Charlotte Hornets lost to the New York Knicks, 110-107

A day after Kemba Walker was named to the All-Star game the Charlotte Hornets lost to the New York Knicks 110 to 107. It’s the Hornets third straight lost and are now 0-7 on the road in January and have lost 11 of their last 13 road games. Cody Zeller missed his second straight game with a bruised quadriceps, the Hornets are 1-9 this season in games that Cody Zeller does not play in. Kristaps Porzingis came out on fire, quickly scoring 10 points but had to seat most of the game due to foul trouble. Knicks lead for most of the first half, Kemba did go on a personal 7-0 run to end the second quarter and cut the Knicks lead to 54-51 at halftime, Kemba Walker scored 16 points in the first half. Charlotte would come out of halftime on fire scoring 36 points in the third quarter and take an 87-82 lead going into the fourth quarter. Then the Hornets went 6 minutes without scoring which allowed the Knicks to come back with help from former Hornet Courtney Lee who scored 9 straight points late in the fourth to give the Knicks the lead back and then with 13 seconds left Carmelo Anthony hit a jumper, his only basket in the fourth to seal the victory for the Knicks.

            The MVP for the Hornets this game would be Kemba Walker with 31 points 10 rebounds 5 assists. Who played out of his mind this game and also earned his first career All-Star nod on Thursday night when he was named to the Eastern Conference’s reserves the first All-Star for the Charlotte franchise since 2010 when Gerald Wallace was name an All-Star. Kemba had been averaging career highs with 23 points per game on 57.6%, 5.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds per night. Among Eastern Conference point guards, he ranked fifth in player efficiency rating and fourth in estimated wins added entering Thursday night’s action. He’s single handedly keeping the Hornets playoff hopes alive. The other leading scorers for the Hornets were Marvin Williams with 17 points on 5 made three-pointers, Nicolas Batum with 15 points 11 rebounds 9 assists 5 turnovers, Marco Belinelli with 15 points. This is a game the Hornets should’ve won, they lead for most of the second half and the reason they went on a 6-minute drought was the fact the Hornets shot way too many three-pointers in that time span. They missed 37 three-pointers tonight, that’s too many. If you’re not hitting three-pointers, then drive to the basket and get foul and shoot free-throws. Another big stat was the fact the Hornets gave up 21 second-chance points, that’s too many to be giving up in a single game. A team that’s supposed to rely on their defense, has played some terrible defense the past month of the season. Leading scorers for the Knicks were Carmelo Anthony with 18 points on 8-for-26 shooting 11 rebounds, Kristaps Porzingis with 18 points, Courtney Lee with 16 points and Brandon Jennings with 15 points who came off the bench and played most of the second half when Derrick Rose injured his ankle early in the third quarter. Charlotte Hornets (23-24) host the Sacramento Kings tomorrow night before going on a 3-game west coast trip.