The Charlotte Hornets just cannot seem to get out of their own way and suffered another humiliating loss on Monday night, falling to the Sacramento Kings by 42, 130-88, just 48 hours after enduring a franchise-worst 53-point defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers.
The loss drops Charlotte to 6-21 away from their home court, at the Spectrum Center, having lost six of their last seven games overall. Sacramento is one game over .500 (29-28) with the victory, snapping their modest two-game losing streak.
Despite the Hornets taking an early three-point lead, 10-7, in the opening quarter, Sacramento took over for the rest of the game. The Kings closed the first quarter on a 12-5 surge and knocked down 12 shots from beyond the arc in the first half, taking a commanding 20-point lead, 65-45, lead into the break.
The Hornets came out of the locker room showing brief signs of life with a 9-0 run to open the third quarter but failed to slice the deficit to single digits. The Kings were able to separate themselves and ran away with the contest following a 25-3 extended run in the fourth.
Miles Bridges did everything he could, leading the Hornets with 23 points and six rebounds, while LaMelo Ball and Nick Smith Jr. each contributed 13 points. Bridges surpassed former Hornet Marvin Williams out of the University of North Carolina (681 career 3-pointers) for fourth place in franchise history with now 685 from deep, shooting 4 of 8 from downtown on the night.
Embed from Getty ImagesZach LaVine was ‘Box Office’, dominating with a season-high 42 points, including 18 in the fourth quarter. He shot an efficient 16 of 19 from the field and 8 of 9 from 3 distance. DeMar DeRozan added 18 points and seven boards. Malik Monk scored 13, Keegan Murray added 10 and Domantas Sabonis finished with seven points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
The Kings took the Hornets to the woodshed in every statistical category, shooting 54% from the field compared to the Hornets’ 35.3%, their third-worst team shooting percentage of the season.
The Kings lit up Charlotte from beyond the arc, hitting 20 of 38 three-pointers (tied for third-most as a team this season) while Charlotte struggled, making just 10 of 40.
Sacramento also won the battle of the boards (49-37), assists (30-24), fast-break points (31-10), and points in the paint (50-38).
Charlotte’s 19 turnovers resulted in 30 Sacramento points.
Charlotte continues their West Coast trip with their 11th back-to-back of the season, facing Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the Bay Area on Tuesday night.
Sacramento travels to Utah on Wednesday to play the Jazz.
