Sometimes it is hard to fully break away from old habits. The Charlotte Hornets, at one point, were dead last in defensive efficiency, but had made strides – improving to around 20th in recent weeks. That still isn’t ideal for a team with playoff aspirations, but it was a step in the right direction for a team that has been hovering around the top 10 in offensive efficiency. However, Saturday against the Houston Rockets Charlotte gave up 146 points (135 in regulation), and tonight the Chicago Bulls put up 133 on Charlotte. So far, the defensive effort during this four-game road trip has been nonexistent.
The only time Charlotte showed any resemblance of defense was when they cut a 23-point lead to 4, before Chicago went on a run of their own to close the game out. Things will not get any easier for the Hornets as they travel to Milwaukee to take on the defending champion Bucks, who are getting healthy and playing their best ball of the season. Let’s look at some observations from this game.
No Answer for Vucevic:
Nikola Vucevic had his way with the Hornets’ front line, scoring 30 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Vucevic absolutely torched the Hornets in the pick-n-pop, shooting a perfect 6-6 from the three-point line. When he was on the floor Nikola was a +31. This is the 2nd straight game a center has torched the Hornets, as Christian Wood had 33 points and 16 rebounds Saturday against Charlotte.
LaMelo Has a Tough Shooting Night:
LaMelo Ball finished with 18 points, 13 assist and 7 rebounds, but he didn’t have his best night – shooting just 5-15 from the floor. In his last 10 games LaMelo is only shooting about 41% for the season and just 39% on the road. LaMelo can impact games even when he doesn’t have his best nights shooting, but Charlotte will need LaMelo to be more efficient on the road to beat some of these better teams in the NBA.
Thin Rotation:
With Mason Plumlee out and Cody Martin coming down with an illness, Charlotte only played 8 guys against the Bulls. Plumlee has a calf strain, so it is likely he won’t play Wednesday against the Bucks, while Martin is listed as day-to-day. With Ish Smith falling out of coach James Borrego’s rotation, and Kai Jones and James Bouknight not seeing playing time, it looks like the Hornets will likely only play eight guys against the Bucks unless Martin recovers from his illness. Having a thin rotation means guys must exert a lot of energy and run out of gas, which appeared to happen to the Hornets in the 4th quarter tonight as they couldn’t sustain energy to finish the game off. Charlotte cut the Bulls’ lead from 23 to 4 before Chicago scored 9 unanswered points to create enough separation to close the game out.
Charlotte travels to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks Wednesday at 8pm.