Charlotte lose a close one in overtime to the Los Angeles Clippers, 124-121

Charlotte Hornets lost a heartbreaker Sunday night, losing to the Los Angeles Clippers 124 to 121 in overtime. Starting center Cody Zeller (sore quad) and backup center Miles Plumlee (right calf injury) were out again this game. The Clippers jumped out to a 19-8 lead in the first quarter, but the Hornets would open the second quarter on a 15-0 run to take the lead. But with the help of JJ Redick and Blake Griffin, the Clippers would retake the lead going into halftime, 59-51. The Clippers looked like they had the game in hand late in regulation when Griffin hit a three-pointer and then finished a three-pointer to give the Clippers an 113-108 lead with 48 seconds left in the fourth quarter. But Kemba would hit a three-pointer and two clutch free-throws to tie the ball game up with 11 seconds left. Chris Paul missed a falling away 15-footer as time expired. Charlotte had a chance to win it at the end of overtime, trailing by one in overtime. But when Walker caught the end-bound pass he stepped on Paul’s foot which caused him to make a poor pass, which was picked off by Jordan with 8 seconds. He followed Paul’s miss layup on the other end with a dunk that sealed the victory for the Clippers.  

            The MVP for the Hornets this game would be Nicolas Batum who scored 31 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and handed out 4 assists. Nic hit 7 of his 8 three-pointers in the second half, which helped the Hornets get back in the game when the Clippers were up by double-digits early in the third quarter. Batum played great in the second half of this game, I only wish he would do it in every game since we paid him to be the second leading scorer of the team. No one should complain about the Hornets performance for this game. They played their hearts out. Especially in the fourth quarter, when both Michael-Kidd Gilchrist and Frank Kaminsky fouled out and players like Christian Wood and Jeremy Lamb stepped up big time, to push the game to overtime and gave us a chance to win it in overtime. Things would've been more likely different if we had our two centers playing to contain Jordan and Griffin and if the refs didn’t make some terrible calls in the fourth and overtime, from a missed goaltending, to a couple no calls late in the game. The leading scorers for the Hornets this game were Kemba Walker with 34 points, Jeremy Lamb with 19 points 6 rebounds, Frank Kaminsky with 16 points, Christian Wood with 4 points and 6 rebounds. The leading scorers for the Clippers were Blake Griffin with 43 points 10 rebounds, JJ Redick with 22 points, DeAndre Jordan with 20 points 19 rebounds, Chris Paul with 15 points 17 assists and 9 rebounds in his second back from a thumb injury. The Charlotte Hornets (25-34) stay in Los Angeles to face off against the struggling Lakers Tuesday night.  

Los Angeles Clippers gave the Charlotte Hornets second straight loss, 107-102

Charlotte Hornets loss for the second straight time Saturday when the Los Angeles Clippers beat them, 107-102. Charlotte’s have lost nine of past ten games and the Clippers have beaten the Hornets five straight times. All-Star point guard Chris Paul was out with a left thumb injury, while Hornets starting center Cody Zeller was out due to quad soreness, he has missed eight of last nine games for Charlotte. Clippers started the game 0-for-6 from the field, which allowed the Hornets to take an 11-point lead. But Griffin would start going and would score 11 points in the first to help give the Clippers the lead at the end of the first quarter. The Hornets would go on a little run to tie the game with two minutes left in the quarter, but Rivers would hit a layup with 5 seconds left to give the Clippers a 53-51 lead at halftime. The Clippers would extend their lead to 11 with 11 minutes left in the game, but the Hornets would go on a 21-13 run lead by Frank Kaminsky 12 points in the fourth to cut the deficit to just three points with less than four minutes left. But after an ally-oop by DeAndre Jordan and Rivers three-pointer gave the Clippers an 8-point lead and the Hornets just couldn’t make a comeback.

            The MVP for the Hornets this game would be Frank Kaminsky who scored 20 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Frank played great after taking Cody’s place in the starting lineup. He exploded DeAndre Jordan weakness of not being able to guard the three-point line well and use that to get to the basket and hit a couple of three-pointers. Just wished he would do that off the bench, seems like the only time he plays well anymore is when he’s in the starting lineup because someone is injured. That and he stills needs to work on his defense and how to box-out. The alone thing I really want to talk about this game would be Kemba Walker play in the past few games. In the Houston Rockets post, I believed that Kemba was started to get out of his bad groove and that he would play better this game. I was completely wrong on that, Kemba shot 4-of-18 (22%) from the field and was 1-of-9 (11%) from the three-point line. He looks tired out there and unfortunately for him he not going to get a rest on All-Star weekend this year since he an All-Star. So, I don’t really know any suggestion to get him going again but the Hornets need to get him going again. Just like Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said to Dexter Fowler last year, “You go, we go” which applies to Kemba Walker and Hornets success. When Kemba plays well the Hornets play good and when he doesn’t play well the Hornets don’t play good. The leading scorers for the Hornets this game would be Nicolas Batum with 25 points 6 rebounds 8 assists, Marco Belinelli with 17 points and Jeremy Lamb with 13 points. The leading scorers for the Clippers were Jamal Crawford with 22 points, Blake Griffin with 20 points 12 rebounds 8 assists, Austin Rivers with 18 points (he scored 16 of those points in the second half) 5 assist, J.J. Redick with 10 points and DeAndre Jordan who grabbed 16 rebounds. Charlotte Hornets (24-30) host the Philadelphia 76ers Monday, Hornets last home game until March 6^th.