Hornets struggle on both ends, lose 119-109

The Charlotte Hornets had a rough time for the get go tonight, and it remained consistent throughout. Kemba Walker didn’t look to be one-hundred percent after being down on the floor after colliding with teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on a fast break. Luckily, he was able to play through the remainder of the contest but performed well below his standards. He finished the game with just 13 points on 0-6 from three-point land.

Starting forward Marvin Williams left the game early with a sprained right shoulder. He only played eleven minutes, and never saw the court after getting the injury.

Anthony Davis was going to be a problem heading into this one. He has an incredible inside presence that the Hornets simply had no way of defending. The team tried with multiple different styles of defenders to help stop the scoring, but he was too much of a force. He ended having a very impactful game with a line of 36 points, fifteen rebounds and eight assists.

As a whole, the Hornets weren’t able to do much without their star player racking up a hefty amount of points. The team shot just 27.8 percent from three, a very lackluster performance that has been the trend for the past couple of games. They were never able to go out on a run and essentially traded baskets when the lead stretched to eleven back in the first quarter. This led to some periods of stagnant offense, at times having no real flow nor efficiency getting the ball in the basket.

To shed some light on this underwhelming performance, there was one part of the game that was promising as we move forward in the season. That, of course, is the Hornets’ bench unit. Frank Kaminsky has been on a bit of a roll now since his minutes have increased over the past few games. He shot an incredible 70 percent from the field and ended the game with a team high 19 points in just 25 minutes. This performance is very exciting to see as having Kaminsky back in his scoring ways is always a plus for the Hornets trying to find new teammates who can score behind Walker.

Miles Bridges and Tony Parker also had impressive performances. They ended the game with sixteen and ten points respectively, being an effective part of the team’s vastly improved bench. These performances have been a reoccurring thing from these two, and they have been essential in the Hornets being a factor in so many of their games.

I want to end this piece on the most entertaining clip I have ever seen since being a Hornets fan. Malik Monk threw an alley-oop off the backboard to teammate Miles Bridges for a dunk in the first quarter. This was an incredible display of talent form these two and makes me excited to see what they can continue to do as they grow together.

The Hornets’ next game is Wednesday where they will be playing the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road.