Charlotte Hornets lost to the Indiana Pacers 98-77 on Wednesday night. It’s the third straight loss for the Hornets and fourth in previous five games. Since the All-Star break the Pacers have held 9 of their 11 opponents to fewer than 100 points. The Pacers never seemed tired, even though they were on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to at New York Knicks last night. Hornets starting shooting guard Nicolas Batum missed his second straight game due to a migraine, Batum went and had a CT scan done early today and the result was negative. So hopefully Nic can come back Saturday. Nothing was decided in the first half of this game, Pacers and Hornets were tied 42 apiece at halftime. The Pacers did open the second half on a 21-5 run to quickly take a double-digit lead and would eventually outscore the Hornets 33-16 in the third quarter. Charlotte would make one last comeback attempt, opening the fourth quarter with an 8-2 run that pulled the Hornets within 10 points. But the Pacers answered with a 14-2 run to go ahead by 22. The Hornets eventually waved the white flag and put the bench players in around four minutes left in the game.
The MVP for the Hornets this game would be Briante Weber who scored 8 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. Weber who is on his second 10-day contract with the Hornets took over for Brain Roberts as the backup point guard for the Hornets this game. He did not disappoint. The past two games Weber has played excellent for the Hornets, he hustles, is fast and athletic, plays great defense, can get into the line and make layups or kick it out to the right player for a three-point jumper, has a good mid-range jumper, makes good decisions when the ball is in his hands, has active hands on defense (2 steals against the Pacers) and is basically everywhere on defense. I’m not saying that Weber should be our full-time backup point guard, but he been playing better than Brain Roberts and I do believe he’s earned another 10-day contract or even a rest of the season contract. Hornets shot 13% from the three-point line only making 3 of 23 attempts, Pacers made four times as many three’s than Charlotte did. Charlotte did outscore the Pacers in the paint 42-18 but only shot 40% overall while Indiana finished at 53%. There not much else to say about this game, Charlotte just didn’t look invested into it and the Pacers just took over in the second half. I do believe after watching this game, the Hornets are trying to tank this rest of this season. From how they perform to the number of minutes some players played from others. I don’t blame them, I typed an entire article on how they should. The leading scorers for the Hornets this game were Frank Kaminsky with 20 points, Marco Belinelli with 11 points, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with 10 points, Jeremy Lamb with 8 points and 7 rebounds. The leading scorers for the Pacers this game were Paul George with a season-high 39 points, Monta Ellis with 16 points, Jeff Teague with 8 points 11 assists, Myles Turner with 6 points and 11 rebounds. Charlotte Hornets (29-39) host the Washington Wizards Saturday.
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