For the first time in franchise history, the Charlotte Hornets sweep the season series against the Orlando Magic, beating the Magic 109-102 on Wednesday night. It’s the third straight victory for the Hornets and pulls the Hornets within three games from the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Magic starting forward Jeff Green didn’t play tonight due to back spasms, Hornets starting forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist did play after spraining his ankle in the third quarter against the Atlanta Hawks. It only took less than three minutes for Marco Belinelli to score 11 points in the second quarter to help give the Hornets a five-point lead and outscore Orlando 14-3 to start the second quarter. The Magic would re-take the lead by converted nearly 48% from the field and hitting six threes’ in the first half and led at halftime, 54-48. Orlando led by as many as ten points twice in the third quarter, but with help from Kemba Walker, who scored 8 points in the quarter. Charlotte pulled within five going into the fourth quarter. Charlotte outscored the Magic 20-10 during a five-minute stretch that began at the seven-minute mark. During that time, Frank Kaminsky scored 11 points, including three three-pointers. Hornets went up 104-97 after Walker’s three-pointer with two minutes left. Charlotte outscored the Magic 32-20 in the fourth quarter. Orlando would make a run with less than a minute left, but it was too late and the Hornets held on and won.
The MVP for the Hornets this game is Frank Kaminsky who scored 18 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. Frank scored 13 points in the fourth quarter to help the Hornets make a comeback and get the win. Frank has been playing good ever since the All-Star break, especially after coming back from his shoulder injury. Usually after an injury it takes time for a shooter to get going again, but Frank didn’t miss a step averaging 16 points in the previous three games since returning from a shoulder injury. The Hornets didn’t shoot the three ball well in this game, only shooting 33% for the entire game. But they made it up by scoring 50 points in the paint. It helped the Hornets grabbed 12 offensive rebounds and scoring 16 points off those rebounds, also having 24 assists is a great stat to see from a team that likes to share the ball. Charlotte starters didn’t play well, being outscored 70-63 by the Magic starters. But the bench help keep the Hornets into it and the starters made enough plays in the fourth quarter to help get the victory for the Hornets. The leading scorers for the Hornets this game were Kemba Walker with 22 points 7 assists, Marco Belinelli with 20 points, Cody Zeller with 15 points 6 rebounds, Nicolas Batum with 10 points and 6 assists. The leading scorers for the Magic this game were Terrence Ross with 19 points, Elfrid Payton and Evan Fournier both had 15 points, Nikola Vucevic with 14 points 12 rebounds and a career-high 8 assists. Charlotte Hornets (32-39) return home Friday to take on defending NBA Champions Cleveland Cavaliers.
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