LaMelo Ball tied the franchise record for threes in a game while Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel added five each as the Charlotte Hornets took down the Wizards, 129-112.
The Summary
Bilal Coulibaly took the first six shots and scored the first 11 points for the Wizards. Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball helped the Hornets keep pace with that wildly hot start. The Wizards cooled after a timeout, but LaMelo stayed hot to give the Hornets a brief double digit lead. The Wizards scored 11 straight to undo that before a deep Miller buzzer beater put the Hornets up one after one. The second quarter followed a similar pattern. The Hornets built out a pretty a substantial lead but then let up defensively and let the Wizards crawl back into the game. At the half, the Hornets led by five.
The Hornets came out of the gates on fire to start the second half. LaMelo, Miller, and Kon Knueppel each hit a pair of threes within the first five minutes of the third quarter to restore the double digit lead. After that, LaMelo added four for threes on consecutive possessions, then dished out a couple for Josh Green. At that point, the Hornets were 12-of-13 from three in the third quarter alone. In total, it was a 44 point barrage that put Charlotte up 21 heading into what would be a meaningless fourth quarter. Knueppel played a few minutes with the bench unit to start the fourth. That group got the lead up to 29 thanks in part to eight Knueppel points. Tidjane Salaün followed that with a double pump dunk, and that effectively shut the game down.
The Good
It’s pretty obvious. The 3-point shooting was unbelievable. Ball and Miller seemed to have snapped out of their bad shooting slump coming out of the all star break. Perhaps the most impressive part of the shooting was the composure in which it happened. While LaMelo was on his heater, he had a couple of times he could’ve fired up a beat check but instead made the right play and moved the ball. Past iterations would have fired up a reckless heat check as soon as he crossed the court.
Kon Knueppel continues his incredible play. He was 5-of-9 from three and 5-of-9 from two. He’s too good.
He ended up only playing 15 minutes because he twisted his ankle early in the second half, but Ryan Kalkbrenner dominated his time on the floor. He tracked down a Diabate-like four offensive rebounds in his limited minutes and protected the rim with three blocks. He’s responded well to the added time with Diabate out, and he’s really improved the physicality of his play lately. The Hornets won his 15 minutes by 24 points. And he apparently would’ve been good to return had the game been in doubt in the fourth quarter.
Josh Green had another good game with some nice forays into the paint with his usual high quality 3&D play.
The Hornets went 2-2 with two starters suspended, and both losses were close games against very good teams. That’s a solid outcome.
The Bad
Xavier Tillman got thrown in for a few first half minutes, and they were some pretty tough minutes. We’ll chalk it up to getting acclimated to his new team.
What’s Next
The Hornets get Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate as they continue their road trip. Up next is a Bulls team that has lost nine games in a row and is hoping to keep that going on Tuesday.
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