Washington Goes for Season-High 32 PTS, Ball Records 5th Straight 25-PT Showing
Down roughly six rotational players – including their first and third-leading scorers – the Charlotte Hornets threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Miami Heat in a valiant 111-105 In-Season Tournament home loss on Tuesday night.
PJ Washington bounced back from a tough showing two days ago in New York, scoring a season-high 32 points on 13-of-23 shooting, which included a campaign best six 3-pointers. Although the efficiency wasn’t quite there (9-of-26 with eight turnovers), LaMelo Ball had 28 points and a game-high 11 assists to become the first Charlotte player with five straight 25-point games since Kemba Walker did so in February of 2019, per Stathead.
Charlotte canned its first six 3-point attempts and led 32-24 following the opening quarter. Miami expectedly stormed back in the second though, forcing eight turnovers and winning the frame, 33-16, to take a nine-point halftime lead. The deficit climbed to 13 in the third, but the Hornets brought it back down to four with 3:34 left on the game clock. A turnover, a couple quick shots and a late missed defensive rebound ended their hopes of a win, though.
“We started great,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford afterwards. “Obviously, P.J. and ‘Melo both got off to great starts. The second quarter, that was a lack of organization on stuff that we worked through this morning. You’ve got guys in there that don’t play a lot, but they get their reps, and they should know what we’re doing. We blew two sets in the last three-and-a-half, four minutes there. Again, we’ve got different groups out there, but they’ve all had enough reps, so they should know where they’re going. We were getting shots off a particular action then we just got all screwed up, and those are two huge possessions.”
Bryce McGowens (season-high 12 points), Mark Williams (11) and Nick Richards (10) also crossed the double-digit scoring plateau, with Richards wrangling a season-high 12 rebounds for his second double-double of the year. Charlotte canned a season-high 15-of-32 3-point attempts (46.9%) but committed a lopsided 18 turnovers for 23 Miami points. Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward, and Brandon Miller were amongst the team’s seven unavailable players.
“I think everybody was locked in and ready to play,” said Washington. “The biggest thing for us tonight was turnovers. We turned the ball over on the press and they got up on us. When we’re missing guys, we can’t really afford to make mistakes. Obviously, we made too many. We turned the ball over too many times. It’s unacceptable in this league and we can’t win like that.”
Navigating a depleted depth chart was something the Hornets dealt with a lot last season. On the bright side at least, the injuries to Rozier, Hayward and Miller aren’t considered serious long-term issues, according to Clifford. But until more bodies start coming back, Charlotte’s margin for error on the court is going to be razor thin.
Jimmy Butler notched a season-high 32 points on 10-of-14 shooting – 11-of-14 from the free-throw line – in the Heat’s sixth consecutive victory. Bam Adebayo recorded 21 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double and eighth 20-point showing of the season.
The Hornets will host another NBA In-Season Tournament game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, Nov. 17 beginning at 7 PM ET at Spectrum Center. Catch all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.