Charlotte Hornets lose to the Detroit Pistons in overtime, 114-108

After the All-Star break, the Charlotte Hornets drop one to the Detroit Pistons, 114-108 in overtime Thursdays night. It’s the Hornets fifth straight loss and has only won one game in the month of February. The Hornets were without starting center Cody Zeller again with a quad soreness, they were also without backup center Miles Plumlee who is expected to be out at least two weeks with a second-degree calf strain. Charlotte would close the second quarter on a 24-9 run and lead at halftime, 62-50. Hornets would expand their lead to 18 in the third quarter. But Charlotte would start the fourth quarter missing 14 out of their 15 shots and only scoring four points in the first seven minutes. That’s when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope took over, scoring Detroit’s last 11 points in the quarter and hit a three-pointer with 18 seconds left to tie the game up at 100. Kemba Walker drove to the basket but was forced to pass the ball to Marvin Williams who passed it to Marco Belinelli who missed a three-pointer that would’ve won it. Pistons would start overtime on a 5-0 run and with 55 seconds left in overtime Pope would hit a three to put the Pistons up, 110-102. Detroit never trailed in overtime.

            The MVP for the Hornets this game would be Kemba Walker who scored 34 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 6 assists. Kemba who just finished his first All-Star weekend, where he finished third in the three-point contest and scored 7 points in the All-Star game, looked like he had his swagger back. In the first quarter, he made two amazing passes, one was behind the back to Frank Kaminsky who knocked down the three-pointer. And with last than a minute left in regulation scored last 9 points for the Hornets, on some clutch shots. This game was very similar to the Raptors game a week ago, both games the Hornets play great for three-quarters and had double-digits leads heading into the fourth quarter. Then the offense shuts down in the fourth and Hornets end up losing. When they should be on a two-game winning streak. If Nic Batum could guard one player for about a minute, we would’ve won because Batum was one guarding Pope in the fourth, Kemba kept bailing Nic out with his clutch shots, but Nic could not guard Pope in the fourth quarter. But the two stats that stood out for me this game was Detroit outscoring Charlotte 39-14 in bench points and other than Kemba Walker, Hornets went combined 4-22 in the fourth quarter and overtime was 0-3 from the three-point line. Also, the Hornets are 0-4 in overtime games this year, if anyone was wondering. Hornets leading scorers this game was Nicolas Batum with 18 points 6 rebounds, Frank Kaminsky with 17 points, Marvin Williams with 13 points 7 rebounds and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with 12 points 14 rebounds. Detroit’s leading scorers for this game was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 33 points 9 rebounds, Tobias Harris with 25 points, Marcus Morris with 16 points 8 rebounds and Ish Smith with 16 assists. Charlotte Hornets (24-33) visits Sacramento Kings Saturday, it will be Hornets third of seven straight away games.   

Charlotte Hornets beat the Detriot Pistons 87 to 77

The Charlotte Hornets (13-9) took down the Detroit Pistons (12-12) 87 to 77, with help of Kemba Walker big fourth quarter Wednesday night. Getting back to a winning record at home at 7-6. Marvin Williams was back in the starting lineup after missing 6 games due to a knee injury. Both teams didn’t shoot well at all, Detroit shot 38% while Charlotte only shot 34% from the field. The biggest the reason Charlotte won was there defense, they forced 12 turnovers, switched off their man easily and blocked out when shots went up. And Kemba scored his 14 of 25 in the fourth quarter. The Hornets outscored the Pistons 49 to 38 in the second half, after trailing by one at the half.

 

The MVP for Hornets would be Marvin Williams with 12 points and 5 rebounds. More importantly brought physicality on defense the Hornets was lacking when he was out. Other leading scorers for Charlotte was Kemba Walker with 25 points, who has scored in double digits in all 22 games this season. Nicolas Batum with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Detroit Pistons leading scores was Andre Drummond with 26 points and 20 points, his 11^th 20-20 game since 2012-2013 most in the NBA. Tobias Harris with 14 points and Reggie Jackson with 10 points. The Charlotte Hornets play again at home this Friday against the Orlando Magic.

 

 

 

The Pistons dismantle The Hornets 112 to 89

On night two of a back-back for the Charlotte Hornets the Detroit Pistons blew-out the Hornets in Charlotte. The entire game the Hornets looked tried and sloppy and the Pistons took advantage. The Detroit Pistons without Reggie Jackson was hot early, quickly taking an 11-point lead in the first quarter. Tobias Harris started 4-4 from the field and ended with 24 points and 7 rebound. The Hornets would eventually take a 4-point lead mid-way through the second quarter, but when Andre Drummond got ejected by hitting Roy Hibbert in the face with an elbow. The Pistons outscored the Hornets by 25 after Drummond ejection. And would lead at halftime 57-54.

The second half was terrible for the Hornets, being out-scored 55 to 35. The offense was uncoordinated, the ball wasn’t moving around like it has been, forced shots, turnovers. The defense was as bad, the middle of the line was clear most of the half so the Pistons guards would drive down in the middle of the line and either make a layup or if a help defender came they would just kick it out for a wide open three pointers. And then to top it off for the Hornets, Jeremy Lamb who has been playing excellent lately got injured in the third quarter and would come back in the game with a right knee contusion. It’s unclear how major the injury is right now. But it’s just doesn’t seem like the Hornets can get a break from injuries from Hibbert, Lamb, Batum, Marvin Williams and now Lamb again. Just seems hard for the Hornets to keep everyone healthy at one time. It just wasn’t the Hornets night tonight, but four games in five days can make you play sloppy.

My MVP for this game would have to be The Captain, Kemba Walker with 23 points on 9 for 16 shooting and 4 assist and breaking Ish Smith’s ankles in the second quarter. Kemba will always bring his A game no matter what, just the way he plays. The other leading scorers for the Hornets are Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with 10 points and 4 rebounds and Marco Belinelli with 11 points. The Hornets have a day off to get some much deserve rest, the Dallas Mavericks (3-13) will be coming to Charlotte this Thursday to play against the Charlotte Hornets (10-8) at 7pm.