The Charlotte Hornets were on fire from beyond the arc, drilling 19 3-pointers but their defense was subpar and could not keep pace with the first place Oklahoma City Thunder and were ran out of the arena in a 35-point loss,141-106 on Friday night.
MVP front-runner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led his team with 30 points. Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s top scorer at 33.0 points per game, returned to the lineup after sitting out Wednesday night’s lopsided win against the Philadelphia 76ers. He was an efficient 13 of 18 from the field to go with six rebounds and nine assists before resting in the fourth quarter.
Chet Holmgren added 14 points, five rebounds and three blocks for the Thunder, who clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference for the second consecutive season when the Milwaukee Bucks blew out the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday.
Isaiah Hartenstein had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards for the Thunder, who played without injured starters Lu Dort and Jalen Williams.
The Thunder have vanquished opponent they have faced all season long. A Hornets team resting a couple of their best offensive players had little or no chance of success from the opening tip. They were completely stifled in the first quarter and quickly fell into a massive hole. They put up 14 first quarter points and trailed by 20 after 12 minutes of basketball.
The second quarter began much the same as the first, but the visitors showed some signs of life a couple minutes into the frame. They knocked down five of their first six 3-point attempts of the period. The avalanche from the perimeter briefly threatened to make the Hornets competitive. The Thunder eventually leveled off, so the Hornets were only able to scrape three points off their deficit.
After a strangely quiet first half due in part to being saddled with foul trouble, Miles Bridges came out of the locker room after halftime in an attempt to try to find his shooting stroke. That translated to the floor, where he matched his first half total with five points in the Hornets’ first two possessions of the second half. A second Bridges three and another one from DaQuan Jeffries pulled the Hornets within 10 and forced a Thunder timeout. That is where the wheels really fell off. In the blink of an eye, the Thunder went on a massive run. By the next time the Hornets scored a point, the game was already out of reach, and they trailed by 28 points. Seth Curry hit a high arcing finger roll at the third quarter buzzer to cut it to 27, 103-76.
Bridges scored 20 points and Nick Smith Jr. added 14 for Charlotte, which played without injured starters LaMelo Ball (ankle) and Mark Williams (foot).
Ball and Williams combined for 44 points the night before in a 115-98 win over the struggling New York Knicks. The Hornets have lost six games by 30 or more points in the last month.
The Hornets are far from the only team to have this issue this season, but they absolutely could not contain the Thunder off the dribble. Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren each made several easy looks off the dribble with little resistance. Most of the rest of the team were hitting uncontested jumpers like they were in the warmup line at shootaround. Not a defensive performance Charles Lee will be proud of or want to remember.
The Hornets travel East to take on Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat who are currently on a nine-game losing streak on Sunday.
The Thunder visit the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard on Sunday.
