<\/p>\n
AP Photo\/Nell Redmond<\/p>\n
In their first action since trading LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges, the Charlotte Hornets return to the Spectrum Center for preseason matchups against the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 6 and the Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n
Star forward Brandon Miller remains on the roster, but the two-way small forward was sidelined for the preseason opener against Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Without Miller, the Nets overwhelmed Charlotte on defense and defeated the Hornets 124-90.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Miller returned against Milwaukee, fans at Spectrum Center saw a familiar sight: an offense running like a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n
First-game jitters<\/p>\n
Several players made their Hornets debut against Brooklyn: Naz Reid, Dennis Schr\u00f6der and Grayson Allen. The Hornets looked out of rhythm, but a few individual performances stood out, and the team eventually found its footing.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn could not hold a comfortable lead over Charlotte in the first half. By halftime, the Nets led by just four points. After halftime, the Nets dismantled the defense and put on an offensive clinic in the third quarter, going on to defeat the Hornets 124-90.<\/p>\n
Reid had a rough outing against the Nets, shooting 33% from the field and hitting only one three-pointer. After spending his entire career in Minnesota’s system, Reid now has to learn a new system with different teammates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the box score may not reflect it, Schr\u00f6der’s veteran knowledge showed up in the Hornets’ offense. His screen utilization led to open threes, alley-oop dunks and drives.<\/p>\n
Allen scored 13 points in 14 minutes on six shots, shooting 66.7% from the field and hitting all three attempts from three-point range. A sharpshooter since his time at Duke University, Allen used his minutes to power the offense from long range.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First-game jitters often lead to mistakes, and the Hornets committed several, including careless turnovers, missed defensive assignments and failing to find an open teammate on the perimeter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the first game ended, the jitters seemed to cease. Charlotte brought the energy against Milwaukee and never looked back.<\/p>\n
Buzz City is back<\/p>\n
The Hornets faced the Bucks on Oct. 11 and looked more like last season’s squad after losing to Brooklyn. Miller returned to the lineup after suffering a shin contusion, creating space and open shots for his teammates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Milwaukee held an early lead, but Moussa Diabat\u00e9’s block led to threes from Reid and Schr\u00f6der, forcing a Bucks timeout. Head coach Charles Lee subbed Sion James for Schr\u00f6der after the break. James made an immediate impact with six points in six minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Miller scored his first points of the night with a 20-foot step-back that got the crowd on its feet. Lee spoke on what it means to have Miller back in the lineup in a pre-game press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It means a ton to have him back,” Lee said. “He’s a big piece to what we do, and I think he’s done a great job during his rehab stint of preparing his mind and preparing his body for this opportunity. To have him back out there, to start to see these guys play together a little bit more and build some chemistry and cohesion, it’s going to be great. I’m excited to have him back out there.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee, left, talks to Charlotte Hornets guard Liam McNeeley, right, and center Naz Reid (0) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
AP Photo\/Nell Redmond<\/p>\n
Miller, Reid and Diabat\u00e9 already seemed like season-long teammates after a big play-filled first quarter. Fortunately for Charlotte, the first quarter was not the only highlight reel.<\/p>\n
Just throw it up there<\/p>\n
Hannes Steinbach, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Miller and other centers and forwards caught several alley-oop passes starting in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Bucks center Myles Turner was Milwaukee’s best defense against the Hornets’ pick-and-roll alley-oop offense. When Turner subbed out, the alley-oops continued.<\/p>\n
The seemingly unstoppable air attack ended Milwaukee’s defensive stand. After the second quarter, the Bucks’ consecutive alley-oop passes wore them down. The Hornets led 60-45 at half, a 12-point jump from their first-quarter lead.<\/p>\n
A slower-moving offense gave Lee time to make the necessary defensive adjustments. After making the changes, Milwaukee’s production fell to its lowest point.<\/p>\n
“I thought our defensive intensity and connectivity just went to another level,” Lee said in a postgame conference. “I really thought our guys tightened the screws; I thought there were a ton of really good positions defensively. You saw guys doing a great job on the ball, or if he gets beat, the shift activity around it, the pick-and-roll coverage; I just thought we were covering for each other a ton. To go from a 26-point first quarter, which is pretty good, to all of a sudden, a 19-point second quarter, I was really proud of the defensive connectivity.”<\/p>\n
The Bucks never adjusted to Lee’s changes, and the Hornets cruised past Milwaukee 105-90.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Hornets hit the road for their final preseason game against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum on Oct. 16. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Nell Redmond In their first action since trading LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges, the Charlotte Hornets return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,970,5087,684,473,3878,7781,60901,685,121,59397,520,6,972,29314],"class_list":["post-860732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-basketball","tag-brandon-miller","tag-charles-lee","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-grayson-allen","tag-hannes-steinbach","tag-hornets","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-moussa-diabat","tag-naz-reid","tag-nba","tag-ryan-kalkbrenner","tag-spectrum-center"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117453029595504736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}