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Charlotte has a tough shooting night as they fall to the Dallas Mavericks who snaps their four game winning streak. The Hornets shot 38% from the field and 26% from the 3-point line coupled with a huge performance from Luka Dončić who burned the Hornets defense for 34-13-9 propelling the Mavericks to a big win over Charlotte.
The Dallas Mavericks came out on fire dropping 32 points in the 1st quarter, Luka Dončić contributed 11 points and really made his presence felt on offense early. The Hornets looked out of sorts especially defending the three-point shot the Mavericks cashed in on four of their ten attempts from the three-point line. The Mavericks were able to build a commanding 16-point lead going into the 2nd quarter.
Charlotte started to wake up offensively ending the 2nd quarter with 28 points, unfortunately the same couldn’t have been said about the defense which didn’t wake up at all as they gave up 28 more points in the 2nd quarter, and allowed the Mavericks to have their way with them. Particularly from the perimeter as Dallas continued to knock down their three-pointers adding 5 more three point shots in the 2nd quarter keeping their lead at double digits (17) going into the half.
Dallas continued rolling in the 2nd half offensively especially from the three-point line as they added three more, three-point shots to continue holding a strong 15-point lead going into the 4th quarter. Gordon Hayward exited to the locker-room midway through the 3rd quarter he was later ruled OUT with a hip-strain. Hayward exited the game with 16 points and 4 rebounds. Hayward has hands-down been Charlotte’s best player this season so a pretty big loss late in a game for the Hornets who were trailing for most of the game.
As the 4th quarter rolled along the Hornets went completely cold on offense late as the ball stopped moving and the Hornets got desperate. Charlotte started taking quick shots in the shot clock trying to build some type of stance to get back into the game, but it was all for nothing as the Mavericks made quick work of this game keeping a comfortable 15-point lead for most of the quarter as Dallas wind down the clock to their 6th win of the season.
The is undoubtedly a bad loss for Charlotte who was playing a road team missing five players including two starters. On the bright-side Charlotte probably had their worst shooting night of the season and found a way to make this game close at points in the game, they just never had enough offense to make a full comeback especially without Gordon Hayward.
The Hornets have a quick turnaround as they play tomorrow night on the road against the Toronto Raptors in Tampa Bay. Coach James Borrego ruled Gordan Hayward’s injury day-to-day after the game and did say he will travel with the team to Tampa tomorrow.