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The Charlotte Hornets nearly pulled off a miraculous, last-minute comeback in their home opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder, coming up perhaps just a play or two shy in the 109-107 loss on Saturday, Dec. 26 at Spectrum Center.
Leading the way for the hosts in the scoring department was once again Terry Rozier, who recorded 19 points, two assists and two steals in the loss. Second-year forward PJ Washington bounced back from a rough opener four days ago to finish with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting, eight rebounds and three blocks.
Charlotte held a 54-45 lead with 3:19 remaining in the first half, but Oklahoma City used a 31-13 over the next 12 minutes of game time to take a nine-point lead of its own. The Hornets ended up shooting just 20% overall in the third quarter (6-of-30; 1-of-8 from three) and entered the fourth trailing the Thunder, 80-75.
Oklahoma City expanded the lead to 13 with 2:13 remaining in the game block before the Hornets stormed back with a 18-5 run that was capped off by a trifecta of Miles Bridges three-pointers. Tied at 107-107 with nine seconds left, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander calmly drained a go-ahead 23-foot pullup to push the Thunder back in front by two. Charlotte got a last-second shot up on the other end, but didn’t get quite a good enough look for it to fall.
“I thought there was some good out there, but obviously, we have a long way to go,” said Hornets Head Coach James Borrego after the loss. “We’ve got a lot to work on. We hit some dry offense again – partly in the second quarter and definitely in the third quarter. We caught a little fire there late, but not good rhythm there offensively. Defensive effort was a little bit better tonight in general.”
When asked about the team’s troubles converting at the rim (21-of-50 in the paint), Borrego added, “It’s been frustrating. We’re one of the top teams in terms of getting to the rim, but we’re a bottom-tier team finishing. We have to stick with it, even though it’s frustrating. We’re getting the shots we want. We left a lot on the table right at the rim.”
Bridges and Devonte’ Graham each finished with 14 points, with the latter adding 10 assists to become the first player in franchise history to open a season with consecutive points-assists double-doubles. And after going scoreless in his NBA debut on Wednesday night, LaMelo Ball tallied the first 13 points of his career and grabbed six rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench. Gordon Hayward (12) and Caleb Martin (10) also scored in double figures for Charlotte.
Gilgeous-Alexader ended the night with a game-high 24 points and nine assists, while George Hill scored a game-high 21 points on a crisp 8-of-9 shooting in his Thunder debut. Darius Bazley double-doubled with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Luguentz Dort also tallied 15 points and Mike Muscala chipped in another 14 points off the bench for the visitors.
Charlotte shot just under 40% from the field and lost the rebounding battle, 54-47, although committed just 13 turnovers and outscored the Thunder in fast-break points, 27-11. This is the Hornets’ first 0-2 start since the 2015-16 campaign (started 0-3), which also happened to be the organization’s most recent playoff berth as well.
The Hornets will close out an all-home back-to-back against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, Dec. 27 starting at 7 PM EST at Spectrum Center. Catch the action on Fox Sports Southeast and WFNZ 610 AM or 102.5 FM.
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