Wizards Dominate Bench Scoring; Points off Turnovers, 3-PT Shooting Hurt Charlotte
An encouraging start completely crumbled in the second quarter for the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night, setting the stage for a 132-116 home loss to the Washington Wizards.
LaMelo Ball continued to turn a promising corner though, finishing with a season-high 34 points on 13-of-22 shooting, four rebounds, seven assists and six turnovers. This output is now tied for the third-highest single-game scoring total of Ball’s NBA career and is his most since notching a career-high 38 points in Boston on Feb. 2, 2022.
Ahead by five after the first 12 minutes, the Hornets got blown off the court in the second quarter. Led by veteran floor-spacer Danilo Gallinari, Washington’s smaller lineups shot 67% and 7-of-11 from 3-point range (64%) to win the frame, 41-17 and take a commanding 19-point halftime lead. For reference, the minus-24 point differential would have been Charlotte’s second lowest in any quarter last season. The hosts mounted a 21-7 run in the third to get back within eight before the Wizards quickly pulled away for good.
“They downsized and it’s been a problem for us,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford afterwards. “We have different things we’ve been doing and at times it’s worked, but tonight obviously it didn’t. When we have to play without Mark [Williams] or Nick [Richards], then our defense has no shot, and we can’t rebound. We have a good team, but we need those two guys to be in and be a positive part of it. When we got that game down to a workable, manageable deficit, we broke the lineup and it got away from us quickly. The big thing is we’ve got to find a way that’s more consistent, so we can keep our size on the floor.”
Gordon Hayward (18), PJ Washington (14), Williams (14) and Brandon Miller (13) also scored in double figures for Charlotte, with Williams running his consecutive-field-goals-made streak to 18 (now the longest by any in player in franchise history since the 1997-98 season). While the Hornets did knock down 52% from the floor, they went only 8-of-25 on 3-point attempts (32%) and committed a haphazard season-high 22 turnovers for 35 Washington points.
Kyle Kuzma poured in 33 points on 13-of-24 shooting, nine rebounds and four assists to help the Wizards snap their four-game losing streak. Delon Wright and Gallinari, who had 18 and 39 total seasonal points coming into the night, respectively, each added 18 off the bench. Bench scoring was a massive discrepancy in the final box score, which Washington won, 72-23.
Added Hayward, “I think they found something with Gallinari at the five. They hit some timely threes and that got them rolling. We made a little bit of a run there in the third and it felt like they pushed it right back to 20 really quick. Too many straight-line drives to the rim, which caused too much scrambling to cover and then they were shooting open threes.”
The Hornets will now head north to face the Wizards again for their first In-Season Tournament game on Friday, Nov. 10 starting at 7 PM ET in Washington, DC. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.