Hornets. So, really, there’s only one team in there that wasn’t better than the Hornets, and that was the Pacers. So, there were some tough losses in there to good teams. the Raptors lost, the Hawks lost, then just a lot of really like teams that are better than the Hornets. And the Clippers, not by record, but by talent, were better. The Knicks, like you didn’t want to lose in that way, but the Bulls, another opportunity for the Hornets to face a team with similar issues. Like if you can’t beat uh this was the moment in Mortal Kombat when you’re working your way up and you face yourself, you know, you f whatever character you pick, you face that character. It’s like you know that character. You know the tendencies. They did an interview with Grant Williams. No real update on his injury status, although he seemed positive, but there were no definitive answers about when we would expect him. He did say he’s playing against coaches. So, a confirmation that he’s not, at least I took it as a confirmation that he’s not yet playing in any kind of like five on five or or even in any kind of like smaller scrimmages during practices. You know, we might see both him and Josh Green go down to Greensboro, same kind of thing, and do a little practice session before they’re brought back up. That would be like the first indicator, I think. Well, I think the first indicator would probably be them saying like they’re going through they’re they’re cleared for contact and then maybe Greensboro assignment and then we get some kind of timeline, but no indications of that yet. But he did say playing against coaches. So, it is like they’re doing stuff. So, that’s a positive move. Almost a year removed from playing basketball Grant Williams. But anyway, he was doing the sideline interview and you know, he just talked about like they knew what this team was on the scouting report as a team you could attack and the Hornets like to attack at the rim. And so if you couldn’t beat this team in that way, again, some of those questions that we had about the Charlotte Hornets, I think, were going to stop being questions and start turning into answers. So, that’s going to do it for this edition of the Locked On Hornets podcast. Keep sending in your Sicko celebrations. Actually, let me see if I can get a couple more in here. I did ask for them, so I should share as many as I can before I get out of here. Um, let’s see. From this is from Yoyo, who says, “The center position preseason seem terrible. Ryan and Musa are the most consistent players, not great or dominant, but night in and night out they are competitive.” That is absolutely correct. Like even in the Knicks loss, you know, that’s that’s so correct. like they are the most consistent in terms of their effort. They’re not going to pile on huge stats. That’s just not their game. That’s not what that’s not how the game is facilitated for them. That’s not the part of the plan. And so that’s the the Hornets need the players that are part of that plan of like, hey, we need the offense to flow through you. They need those players to stop turning the ball over in the most disastrous way possible. They need those players to consistently hit three-point shots. They need those players to give more of an effort to keep guys in front on the defensive end of the floor and not get back cut to death, which was also an issue early in this game. They cleaned some of that stuff up late. Uh more sicko satchel questions. I want to save those. Yeah, I’ve got I’ve got a lot of satchel questions. So, I want to save that. So, those were the celebrations. I want to save the satchel questions for tomorrow’s episode. So, tune in for that. Um, and until then, go Hornets. Go America. Thank you so much for for supporting this show and making us the number one podcast network in America. Uh, until then, we’ll see you then. Go Hornets. Go America. Let’s Charlotte. Hey,

Brandon Miller powers the Charlotte Hornets past the Chicago Bulls with a 27-point performance to snap a seven-game losing streak. We also discuss the bizarre moment a courtside fan was ejected for heckling Josh Giddey and what this win means for the team’s “DNA.”

The Charlotte Hornets have finally returned to the win column, defeating the Chicago Bulls 123-116 to snap a seven-game skid. On this episode of Locked On Hornets, we examine how Brandon Miller put the team on his back, scoring 27 points on efficient shooting while adding three blocks. We discuss the return of the team’s offensive rhythm and why this performance was crucial for avoiding a disastrous stretch of the season.

While the win was a relief, it wasn’t perfect. We look at LaMelo Ball’s continued shooting struggles as he finished 6-of-19 from the field, and question if the minutes restriction is affecting his rhythm. The show also highlights the defensive intensity brought by Collin Sexton and the disciplined fourth-quarter play of Miles Bridges that helped close out the game.

Plus, we address the strange incident involving a courtside fan interacting with Josh Giddey that led to an ejection and explain why fans need to stop trying to be part of the show. Finally, we open the “Sicko Satchel” to answer a listener’s question comparing this Hornets team to that one inconsistent relative at Thanksgiving dinner.

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