The Charlotte Hornets suffered an unthinkable poor shooting night from beyond the arc, which was the main catalyst in their loss to the Atlantic Hawks on Sunday, 113-91.
Miles Bridges started off the scoring with a long two, his foot just barely on the line. This was the start of things to come as far as the outside shooting was concerned for the Hornets. They started slowly out of the gate, but countered every Hawks run with a slam dunk to get the momentum back and provide energy. A Hawks surge late in the quarter, gave them a short double digit lead, which was trimmed to eight by the end of the period, 30-22.
Both teams struggled to find their shots to start the second quarter and some of them were not even close to going in. Rookie James Bouknight received some first half minutes and was ineffective to start, air balling a shot from downtown. It was the Hornets tenth triple without a make.
Charlotte went on a 4:17 drought during that stretch. They played defense well enough to keep the game within shouting distance. Charlotte finished the first 24 minutes 0-17 from beyond the arc and trailed by 11 at halftime, 55-44.
Things only got worse for the Hornets in the third quarter. The Hawks went on a 5-0 run before the Hornets even touched the ball. A few possessions later, LaMelo Ball was bumped off his stride a couple of times and eventually hit De’Andre Hunter in the face, while trying to retrieve a loose ball and was assessed a flagrant foul penalty one. Ball complained to the officials about the call and was given a technical foul. That gave the Hawks another four point possession.
The Hornets continued to miss their three-point attempts. Washington finally knocked down their first one of the evening on the Hornets 20th attempt, with 5:38 left in the quarter. Charlotte-made jump shots brought some life to the team. Washington had a turnover on an inbound pass after his second make from downtown. They were down by 14 at that point, but then the lead grew to 19 by the end of the quarter, 85-66.
Charlotte needed to make their presence known early in the fourth quarter if they had any hope of making a comeback. Unfortunately for them, that did not happen. They allowed the Hawks to score the first eight points of the quarter and let the game get completely one-sided.
There was a frightening moment in the late stages of the game when Hunter attacked the basket and was fouled in the air by Kelly Oubre Jr. and landed hard on the floor. The play was reviewed and Oubre was given a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game. The Hornets went on a couple of mini-runs, but it never threatened the final outcome.
The Hornets shot an embarrassing 11.1% (3 of 36) from three point range. Their previous worst three-point shooting game with at least 25 attempts was 25%, way back in 1996.
“We couldn’t make shots,” Hornets coach James Borrego. “We move on, but we need to make shots.”
Trae Young scored a game-high 30 points and tied a season-high with eight 3-pointers for the Hawks. Hunter chipped in 20 points along with two boards and one assist. Kevin Huerter contributed 11 points, one board and two helpers.
“For the most part, I thought we did a good job of keeping the ball in front and closing out hard with urgency to the 3-point shooters,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said.
Ball finished with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Hornets. Bridges also had 19 points and six boards. Washington scored 12 points, had seven rebounds and four assists. Oubre added 12 points and five rebounds.
The Hawks host De’Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. The Hornets travel to Toronto to take on the Raptors on Tuesday in the first game of a back to back.
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