THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY, HORNETS VS. CAVALIERS: Hornets Fight Hard but Fall to a 4-13 Record
The Hornets traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to battle the Cleveland Cavaliers after a loss to the Indiana Pacers after losing 113-125 on Wednesday. Truely an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows, bad rotational changes at a time in the game the Hornets were clicking on all cylinders. But ran out of fight after a loss in double overtime losing 122-132.
THE GOOD:
Scary Terry: Terry Rozier… IS CLUTCH! Rozier did not have an amazing game only shooting 33% on the night, and 27% from beyond the arc. but hit a couple crucial threes to keep the Hornets in the game and ultimately to tie it to take it to overtime. Overall tonight Rozier dropped 28 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists on the game, Rozier will need to be the big time shot maker like he was tonight for the Hornets to have a chance at a win against the Wizards on Sunday.
Nick “The Fist” Richards: Oh NICK RICHARDS!!! Now noted that might not be a good nickname for Nick but at this point HE NEEDS ONE!! where do I start on Richard’s tonight, well first of all he out played Plumlee in this one boasting a career high 14 big board’s tonight and giving life to this team in the paint after the Cavs outrebounded the Hornets 9-1 halfway through the 1st quarter. Richards ended up playing 30 minutes, which was more than Plumlee’s 28 minutes this game. On the game Richards dominated the paint posting a stat line of 13 points on 50% shooting, 14 rebounds with six of which was on the offensive glass, and 3 big blockaroos on the game. He is for sure making a case of taking that starting role from Mr. Plumlee, the starters seemed to play better and have more chemistry with Richards when he was on the court rather than Plumlee.
Tsunami Papi: Tonight, the Tsunami Papi spirit was in Cleveland!! Kelly Oubre Jr. had a MONSTER game tonight, dropping a season high 34 points on 60% shooting and 55% from three, 3 steals, and 3 rebounds in 39 minutes of play. Oubre can be a dominant player on offense and defense, but he can be highly inconsistent at times, and makes mental mistakes like committing technical fouls that are sometimes in crucial moments of the 4th quarter, he committed 1 flagrant foul against Donavan Mitchell after mistiming his jump on an attempt to block his shot, and also a technical after he talked back to a ref for not calling a goaltending call on nobody else but Donavan Mitchell! Hopefully Oubre can build off of this performance and do the same as he did tonight against the Wizards who are 9-7 on the young season.
P.J. Washington: P.J Washington other than the game on October 29th against the Golden State Warriors that resulted in an overtime victory for the Hornets, had his best game of the season, finishing with his first double-double of the season with 28 points with 50, 20, and 100 percent shooting splits, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals in 46 minutes. P.J. so far this season has shown he can be a 18-20 points per game scorer and play tough defense when he is needed, many times tonight, P.J would put Mobley on an island give him a in and out, drive on his weak shoulder, then rise for a pull up jumper from the left or right hash and knock it down, that is a huge improvement from last season. But for Washington to take a bigger leap is to number one be consistent and have more of a presence in the paint or on the perimeter with help defense and quicker rotation onto the open man in the corner or wing.
THE BAD:
Bad Rotational Changes: After Plumlee had an awful start to the first quarter, Clifford put in Richards halfway into the 1st quarter and the team started to have a presence on the inside again, Richards quickly started grabbing rebounds, scoring, and blocking or effecting shots so much that the Hornets at one point went on a 11-0 run! But because Clifford wanted to play Plum and Richards about the same number of minutes, he pulled him. Immediately the Cavs went on a run and made the game a double-digit deficit. It’s important to give players breaks and share the minutes all around your team but Nick was on FIRE tonight, all of the other four starters played over or around 40 minutes tonight, but Nick barely got 30 LET HIM PLAY (IF he is hot) the coaching staff needs to seriously think about bringing the fast-paced wrecking ball of Plumlee off of the bench to give an energy boost to the team instead of holding the starters back.
Bad Bench Play: The most disappointing part of this game was other than Richards the bench players tonight (Maledon, Bouknight, Jones, McDaniels) only scored 4 points as a collective, that is not a winning formula in the NBA the team must play better, the only scorers were McDaniels and Jones who both only scored 2 points, these four-player combined for 1-9 on the night, and 0-5 from three, just terrible. Bouknight looked like he didn’t even want to be on the court, McDaniels would not shoot the ball, and when he did nothing went in, Jones just didn’t have enough minutes only playing 7 but give him props he led the team with his +10 in his plus minus rating, and Theo was acting like he was Curry shooting a deep ball from far beyond the three point line, but did show flashes when he tried to drive and kick.
THE UGLY:
Mason Plumlee: Ever sense Plumlee lost the tip-off against Jarrett Allen at the start of the game, Plumlee was being bullied by the Cavs big men. Plumlee was awful tonight plain and simple… he missed every shot going 0-4 but amazingly he made 2 free throws going 2-4 from the line, so… In total he had an astounding 2 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block performance… Can you feel my sarcasm? But it gets worse, in only 28 minutes Plumlee managed to FOUL OUT, he manages to make stupid and silly fouls also in key moments things that a 9-year veteran in the NBA should not be doing on a consistent basis. In less than 20 games Plumlee has put up 5 or more fouls in 5 games so far averaging 3.5 fouls per game. But watch him put up a double-double next game, or something close to that and put up 3-5 fouls against the Wizards the most inconsistent and emotionally angering player on this roster.
Three Point Shooting: This has been an issue for this team all year, and again it was a stinker from beyond the arc, shooting 14-44 (31.8%). The Cavs only made 8 three’s all game, the hornets HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT I say that a lot, but it’s the fundamental formula to winning basketball games if we are not consistent, we will not win or even be competitive on a night in and night out basis. Right now, there is no answer except for the team to improve, it’s now or never.